Train Station May Finally Get Parking

SECAUCUS, NJ-NJ Transit’s four-year-old, $600-million, 312,000-sf Secaucus Junction Train Station has been criticized since its inception because it lacks a major component–parking. Current NJ DOT commissioner Kris Kolluri has publicly criticized that planning decision as, “a mistake.”

But that may change. A proposal has been floated to build a 1,100-space parking lot about 100 yards from the terminal, which state officials have previously said was designed to be a junction for existing commuter rail lines rather than a park-and-ride station. The parking proposal came from the Newark-based Edison Properties, which specializes in parking facilities.

Edison owns a 6.8-acre site at 675 New County Rd., just across the New Jersey Turnpike from the terminal, which is known officially as the Frank R. Lautenberg Rail Station. The site, directly accessible to the station via an underpass, currently holds a vacant 155,000-sf warehouse building, which Edison has had on the market for lease or several months.