Hudson Bergen Light Rail (HBLR)

Hoboken Terminal to Tonnelle Avenue

North= Trains to Tonnelle Avenue

South= Trains to Hoboken Terminal

Hoboken Terminal is described on a separate page

2^nd Street has two tracks and two wall platforms with two toned gray and rose colored pavers. There is artwork on the windscreen and station grounds. The art is a space theme: “You are My Solar System.” It features the sun and planets with children standing on the planets. The artist is Marina Tempkjn and was dated 2001. It features etched glass sheets in addition to the “planets” with children standing on them.

9^th Street/ Congress Street also has two tracks and two wall platforms. This station is the most majestic on the system due to the station having access to both the lower and upper side of the Palisades and the necessity of elevators to the top- some100 feet high! The North exit leads to the bottom of the Palisades- 9^th Street and Monroe Street. The South exit leads to the top of the Palisades at Congress Street and Paterson Plank Road. The station also has locked emergency stairs to the top exit. North of this station is a three tracks section called “Three Roads” and will allow express service once service extends further north. The platform has gray paver blocks.

Art work consist of “glass bubbles”: on the floor of the upper mezzanine. The area is industrial on the lower level and residential on the upper level.

Lincoln Harbor has  two tracks and a brick island platform. No art was found.

Port Imperial has two tracks and a wide island platform. The highlight here is a million dollar view of the new York City Skyline as seen across Port Imperial Blvd. the main street. The ferry terminal is still under construction. When opened on 10/29/2005, it was served on weekends only till the Bergenline Avenue and Tonnelle Avenue Stations opened on 2/25/2006.

Bergenline Avenue is in a tunnel and has two tracks and an island platform which somewhat resemblance to Exchange Place on the PATH in that there is a center curtain wall with what appears to be fire doors which can be closed. There are fossils on the ceiling including neon accents. The curtain wall has benches and windows to see through to the other track. The high speed elevators are at the north end and lead to the street level plaza still under construction.  the East wall has a dinosaur and the ceiling has a Mercury Space Capsule. This is the deepest station in the HBLR system and the only station underground. Your webmaster had the honor of getting an e-mail from the artist explaining her artwork. The text is included below:

“My project is entitled “BETWEEN MANHATTAN AND MEADOWLANDS.” It consists of 4 murals in porcelain enamel on steel.
1. BENEATH THE PALISADE (on the clock tower) (2, 3, & 4 on vent stacks)
2. TO THE POINT
3. NIGHT BUS
4. ACROSS THE STREET
At this writing only the mural on the clock tower may be seen. The three others are installed, but covered in Masonite for protection as construction continues.
I made numerous visits to the site for over five years to characterize the spirit of this community. I made dozens of painted studies to develop the image concepts that would become subject of the paintings that are today four porcelain enamel murals.
I hope viewers will recognize their world in the art, and benefit from a collective community pride.

MARIA MIJARES”

our webmaster has received an e-mail from Maria describing the artwork:

BERGENLINE AVENUE STATION PLAZA

“BETWEEN MANHATTAN AND MEADOWLANDS”

“WE ARE TRANSPORTED”
©MARIA MIJARES

Peel back the sky to the bright brief dusk, then get on the train to connect all your points and stars. Inside the tunnel, there is light too.

From the unique position,” BETWEEN MANHATTAN AND MEADOWLANDS,” two spectacular panoramas appear and disappear, as blocked vistas peak out in slivers down side streets.

Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Transit System’s state of the art, Bergenline Avenue Station, is something of an architectural wonder. Created by dynamiting through the palisade on a city block in the most populated square mile in the country, this light rail station platform is located 160 feet—an incredible seventeen stories—below ground! Three express elevators access the platform.

At street-level, orientation was my primary objective. I made numerous visits to the site for over five years hoping to characterize the spirit of this community. The people of the region are accustomed to a full concentrate of stimulating input. Vibrant Bergenline Avenue—established, well-orchestrated—is the picture of the true New America. At the site I met Cubans, Mexicans, Argentineans, Puerto Ricans, Arabs and Turks. A clear concern was the preservation of individual identity, while participating in, and benefiting from, a collective community pride. With this complex tapestry of culture in mind, I took my part to highlight the existing poetry and preserve realities.

I made dozens of painted studies to develop the concepts that would become subject of the paintings—to be transferred to four large-scale porcelain enamel murals. Starting with actual local imagery, I polished the rough edges of reality to fit inside a context. Refined multiple realities open the way to narrative paths so accessible and familiar that anyone can recognize their world in the artwork, and travel as protagonist in their own drama.

Four porcelain enamel on steel murals were created : “Beneath the Palisade,” comprised of eight panels, is attached to the clock tower facing Bergenline Avenue. “To the Point,” “Night Bus,” and “Across the Street” are 10’6″ x 11’ each comprised of six panels, attached to three vent stacks, approximately 50’ apart. All four murals are top and bottom lit.

NJ TRANSIT spokesman Dan Stessel stated to the Courier News (February 14, 2006, front page), “We’re taking what would normally be a vent stack for the flow of air in the tunnel and making it a canvas.” Adding that, my work is considered by the transit agency to be “a great addition to the Union City and West New York communities.”

Tonnelle Avenue has two tracks  and an island platform. It is located in a cut and features a loop at the north end which diverges from the main tracks just north of the station. For now the main tracks end at a bump block. If the lien is extended the bump block would need to be addressed. Latest talk is for a diesel Multiple unit like the River Line

Line Report Card

HBLR

Tonnelle Avenue to Hoboken