New Jersey Statewide Rail Right-of-Way Study: Toward a Framework for Planning and Preservation

Right-of-way (ROW) preservation is one of the 15 factors of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, but scant attention is paid to prioritizing which corridors to preserve. In light of increasingly scarce planning, operating, and capital resources, as well as high expectations for the expansion of rail services, transit operators and other decision makers need a tool to priority rank the preservation of abandoned rail corridors. The NJ Transit rail ROW study responded to a state legislative mandate to identify, analyze, and priority rank abandoned rail corridors for preservation and possible service expansion. A methodology to screen out unusable rail ROW is developed, and the remaining ROW is ranked in terms of its initial potential to generate transit ridership. NJ Transit staff completed an inventory of all active and known abandoned rail lines within New Jersey. The ROW was passed through successive screens that eliminated ROW with “fatal flaws” (environmental sensitivity, major development encroachments, etc.) and ROW that would provide redundant transit service. The remaining ROW was ranked in terms of the number of journey-to-work (JTW) trips to likely rail destinations, JTW trips per mile, and household density in communities that the ROW serves. This preliminary investigation of ROW identified its potential suitability for various modes of transportation as well as intermodal opportunities.