A new train station will be built in North Brunswick along Route 1, New Jersey Transit officials announced Wednesday.
Officials say that they hope that once the new station is complete that it will help relieve traffic in a congested part of the state.
The North Brunswick Transit Village has been growing for about 10 years – but the only thing missing was the transit. Officials say that this will now change.
“We're going to have more people living here. This will be a more densely populated area. We have to do it right,” says North Brunswick Mayor Mac Womack.
Gov. Phil Murphy announced $50 million in aid from the state, with Middlesex County giving another $20 million for the project. The development will be managed by the Middlesex County Improvement Authority.
This will be the only New Jersey Transit stop on the Northeast Corridor between Princeton and New Brunswick, where traffic from Route 1 slows down during rush hour.
But some transportation advocates say that they have their concerns about the project.
“We need to make sure that when we do build the station that it can be maintained and that there's enough engineers and enough rolling stock in order to support it,” says Janna Chernetz with the group Tri-State Transportation Campaign.
NJ Transit executive director Kevin Corbett says that he does not yet know how much the project will cost since it has not been designed yet. Designing the train station will take the next two years and then construction begins
The transit village is located on the site of a former Johnson and Johnson property that closed in the early 2000s.