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"

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

CLOCK TOWER MARQUEE MURAL:
Porcelain enamel on steel
8’ x 13’6"

BENEATH THE PALISADE
©2005


Swirling pattern of the historic rock facing the river at the tunnel opening, has since been cemented over.
The light rail is ‘under ground.’ Distant, closer, and speeding by. (Captured jumping off trains in the tunnels of the Newark Subway with the garage foreman wearing hard hats and orange vests.)

STREET-LEVEL MURALS:

1
TO THE POINT
Porcelain enamel on steel
11’ x 10’6"
©2005

The idea was to include something nearly actual size—the big bus to walk right up to, and a vaster vista to draw the viewer into the panorama. I wanted this mural to reference the Manhattan skyline segment for orientation, but avoid skyline cliché. The yellow street-line as a true-in-life design element, "arrows" the eye upward. Most of the detailed painting work is at eye-level to be seen at close range. With distance, the depicted scene comfortably lives beside the real---the landscape around the corner.

2
NIGHT BUS
Porcelain enamel on steel
11’ x 10’6"
©2005

A splashy, color-popping night scene on Bergenline Avenue is seen
through the donut shop window. Enjambment to the first mural,
the bus passes.

3
ACROSS THE STREET
Porcelain enamel on steel
11’ x 10’6"
©2005

Bergenline Avenue is represented with street lanterns, the ‘Welcome to Union City’ banner, an unlit star. The street scene shown in the center mural by night is here detailed by day. The building across from the station anchors the right side. Cultural contrast is quietly referenced with two figures— the bicycle rider, large in the foreground wearing a  do-rag, and a Marine crossing from the recruit center. Reality is 'peeled back' in a trompe l’oeil device to reveal a view of the Meadowlands for orientation, framed by indigenous quaking aspens.

Maria Mijares

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