Last month, we postponed our 2nd-Tuesday executive committee conference call to pay a visit to the Lyndhurst town commissioners at their monthly meeting. Some months ago, when the board discussed plans for the new Lyndhurst Station, we had noted in their “wish list” capital plan the proposed closing of Kingsland Station. We were disturbed—the location of Kingsland Station, right on Ridge Road, a busy downtown district, with a bus stop for the #76 that runs between Hackensack and Newark, seems an excellent location for nonmotorists, with a good bus connection. The
new Lyndhurst Station, in contrast, will be a bit closer to a parking facility, good for out-of-town folks, but is not in a very “walkable” area.
We appreciate that the municipality likes the idea of the new station, and don’t have particular concerns about it, but when we brought our resolution about the proposed closing of Kingsland station to the commissioners, they were confused—apparently the ever-opaque NJ Transit had not mentioned that part of the plan to them—but sure enough,
on pages 11 and 18 of the 31-page Appendix A to the 2021 capital plan, in tiny type, there it is, under Technology, Asset Management, and Planning: Requested Funding – Kingsland Station Decommisioning [sic] Project 3.00 (that’s
$3.00 million). We’ll stay in conversation with Lyndhurst, and will gladly join with residents in efforts to retain this well-used station. We have noticed that at times 35 to 40 people disembark at the station; it clearly fills a need and, given that a Main Line stop there adds very little time to a trip, we see absolutely no value in a plan to decommission Kingsland Station—a loss that is decidedly not necessary.
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