By this time next year, Hudson County residents will be riding Hudson-Bergen light rail trains running along the western edge of Bayonne and Jersey City and on a two-mile spur between West Side Avenue in Jersey City and the Liberty State Park station at Wilson Street.

The electric-powered, 90-footlong modern version of street trolleys will begin accepting fare-paying passengers March 1, 2000 NJ Transit predicts that 25,000 people will ride the trains when they start running, with 100,000 hopping on board by 2010.

Proponents see the $1.2 billion 20.5-mile train line as the key to attracting new jobs, cutting down on traffic, improving air quality and making the Hudson River waterfront a destination in itself -- not just a place to get on a train heading for Manhattan.