Following a Zoom conference with NJ Transit officials on August 15, the New Jersey Historic Sites Council unanimously passed a resolution to prohibit NJT’s proposed changes to the historic downtown train station.
The biggest sticking point for the council is NJT’s preferred plan to raise the height of boarding platforms by over four feet to make trains accessible to people with limited mobility. A higher platform would allow wheelchair users to use the double doors in the middle of the car. But raising the platform would require the destruction and replacement of the canopies. For the Historic Sites Council, this was too much to ask.
The station is currently owned by the municipality, which is currently negotiating with NJ Transit to take over the property. The redevelopment will be financed by the state’s Debt and Defeasance Fund, which has allocated $48 million for the project.
NJT came to the meeting with eight possible proposals. The first was to do no work at all, which would result in “further worsening the already significant state of disrepair.” However, NJT acknowledged that this would not meet its goal of improving the passenger experience and making the station accessible.
The council preferred the NJT option, which would retain most of the platforms and canopies. Wheelchair users could use ramps to access limited areas with higher platforms, such as at Madison, South Orange and East Orange stations. However, NJT noted that it wanted to make the entire platform accessible to wheelchair users. It wanted accessibility, but not if it meant separating people.
“It restricts people with reduced mobility to only two carriages on the train,” the option states.
The transit agency also noted that this option would not provide canopy protection for these limited areas, which would be located at the ends of the platforms. Still, NJT said a proposed elevator plan could be revised to accommodate this option.
The option of using a wheelchair lift instead of raising the platforms was suggested, but was rejected by Richard Schaefer of NJT on the grounds that it would cause scheduling delays and require additional staff to operate the lift.
Another proposal to lower the tracks was dismissed as a billion-dollar solution. The station is visited by 1,100 passengers a day, Schaefer said, and in a few years that number is expected to rise to around 2,000. For most of the meeting, Sophia Jones-Bradford was the council’s keynote speaker.
“We have to reconcile the requirements with history,” she said. “Do we have the best design so as not to change too much of the historic station structure? The solution for a station that we are supposed to protect can still be worked on.”
Schaefer said safety and accessibility are NJT’s top concerns and he was sorry if the options offered “didn’t meet requirements,” but the station is in terrible shape and keeping the platforms and canopies “comes to question the purpose of the project and I don’t want to get into that.”
“The lifting of the platform and the destruction of the canopy are irreversible,” Jones-Bradford said.
“We have to think about our customers first,” said Schaefer.
“We shouldn’t focus on the passengers boarding the train,” Jones-Bradford said. “It’s about the experience of a historic place.”
“We will do what we can,” said Schaefer.
The station was completed in 1912 and has been listed on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places and the National Register of Historic Places since 1984. According to the nomination for its historic status, it is an exceptional engineering and architectural achievement because its buildings, canopies and platforms are integrated and constructed entirely of reinforced concrete.
“The use of materials and furnishings is unique to this station and is characterized by an honest expression of materials, an economical use of ornamentation and careful consideration of the arrangement of parts,” the nomination states.
Bloomfield City Councilman Rich Rockwell, the council’s liaison to the Bloomfield Historical Commission, attended the meeting. He agreed that preserving the canopy was a top priority, saying a steel canopy would give the station the look of a light rail station.
“The concrete roofs are permanently installed and it would be a shame to remove them,” he told this newspaper. “If you raise the platform, you would need steps to the waiting rooms. That would be an imposition on all passengers.”
He agreed with Jones-Bradford that NJT should have hired a historic preservation architect and that they did not give interested parties enough time to prepare for the meeting.
“There has to be a balance between passenger safety and the preservation of the monument,” Jones-Bradford said. “At the moment there is an imbalance.”
NJT has 60 days to respond to the Council’s objections.
