CHAPTER 196

An Act requiring a study of rail passenger service.

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

    1. The New Jersey Transit Corporation shall study the feasibility and cost of instituting rail passenger service from the township of Weehawken in the county of Hudson to the borough of Northvale in the county of Bergen, making use of existing rail freight lines or rights-of-way with stops at intermediate points.

    The study shall include, but not be limited to, an examination of the cost of using or modifying existing rail freight lines or rights-of-way for both conventional and light rail passenger service, with particular reference to the Northern Running Track and intersecting or connecting lines, the feasibility and cost of entering into an agreement with the Consolidated Rail Corporation for the use of the existing rail freight lines or rights-of-way, the location and cost of stations at the proposed intermediate stops, the impact on existing bus services and the projected costs and benefits of the proposed line compared with the costs and benefits of such bus services. The study shall be completed not more than six months following the effective date of this act.

    2. This act shall take effect immediately.

    Approved August 13, 1997.