BY TOM CLANCEY
OF NORTHERN VALLEY PRESS
Demarest, New Jersey—The community and its power brokers have united around a grassroots efforts to create a “greenway” on 8 miles of unused railroad tracks that span six Northern Valley municipalities.
That was the message as elected officials joined Northern Valley Greenway advocates on Aug. 22 at the historic Demarest Train Station.
Greenway team leader Andrew Mikesh of Tenafly said the enthusiastic event was held because the New Jersey Department of Transportation agreed to provide technical assistance planning to the initiative ahead of negotiations with the railroad’s current owner, CSX Corp, a rail transportation conglomerate headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida.
The call to convert the tracks into a pathway for walking and biking was galvanized by a Change.org petition, now with nearly 1,800 signatures, started in 2016 by Haworth teen Alexander Philliou, who had been moved by the news a 13-year-old Cresskill boy had been struck and killed by a tractor-trailer while riding his bike to school.
It gained momentum with the endorsement of local Rotary clubs and municipal governments ahead of the formation of an inter-local committee that’s led the push, conducting research and building consensus.
Last week, a bi-partisan coalition of elected officials and project advocates declared they were eager to see the project become reality.
Support from elected officials
Speaking to Northern Valley Press while standing on the overgrown railroad tracks that project organizers envision could one day be a safe trail for passive recreation, officials surveyed pledged support.
Bergen County Executive James Tedesco said the county open space committee is already considering making funds available for the project.
State Sen. Gerald Cardinale said he and state Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi and state Assemblyman Robert Auth—the Republican District 39 delegation—have been supportive through correspondence and “bully pulpit type stuff.”
Schepisi said the project is “something that we can all point to as a positive for our communities…particularly in New Jersey as open space is becoming less available through development…”
It was a sentiment echoed by local mayors.
“To keep certain amounts of land open and usable for passive recreation, that’s important—especially in Bergen County where the walls are closing in,” said Harrington Park Mayor Paul Hoelscher.
The gathering was a great show of support, said Demarest Mayor Ray Cywinski.
“They [elected officials] are not just here in name only,” Cywinski said. “They are really active participants and it’s great to see. We are going to gain traction on this.”
Norwood Mayor James Barsa signaled the proposed uses will be beneficial to the public.
“It will be great for an exercise area. I think people will really enjoy using it and I look forward to it actually happening,” said Barsa.
Tenafly Chamber of Commerce President Christine Evron was excited about the potential economic impacts for local businesses along the route.
“This is a win for everybody. It’s an unused rail. It’s an eyesore,” said Evron. “The businesses along the rail are very excited about the opportunity that a bicycle-pedestrian-jogging path could bring.”
Residents of nearby communities can also use the proposed greenway, said Alpine Mayor Paul Tomasko.
“Even if there are only a few [Alpine residents] who do [use the greenway], it still makes sense to try and get use out of all this land for recreation purposes,” said Tomasko.
The need to negotiate—and fundraise
According to the Rails to Trails Conservancy, a nonprofit that advocates for greenways nationwide, the National Trail Systems Act of 1983 established a process called “railbanking” to allow “a railroad company and a trail agency to use an out-of-service rail corridor as a trail until a railroad might need the corridor again for rail service.”
Mikesh, the volunteer advocate with the interlocal Northern Valley Greenway group, said CSX has indicated it is initially interested. Fundraising is being undertaken by the Tenafly Rotary Club, doing business as Northern Valley Greenway at www.NorthernValleyGreenway.com.
County Executive Tedesco, who said his administration is looking at putting open space money towards the project, said a coalition of elected officials are likely to advocate for the project.
“I think we will all get together and work on making CSX understand why this is a good thing for them and us,” said Tedesco. “It’s a rail line just sitting here doing nothing, right? Why not give people an opportunity to utilize something that’s laying dormant and will have only positive impacts?”
Northern Valley Press emailed a CSX spokesperson to comment on this article, but didn’t hear back by deadline.
Sen. Cardinale, who has lived in Demarest since the 1960s and has held his office since 1982, speculated on the incentives for CSX to make a deal.
“Put yourself in CSX’s position: What can they do with the damn property? It’s too narrow to put up any kind of constructive use…,” he said.
“It’s kind of a millstone around their neck that can be released by them giving it up; and maybe with some sort of clause, that if it becomes feasible for transport again, that they get a right of first refusal, or something along those lines,” said Cardinale. “And then they don’t have to worry about maintaining it or insuring it.”
A 2017 Northern Valley Press photographic survey of the tracks found many dormant sections with wild plants growing untamed.
This unused section of CSX’s Northern Branch Corridor spans from Tenafly to Northvale, where Greenway advocates say it could link to the Joseph B. Clarke Rail-Trail in Rockland County, New York.
In a separate but related ongoing planning initiative, New Jersey Transit’s Northern Branch Corridor project has proposed Light Rail commuter service from Englewood Hospital to points south along the same rail corridor. While funding for that project would need to be allocated by the federal government, some officials were optimistic the two projects on the same line could share a symbiotic relationship.
“Once we get the light rail into Englewood, people will be able to bike down to Englewood and get on the light rail,” said Tedesco.