Last year, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey funded early planning for an extension of the PATH train to Newark Liberty International Airport that’s budgeted at $1.7 billion.

The Port Authority is still digesting public feedback it received during outreach meetings held this past December. Work on the next phase – environmental analysis – isn’t expected to begin until later in 2019. To keep track of the Port Authority study, click here.

In the meantime, the Prudential Foundation is funding a team of researchers led by the NJ Institute of Technology’s New Jersey Innovation Institute to help South Ward and Newark-area communities to use the PATH extension planning process to maximize the benefits achievable for the community.

The Prudential study is supporting study of:

• How better access to the airport, airport jobs, and transit could provide economic opportunity to the South Ward and surrounding communities
• How different development plans would benefit the South Ward and surrounding communities, so the best plans can be supported
• What needs to be done to address properties that have environmental challenges, whether flooding, contamination, or other
• How to take advantage of PATH infrastructure improvements to begin airport-related development along the lines of Aerotropolis planning concepts.

The study will include meetings with citizen and business groups in the South Ward and surrounding communities. There will also be meetings with representatives of the City of Newark and surrounding municipalities.

The final report, expected early in 2019, will highlight the preferences that are widely agreed on by area stakeholders and provide questions that the Port Authority’s next phase of study will need to answer to meet local resident goals.

The opportunity presented by the study is to:

• Refine and strengthen the case for investment in a PATH extension to Newark Airport;
• Communicate the urgency of investment in the South Ward and surrounding communities; and
• Help communities prepare organized views, positions, and comments

The intention is that by participating in and contributing to this study, local communities can maximize their impact and increase the odds that investment in transit will result in positive outcomes that they can realize themselves.