The Union County Light Rail was originally proposed as the third "minimum operating segment" (MOS-3) of the Newark-Elizabeth Rail Link (NERL).
The first section of the NERL project became known as the Broad Street Line. This section, which links Broad Street Station in Newark with Penn Station in Newark, opened in July 2006. The second section would have linked Newark Penn Station and Newark Airport.
The Union County Light Rail would have had eight or nine stations in Elizabeth, one at Newark Airport and possible future stations in other towns. The line connecting Midtown (Broad Street) Station and Newark Airport would have been 5.8 miles (9.3 km) long, and been built on former Conrail lines (originally the main line of the Central Railroad of New Jersey), now under ownership of the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) traversing Elizabeth from east to west. Further extension along the right-of-way westward to Cranford or points further west on the Raritan Valley Line was also forwarded by citizen groups.
In 2006, NJ Transit removed Union County Light Rail from its list of candidate projects in its Capital Improvement Program, effectively ending the project.
^"Union County Go bus expressway"(PDF). NJ Transit Bus Service: The Next Generation. New Jersey Transit. July 26, 2010. Archived from the original(PDF) on October 13, 2013. Retrieved March 30, 2012.
