Somerset County was once served by New Jersey Transit’s West Trenton commuter rail line, with stops in Montgomery and Hillsborough Townships. The service was discontinued by New Jersey Transit in 1982, but is being considered for possible reactivation. Considering the strategic location of both Townships between New York and Philadelphia, reactivation would provide additional transit options for residents of Somerset County and provide easier connections for residents to Newark, and New York as well as Trenton and Philadelphia. The reactivation of passenger service on the West Trenton Line is tied to the completion and opening of two new rail passenger tunnels and related capacity improvements into Penn Station, New York. The estimated completion and opening of the new rail passenger tunnels is 2017.

Montgomery and Hillsborough, two communities which have slowly transformed from farmland to residential suburbs, are examining ways to counteract suburban sprawl and strategically plan for future growth. Through extensive study and analysis, Somerset County selected Hillsborough Township and Montgomery Township to participate in a planning study intended to produce guidelines and design framework related to station area plans and to create and enhance community resources. The general goal of the West Trenton Line Station Area Design Study is to assist the two communities long range planning efforts by providing a conceptual land use framework to update municipal zoning ordinances, master plans and undertake visioning to further smart growth plans for the Hillsborough Township Transit Oriented Village and the Montgomery Township Belle Mead node. The study will explore the differences between “Transit-Ready” Development and “Transit Oriented” Development and examine the positive and negative impacts that Transit-Ready Development might have on communities.

Somerset County believes that communities need to demonstrate a committment to Transit Ready Development planning in order to receive the needed support from appropriate State and Federal agencies. The communities expressed an interest in exploring how the vacant land near and adjacent to the existing and proposed rail stations might be best developed in the future. Hillsborough and Montgomery are interested in planning wisely for appropriate and desirable growth and to take advantage of transit options when they become available. Both communities intend to utilize Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) to support mixed use and residential development. As of this printing, Montgomery Township has indicated that a TDR program may not be economically feasible and will re-examine the possibility of locating a rail station to take advantage of their existing housing stock.

During the study, the logical question asked by many stakeholders was, “How long before train service is activated?” Since there is no definitive answer to the question at this point, the study examined how the vacant land surrounding the future train stations could be developed with or without train service. General Smart Growth land use recommendations and zoning and design concepts have been outlined in this report to guide future discussions and assist the communities with future visioning and planning activities as NJ Transit furthers its own study of the reactivation of passenger rail service along the West Trenton Corridor.