In the meantime, officials in Bergen County remain frustrated by the implementation of congestion pricing, pushing back with concerns that the new plan will hurt North Jersey commuters.

There are now renewing calls after two decades of inaction to extend the Hudson Bergen Light Rail to Englewood to provide residents with public transit options.

Since part of the goal of congestion pricing is to get more people to leave their car at home and take mass transit.

Senior political correspondent David Cruz has more on whether or not that request remains a pipe dream or a reality for commuters.

Congestion pricing has begun and now, as they say, we wait.

Whatever impact new Jersey feels environmental, economic and congestion wise, it's going to have to face on its own because the settlement dollars offered by New York are no longer on the table.

And that hurts, says Bergen County Executive Jim Tedesco.

His county will feel the impact the most.

We were going to ask that some of that money be dedicated towards the, the expansion of the light rail from Hudson into Bergen.

And that way, at least, it gives the people on the east side of the county that have no rail service, a way to take mass transit right into the city and, and alleviate some of that, some of that congestion.

Most of the talk about light rail expansion and for more than 20 years, there's been a lot of talk about it has centered on what impact expansion would have on northbound commuter traffic.

But Tedesco says Bergen residents would welcome a way to get south to pass or ferry service.

Former Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, a longtime advocate for light rail expansion or the northern branch, says she's not confident there's a will, let alone away new Jersey transit each year.

And it's.

But a budget gives a kind of tip of the hat to the northern branch and then goes on to, fund widening of turnpikes and all kinds of things and not really mass transit.

So there is a lot going on here that, doesn't make me confident that the future of mass transit in this portion of new Jersey.

Transportation reporter Larry Higgs says the paperwork on just getting to the next step of hoping for light rail expansion is still being worked on.

Really, not much could happen until NJ transit finishes updating this environmental impact statement.

So that's that's underway.

And if all goes well, we should see an updated environmental impact statement.

Go to the Federal Transit Administration this August August 2025.

But then that begins the laborious process to start to cobble together funding for the $1.28 billion that it's going to take to build this thing.

Commuters, meanwhile, are wondering if there will ever be a day when Bergen will ever have a stop along the Hudson Bergen Light Rail, and why not have a lot more people be on the train for a lot of people don't want to drive that much, say cold weather, snow.

What to forget if they jump on a train?

Don't worry about nothing.

And it's not that expensive.

You pay more for gas and park and you need to do it to train.

And, says the county executive, somebody owes the people of Bergen County.

There is no Bergen Hudson Light Rail.

It is strictly in Hudson.

And that's not fair to the million people with the most populous county in the state most dense.

And, and we don't have the ability to take rail service, mass transit, rail service or a rail line into the city.

And and that's just not fair.

The courts are not on Jersey side here.

And the settlement offers for how much and for what exactly we may never know, appear to be gone, too.

And for the county executive and other advocates, the song remains the same even a quarter century later.

I'm David Cruz, NJ Spotlight News.