"A world-class linear park that will provide much-needed tree-lined, peaceful green spaces." That's how Governor Mikie Sherrill described the nine-mile greenway rising out of an abandoned rail bed that runs straight through Glen Ridge. It's the kind of line a governor says at a groundbreaking. It's also, weirdly, an accurate description of a project Glen Ridge residents already walked in person, more than a year before the state asked anyone to vote on what to call it.
Here's what almost nobody connecting these two stories has noticed: the park segment cutting through town and the borough's own jitney service, the one that shuttles commuters to the Ridgewood Avenue train station, trace back to the exact same piece of infrastructure history. One 2002 rail realignment created both situations Glen Ridge is living through in 2026. Understanding that connection changes how you read everything else happening this year.
What Happened In 2002 And Why It Still Matters
The rail corridor that's becoming the new state park last carried passenger trains in 2002, when NJ Transit shut it down after opening an alternate route into New York. That alternate route is the reason Glen Ridge Station, at Bloomfield Avenue and Ridgewood Avenue, still runs trains today. The same infrastructure shift, known locally as the Montclair Connection, also closed the old Benson Street Station in Montclair. When Benson Street went dark, NJ Transit started subsidizing a replacement shuttle to get displaced commuters to the trains that remained, and that subsidy is the reason Glen Ridge has run a jitney ever since.
So the abandoned line and the active jitney aren't two unrelated borough stories that happen to be unfolding in the same year. They're the two branches of a single fork in the road that New Jersey Transit took in 2002. One branch went quiet and is now being reborn as parkland. The other branch is still running, still costing money, and now facing its own reckoning.
The Park Half: A Nine-Mile Corridor With A Glen Ridge Chapter Already Written
The state is calling it, informally, the Greenway. It's a nine-mile, roughly 100-foot-wide corridor that will eventually connect eight towns: Montclair, Glen Ridge, Bloomfield, Belleville, Newark, Kearny, Secaucus, and Jersey City. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection acquired the land from Norfolk Southern Corporation back in 2022, and after a July 2025 groundbreaking, construction is underway on the first piece: a nearly one-mile segment in Newark running from Branch Brook Park Drive to Broadway, with more than 170,000 native trees, shrubs, and grasses going into the ground this year. That segment alone carries a $69.2 million price tag and is expected to open to visitors in 2027.
Glen Ridge's own stretch of the corridor hasn't broken ground yet, but it hasn't been sitting untouched either. Back in March 2025, the NJDEP held a community cleanup and visioning walk specifically along the Glen Ridge segment, where residents walked the future trail alongside project staff and offered input on what it should become. That's more than a year of local groundwork most people driving past the fenced-off rail bed have no idea happened.
This June, the state opened a public vote on what to actually name the finished park. Four options went up for consideration:
- Prosperity State Park, a nod to New Jersey's official motto, "Liberty and Prosperity"
- Ridge & River State Park, describing the physical geography connecting upland ridges to lowland waterways across Essex and Hudson counties
- Ironline State Park, a reference to the iron rails that once carried ore and goods from upstate New York to the Hudson River
- Steel Trail State Park, evoking the corridor's industrial past and its second life as a public trail
Voting closed June 29 at 4 p.m. As of this writing, the state hasn't announced a winner. Whatever name sticks, the corridor itself is projected to bring roughly 135 acres of new green space to a stretch of New Jersey that includes some of the most densely populated square mileage in the country.
The Jitney Half: A Service Running On Borrowed Time And Borrowed Money
While the state pours tens of millions into reviving a dead rail line, Glen Ridge's Mayor and Council have spent much of 2026 trying to figure out whether they can keep a much smaller, much older piece of transit alive. The jitney runs two shuttle buses, the North End Jitney and the South End Jitney, in loops through the borough on weekdays, timed to meet trains at Ridgewood Avenue Station.
The math hasn't been kind. Ridership never recovered past about 40 percent of pre-pandemic volume. In 2025, the program brought in roughly $27,500 in fares against about $293,000 in capital and operating costs, which works out to more than $8 spent by the borough for every single ride. For comparison, neighboring West Orange offers its jitney free to residents, and Maplewood charges $3 a ride or $165 for an annual pass. Glen Ridge's version costs the town far more to run than either of those, without the ridership to justify it.
The borough briefly stopped selling jitney tickets for service beyond March 31 while officials searched for alternatives, then reversed course under public pressure. A January town hall drew a packed council chamber of residents pushing back, and the current plan keeps the jitney running in its existing format through December 31 while the Mayor and Council pursue grant funding and evaluate what comes next. The borough has also put out a formal request for proposals for a new microtransit jitney provider, suggesting officials are looking at outsourcing the whole operation rather than running buses themselves. Nobody has said what happens after that.
Same Rail Heritage, Two Very Different Verdicts
Put those two threads side by side and the shape of Glen Ridge's 2026 becomes clear. On one end of the old corridor, the state is spending $270 million across the full nine-mile project to turn dead track into a permanent public park, no local funding required, no annual operating deficit for the borough to absorb. On the other end of that same rail heritage, the town is trying to figure out how to justify roughly $293,000 a year to keep two small buses running to a train station that's still very much alive.
It's an odd split. The infrastructure that died in 2002 is getting a triumphant second act paid for by the state. The infrastructure that survived 2002, precisely because it kept running, is the one now facing budget scrutiny. Being useful and active turned out to be more expensive than being abandoned and repurposed.
What Else Is Actually Happening In Glen Ridge Right Now
None of this has paused the rest of the calendar. The Glen Ridge Arts & Eco Fair marked its 46th year on May 16, running along Ridgewood Avenue between Bloomfield Avenue and Lincoln Street with student art displays, an EV car show, a clothing swap, and native plant sales, organized by the Glen Ridge High School Home & School Association and the borough's Environmental Advisory Committee. The Community Pool opened for weekend-only hours until the school year wrapped up in mid-June. And if you're sitting on furniture or household items you don't need, the next Freecycle Day lands September 2, with bulk pickup following on September 3.
Whichever name the state eventually picks for its newest park, and whatever the council decides about the jitney once the grant search runs its course, both decisions trace back to a rail line that split in two directions in 2002 and is only now settling into what it's actually going to become on each end.
If you're the kind of person who likes knowing why your town's map looks the way it does, or you're curious what any of this means for a specific address in Glen Ridge, The Hudson Essex Collection keeps close track of what's changing here and across Essex County. Reach out anytime, or if you're just curious what a Glen Ridge home is worth these days, grab an instant valuation and see where things stand.
