Groundbreaking for the Newark portion of the Greenway project is expected in 2025, spanning nearly a mile from Branch Brook Park to Broadway.

View design materials that were presented at an open house-style event at Park Elementary School on Nov. 13.

The Greenway is an approximately nine-mile, 100-foot-wide former rail line spanning Essex and Hudson Counties through eight municipalities – Montclair, Glen Ridge, Bloomfield, Belleville, Newark, Kearny, Secaucus, and Jersey City. The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is undertaking the conversion of this blighted corridor into a thriving park with recreation and transportation amenities.

With approximately 1.5 million people in the surrounding area, the Greenway seeks to provide outdoor recreation and alternative transportation opportunities to over 16% of New Jersey’s population. In this heavily developed region, the Greenway is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The Greenway is a unique and transformative opportunity to create a linear recreational and transit park enabling seamless walking, biking, and transit opportunities between Montclair and Jersey City, while serving as a catalyst for environmental improvements and economic development in the adjacent communities. It stands to become a destination unto itself as a place for exercise, recreation, and access to the great outdoors.

The Greenway will connect residents to parks, schools, hospitals, and business districts, in addition to offering commuters a way to bypass some of New Jersey’s most congested roadways. The Greenway passes near the Newark light rail and NJ Transit’s Frank R. Lautenberg Secaucus Junction train station, which provide direct access to New York’s Penn Station. The Greenway passes through overburdened communities (as defined by the New Jersey Environmental Justice Law, N.J.S.A. 13:1D-157 ) that suffer disproportionately from lack of access to open space, health concerns, and social determinants of health.