2 minutes reading time
Gov. Phil Murphy says NJ Transit is fixed. Is he right?
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy recently said NJ Transit was “fixed” after years of financial problems and passenger dissatisfaction.
LYNDHURST – Closing the Kingsland NJ Transit Station after the new Lyndhurst Station is completed next spring would place a burden on pedestrians, riders argued at public hearings this week.
There are currently two NJ Transit stations open in the township: Lyndhurst Station at Court and Stuyvesant Avenues and Kingsland at 250 Ridge Road. Kingsland Station is scheduled to close in May 2025 after the new station, under construction since May 2021, is completed at Court and Delafield Avenues.
Lyndhurst station will remain open with its platform adjacent to the new station platform.
NJ Transit said the Kingsland station, built in 1918, has been closed for at least 15 years and needs repairs, is difficult to convert to handicap accessible and has a small parking lot off Milton Avenue that cannot be expanded. The new station will be handicap accessible and have access to a much larger parking lot north of Home Goods off Amvets Avenue.
However, at hearings at Township Hall, riders argued that the proposal ignores the significant non-car pedestrian traffic in the area. Closing Kingsland would force pedestrians to walk 0.8 miles further northwest to the new station, and the larger parking lot would be useless for those without cars. There is no comparable bus service at the new station, such as NJ Transit Bus 76, which now drops pedestrians off at the Ridge Road/Milton Avenue intersection near the Kingsland station.
“Kingsland Station has one positive feature that Lyndhurst Station lacks, no matter how new it may be: a connection to a major bus route,” said David Peter Alan, chair of the Seniors and Disabled Transportation Advisory Board. “Many of these passengers are non-motorists who do not have access to a private vehicle and will therefore lose their mass transit connection.”
Sally Jane Gellert, chair of the Lackawanna Coalition, argued that the closure of Kingsland “would complicate transit access to and from the businesses and residential areas on Ridge Road in the Kingsland area.”
“They are taking away public transit instead of making it more accessible,” Gellert said. “Those who use it regularly or sporadically are actually losing mobility.”
Daniel Chazin of Teaneck, speaking in an NJ Transit audio presentation, cited a 2023 statistic that showed Kingsland Station would be used by 290 passengers daily, compared to 583 boardings in 2017. But he pointed to a similar proposal by NJ Transit to close Great Notch Station on the Montclair-Boonton line unless it averages at least 75 passengers per day during a trial year, and asked for similar considerations for Kingsland.
“There is no basis for closing the Kingsland station, which appears to be used by more passengers daily than any average NJ Transit station,” Chazen said.
About 22 residents attended the hearing on Wednesday morning and about 42 attended the hearing on Thursday evening. NJ Transit’s presentation of the proposal is posted on the website njtransit.com.
NJ Transit is expected to make a decision on the Kingsland Station in November. Comments on the proposal were due by email by midnight Wednesday or by mail to the Public Hearing Office, Kingsland Station Proposal Comments, One Penn Plaza East, Newark NJ 07105.
