The Hudson-Bergen Light rail in action. (Photo via flickr user wallyg)

Think of this story as the natural accumulation of this week. On Monday, I tackled the upcoming changes to the Bayonne Bridge, and last night, I discussed the need for more light rail within the city limits of New York. Today, we learn that if New Jersey planners have their way, the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail line will indeed climb over the Bayonne Bridge and into Staten Island.

As The Jersey Journal’s Charles Hack reported on Thursday, New Jersey Transit officials have spoken with their Port Authority counterparts to discuss adding space for the light rail line as New Jersey prepares to renovate the Bayonne Bridge. Hack writes of the preliminary planning process:

Dan Stessel, a spokesman for NJ Transit, confirmed yesterday there have been discussions about extending the Light Rail from the Eighth Street Light Rail Station in Bayonne – which is slated to open within a month – to Staten Island. “Our involvement has been providing technical data to the Port Authority,” Stessel said. “Any significant expansion of the Light Rail beyond the Eighth Street Light Rail Station would require further study to address capacity constraints.”

Those constraints relate to whether the existing infrastructure – which includes two rail tracks, one in each direction – could handle additional trains and riders that an expansion to Staten Island would bring, he said.

Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman said it is far too early to say whether or not incorporating a rail line into the bridge is a realistic proposition. Political support for a rail extension across the bridge seems stronger in New York than New Jersey. Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., and Staten Island Borough President James P. Molinaro say that providing space for the Light Rail or an express bus lane on the bridge would cut Staten Island residents’ commute to Manhattan and reduce congestion.

Later on yesterday, Michael Grimm, a U.S. Congressman from Staten Island, voiced his support for the plan. Calling the project a “top priority,” he explained why Staten Island needs this rail link. “The people of Staten Island have spent too much time sitting in their cars stuck in traffic,” he said. “The Port Authority already has plans to raise the Bayonne Bridge, so it makes sense to incorporate light rail into the new design. The people of Staten Island have waited far too long for a light rail connection, which is why I plan to do all I can to make sure that it is built.”

Right now, we don’t know anything about the costs of laying light rail over the bridge, and it doesn’t make much sense to build a connection without activating the North Shore Rail Line or building the HBLR out to the ferry terminal. I also wonder about the framing here. Should New York representatives focus on moving Staten Islanders to Manhattan via New Jersey or should they view this rail link as a way to improve mobility from Staten Island to the job hubs across the Hudson in New Jersey? Without the numbers or any studies to support this contention, I believe the link to New Jersey would be more useful than the promise of a slightly faster ride to Manhattan.

Ultimately, this plan is years from fruition. While New Jersey representatives have called upon the Port Authority to act quickly as it addresses the future of the Bayonne Bridge, it will take multiple studies and much lobbying to see transit realized. But as I said earlier this week, this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to better connect Staten Island, and both New York and New Jersey should work to make it happen.

Update (12:15 p.m.): New Jersey Transit’s website is back up and running. Below is the saga of their technologically frustrating morning.

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On any given day, New Jersey Transit’s website, redesigned and relaunched in October 2009, should look a little bit something like this:

This morning though visitors to NJTransit.com found a placeholder instead. Right now, when I navigate to the commuter rail, I see the following:

Essentially, New Jersey Transit allowed its domain name registration to lapse, and its registrar put up the standard link farm. According to the WHOIS record for NJTransit.com, the domain name expired on Jan. 7, 2011, coincidentally the same day that I’ve heard the agency’s CIO stepped down. New Jersey Transit spokesman Dan Stessel said that the agency was “investigating the glitch” and that there is no danger of their losing the website. “There is no risk of anyone buying the website,” he said. “We’ve got it for the next 20 years.”

Of course, if the renewal wasn’t submitted in a timely fashion, the site will inevitably go down for a few hours. According to The Star-Ledger, the agency continued to send out text alerts this morning while dealing with this so-called glitch, and customers using AT&T — but not Verizon — were able to access the website. Either way, that’s an embarrassing and amusing mishap in an age when transit agencies are trying to better integrate technology into their daily operations.

In an age of cell phones, New Jersey Transit is trying to strike a balance between convenience and serenity. Not everyone wants to hear people yammer away on their cell phones during schleppy rides home after long days in the office, and thus, in September, the Quiet Car pilot program was born.

As I explained in September, the idea wasn’t to impose silence but to impose a certain subdued environment upon the first and last cars. I wrote:

In this pilot, it is truly social norms of train ridership that are under assault and for the better. The Quite Commute cars, says New Jersey Transit, are intended to provide a “subdued environment for customers who wish to refrain from using cell phones and are willing to disable the sound feature on pagers, games, computers and other electronic devices.” Riders are urged to talk in “subdued” voices and, thankfully enough, are told to use headphones at a volume that “cannot be heard by other passengers.” To rid trains of the blight of loud and leaky headphones would be a true accomplishment indeed.

Recently, NJ Transit expanded the pilot program to include more trains and more routes. The first and last cars on all Northeast Corridor, North Jersey Coast Line, Raritan Valley Line and Midtown Direct trains traveling in the peak direction during weekday peak periods are a part of the Quiet Commute program now. Riders, though, are duking it out over the meaning of quiet. Vincent M. Mazzolli of The Times repeats a common anecdote:

Last Monday morning, Robert Arbeeny and two friends boarded a train bound for Manhattan and began chatting about the holidays. Robert Arbeeny, left, and Steven Heite last week riding in a New Jersey Transit train car designated as quiet. The rules include refraining from cellphone use and talking with “subdued voices.” “Excuse me,” said the woman sitting across from them, raising her reading glasses, and then her voice. “This is the quiet car.”

Mr. Arbeeny apologized and began whispering, which caused further agitation. The woman put down her book and summoned a conductor. “They are not supposed to be talking,” she said, wagging her index finger at the group. The conductor tried stepping quietly between both parties. “They do have a right to talk,” he said in a soft voice, “they just have to speak in a very quiet manner.”

As other passengers began looking on, the woman shot back: “What kind of sense does that make! Why would you allow them to have a sustained conversation in a quiet car, and why are you taking their side over mine!”

Conductors have been caught in the middle of this battle of interpretation, but while some prickly riders want library-like silence, others understand the intricacies of the program. “Cellphones are one thing, but people are getting the wrong impression about these cars,” Annemarie Whitney, a daily commuter, said. “They are quiet cars, not silent cars. Subdued and silent are two different words, and as long as there are misconceptions out here, there are going to be disputes.”

The problem here is one of expectations vs. reality. It doesn’t make sense to expect people to be deadly silent on a train. That’s just not the way we’re used to commuting, and that’s not why the Quiet Commute was launched. (That is, however, why Bose markets noise-canceling headphones.) Rather, it’s about creating an atmosphere free from noise pollution, free from one-sided cell phone conversations and free from bleeding iPod headphones. That is a balance easy to maintain.