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A Hudson-Bergen Light Rail train pulls out of the 34th Street station in Bayonne in this file photo. The proposed West Shore Light Rail would travel across the Bayonne Bridge to connect passengers with the New Jersey Transit system.

(Associated Press Photo)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Consider this scary scenario: Traffic "Armageddon" in 15 years short years, unless Staten Island's elected officials push now for an environmentally friendly light-rail public transit system that will lure commuters out of private cars and onto convenient, electrically powered public-transit tracks.

The looming prospect of a nightmare on borough expressways and major roads has prompted the nonprofit Staten Island Economic Development Corporation (SIEDC) to ramp up its efforts to gather support for development of West Shore Light Rail, a proposed 13.1-mile system, with stations from Richmond Valley to Elm Park, and continuing over the Bayonne Bridge to connect with New Jersey Transit's Hudson-Bergen Light Rail line.

The proposed route -- serving mainly South Shore, mid-Island and West Shore residents -- would provide a welcome, speedier link to the Jersey City waterfront, and PATH subway service to Manhattan, SIEDC officials told the Advance's editorial board.

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The West Shore line would attract an estimated 13,000 daily riders because of significantly reduced travel times -- it would transport commuters to downtown Manhattan in about 55 minutes, according to SIEDC studies.

It would also link up with the proposed North Shore light-rail line, as part of an Island-wide mass-transit transformation.

MULTIPLE BENEFITS

SIEDC has advocated development of the West Shore light-rail line since 2004, because it will offer major relief to the borough's congested roads and also spur economic development on the West Shore.

The city's Economic Development Corporation projects that the Island's West Shore will have an additional 25,000 new households (an estimated 65,000 new residents) by 2030, "and with 2.2 cars per household, that could mean 55,000 more cars," SIEDC notes with concern.

Capital investment in the light-rail system makes tremendous sense, "but we're not even on the list, and we don't have a sponsoring [public] agency," said Cesar Claro, SIEDC president and CEO.

He named the New York state and city transportation departments, the Port Authority, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and New Jersey Transit as those who have ignored the plans.

"They didn't want to compete with other projects -- they all had an excuse."

"The [federal government] money is there" to finance 50 percent of the capital costs, added Robert P. Moore, chairman of SIEDC's board of directors. "We need to get [the various agencies] to see us as a priority. The problem is that no one wants to take the next step."

And missing most, right now, is a "local champion" elected official, seriously committed to bringing light-rail public transit to the Island, he commented.

Light-rail systems have been successfully built in cities throughout the U.S. since the 1980s -- some of them with smaller populations than the Island, such as Buffalo, N.Y., where its Metro Light Rail serves about 260,000 people, according to SIEDC.

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DEVELOPMENT AND JOBS



Implementation of the West Shore light-rail project also carries economic-development implications for the borough, especially in terms of investor interest in now-vacant large sites on the West Shore, including the 160-acre former Arthur Kill Correctional facility.

"We can't get business to move here, and take advantage of our vacant land," said Moore. "They don't want to come because [everyone] would have to drive."

"No one is interested, and we believe that's because there's no public transportation" to these locations, added Claro. "These sites will remain dead until there's light rail on the table."

SIEDC puts light-rail transit at the top of its priority list for borough projects, and hopes to "get out of the starting block," Moore commented.

"We're not giving up -- we're just going to badger people."