7 Train To Secaucus Idea Resurrected

SECAUCUS, NJ — The idea to extend the 7 subway line to Secaucus was resurrected Tuesday by the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

It was former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg who, in 2010, first suggested extending the 7 line all the way to Secaucus, as a way to draw business and commuters to the Hudson Yards development project on Manhattan's far West Side. However, the idea failed to gain momentum and was dismissed as too expensive by the MTA head at the time, Joe Lhota. (Lhota later ran for New York City mayor and lost.)

But surprisingly, the idea was resurrected just this past Tuesday by Port Authority Executive Director Rick Cotton. The Port Authority runs the PATH system, the area's airports, including Newark, La Guardia, JFK and Teterboro, all the bridges around New York City and the shipping container port of Newark.

The impetus for a 7-train extension is a predicted ridership boom between New Jersey and New York: A 2015 Port Authority study predicted a 50 percent growth in the New Jersey commuter population in the next decade. Right now, the PATH system cannot handle that ridership. Cotton said they need to start looking at other options.

Cotton proposed extending the 7 train from its current terminus at 34th Street and 11th Avenue in Manhattan all the way to the Frank Lautenberg Secaucus Junction train station. This would mean a new tunnel would have to be built under the Hudson River, which would cost billions.

The Port Authority is planning to hire a consultant to look at the feasibility of extending the No. 7 subway line to Secaucus. The consultant must first be hired; then they will make recommendations after 18 months.

But Cotton said the Port Authority's first priority is completing the Gateway tunnel project connecting Newark and New York, a project the Port Authority and the Trump administration are quibbling over funding for.

"The bigger picture, is the critical need to expand trans-Hudson capacity in the long term, post-2040, to meet rising passenger demand," Cotton said, according to NJ.com.

If the 7 line was one day extended to Secaucus, it would be the first time a New York City subway line connected to New Jersey. It would also mean Secaucus riders would have a one-seat ride across Midtown Manhattan and to Queens.

The New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers called Cotton's vision "encouraging."

"A subway link to New Jersey stands on its own merits," spokesman Douglas John Bowen told NJ.com. "We see a '7 to Secaucus' subway extension offering superior access to Bergen and Passaic county residents, serving a potential population base larger than that of North Dakota."