A Subway Ride to New Jersey? It Could Happen, Officials Say

The idea of connecting the No. 7 subway line to New Jersey may not be quite dead yet.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is commissioning a long-term study of ways to expand the use of rapid transit across the Hudson River, and it expects to get some help from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the subway.

The two authorities are teaming with New York City and New Jersey Transit to consider a wide range of options for increasing commuting capacity two decades down the road. This week, the Port Authority received several bids from firms seeking the contract to produce the study, said Rick Cotton, the agency’s executive director.

Cotton said in an interview Tuesday that the notion of extending the No. 7 line — an idea that was briefly considered several years ago — was just one of many possibilities that would be analyzed. He said he had not discussed the feasibility of connecting the city’s subway system to New Jersey with any officials of the transportation authority, including its chairman, Joseph Lhota. Six years ago, Lhota said a trans-Hudson subway extension was “not going to happen in anybody’s lifetime.”

A spokesman for the transportation authority, Jon Weinstein, declined to discuss the study. In a brief statement, he said, “We look forward to working with federal, state and local public sector partners and private parties to explore long-term options for trans-Hudson transportation.”

Though Cotton and Lhota are appointees of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, the study does not indicate that Cuomo supports any particular option, Cotton said. “The point is looking at all possible options,” he said.

Cotton was quick to add that the Port Authority was not reacting to recent actions by the Trump administration that cast doubt on the viability of the proposed Gateway rail tunnel under the Hudson. Cotton said he sees Gateway, which could cost as much as $30 billion, as the most important transportation infrastructure project in the country.

But even if Gateway is eventually built, doubling the number of passenger train tracks between New York City and points west, there still may be a need for additional transit capacity across the river by 2040, Cotton said.

The Regional Plan Association, which studies the region’s transportation network and how to improve it, published its fourth regional plan last year. It made dozens of recommendations, including adding a second bus terminal in midtown under the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and having commuter trains run from New Jersey all the way to Long Island. It also suggested a couple of possible new transit lines from Manhattan to New Jersey, but not an extension of the subway system, said Thomas K. Wright, the association’s president.

“Gateway does not by itself solve the trans-Hudson capacity issue, and I don’t think a new bus terminal does either,” Wright said. “Looking at other options is a good idea.”

The only rapid transit system crossing the Hudson now is the PATH train system the Port Authority operates. But the PATH, which connects parts of Manhattan with Newark and other cities in northern New Jersey, has become overcrowded at rush hour, as has the bus terminal the authority operates in midtown Manhattan.

The Port Authority expects to be able to add capacity to the PATH after it finishes installing an automatic-braking system on the trains and tracks. That technology, known as positive train control, would allow for more trains per hour because they could safely run closer together with less risk of collisions.

The Port Authority is planning to rebuild or replace the main bus terminal, which is more than 65 years old. But even with that additional bus capacity and the added train capacity that Gateway would provide, there still may be a shortage of seats for commuters, Cotton said.

“The point is that the current forecast of demand would exceed capacity even if you assumed that there was a replacement bus terminal and, potentially, expanded capacity for PATH,” he said.

Demand for ways to get to work in the city from New Jersey has risen steadily for several years and is forecast to keep climbing. In 2017, all of the Port Authority’s operations — including the PATH, the bus terminal, the airports and the shipping port — had record volumes.