Transportation planners are considering new bus lines and rail service into Flemington to ease traffic congestion in

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NJ Transit gave the Raritan Valley Rail Coalition last week an outline of possible solutions for the Route 202 Corridor between Flemington and the Somerville-Bridgewater area.

The aim is to reduce traffic on Routes 202, 31 and 206, Janice Pepper, NJ Transit’s director of research, said at the meeting Monday in Somerville, Somerset County, N.J.

Planners chose three alternatives for further study.

One would provide local bus service from Flemington to Somerville, and another would provide express bus service to Newark Airport and Newark Penn Station.

The third would extend NJ Transit’s Raritan Valley Line rail service to Flemington. The line currently provides passenger rail from High Bridge to Newark Penn Station.

In Warren County, meanwhile, New Jersey Transit's Morristown and the Montclair-Boonton lines stop in Hackettstown.

Officials did not release cost estimates for the projects.

Some Raritan Valley Rail coalition members criticized the plan, which transit officials admit focuses on funneling commuters to Hudson County and New York City.

NJ Transit and the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority are splitting the cost of the $350,000 planning study, conducted by New York City-based Parsons Brinckerhoff. The study area is western Somerset and eastern Hunterdon counties and includes Raritan and Readington townships and Flemington.

The study will evaluate existing infrastructure and land-use conditions, and recommend next steps.

Public meetings are being scheduled for next month, and a final report slated on NJ Transit’s findings is to be finished in February, Pepper said.

Buses could be implemented now, Gilligan said.

Trans-Bridge Lines of Bethlehem currently offers multi-state service, which includes service along the Route 202 Corridor to Newark and New York City.

Meanwhile, an ongoing study will examine the potential for extending the Raritan Valley Line toward Pennsylvania. That move would coordinate with other planning efforts in central Hunterdon County.

One proposed bus route starts at the Liberty Village Park and Ride, runs through Flemington to Case Boulevard via Reaville Avenue and up to the Three Bridges section of Readington Township. It continues north on Route 202 to the Branchburg Park and Ride and then to Somerville.

NJ Transit officials see Somerville as an eventual transit hub.

Pepper said the Raritan Valley Line to Flemington could be accomplished from Bridgewater via the Reading Connector on the Norfolk Southern Lehigh Line.

New train stations could be added at Old Camplain Road at Route 206, Three Bridges at Route 202, Flemington/Raritan Station at Route 31 and Liberty Village in Flemington, according to Pepper.

He said buses would get priority on traffic signals on Route 202.