newjerseynewsroom.com

At more than $16 million a mile, NJ Transit will have to attract a lot of riders to its newest passenger rail line to make it profitable.

The state transit agency announced this week it has reached an agreement with the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railway to operate a new 8.3-mile rail system between Hackensack and Hawthorne.The Passaic-Bergen project will serve nine new stations along the existing NYS&W track, including a station to be built in Hawthorne, within walking distance of NJ Transit's Bergen County Line station in that town, according to the agency.

Although Hackensack and Hawthorne already have passenger trains, they are on different lines that do not connect. Hackensack is on the Pascack Valley line.

The proposal has its critics, including Saddle Brook Mayor Lou D'Arminio, who questioned the need for the project, saying "We don't need another train going through Saddle Brook," NorthJersey.com reports. The train would not stop in his town.

NJ Transit's board of directors approved the memorandum of understanding with the NYS&W on May 13. It was a busy day for the board, which also approved what NJ Transit calls "the first of numerous contract packages for the multi-billion dollar Mass Transit Tunnel initiative." The action greenlights the construction of a railroad underpass at Tonnelle Avenue in North Bergen, with a groundbreaking ceremony expected within weeks, according to a press release.

The board also authorized a $988,000 contract to restore the interior of the Rutherford Station on the Bergen County Line. The station, built in 1898, is on the state and national registers of historic places.

— ANNE-MARIE COTTONE, NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM