As travel rebounds and changes, NJ Transit adds 36 more trains to several rail lines (2024)

NJ Transit will roll out a new fall schedule this Sunday that includes 22 new trains on weekdays, primarily during morning and evening peak commuting periods, and adds 14 trains to the weekend schedule.

Transit advocates interviewed praised the additions, but also listed some missed opportunities to expand service on some rail lines.

The Northeast Corridor, North Jersey Coast and Morris & Essex lines will each see four new weekday trains during the morning and evening commuting rush starting Nov. 14. Riders should check schedules for specific changes to their trains.

• Both the NEC and Coast Line get two new morning trains and two new evening trains to and from New York.
• The Morris & Essex line gets four new evening trains, a new MidTown direct train and three new evening trains that will run from Hoboken.
• The Pascack Valley Line will get two new morning trains and a new evening express train.
• Additional weekend trains on the Main-Bergen line provide hourly service, where it had previously been bi-hourly.

That leaves the Atlantic City Rail Line, Pascack Valley, Montclair-Boonton and North Jersey Coast Line west of Long Branch with time periods in which weekend service is bi-hourly service, Jim Smith, an NJ Transit spokesman, said.

That is due to infrastructure limitations that don’t allow frequent service in both directions or that bi-hourly service supports existing ridership patterns, he said.

“It’s good to see some service restorations that have been cut over the past few years,” said Len Resto, New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers president.

Not everyone is satisfied by the changes.

“NJT management is missing the golden opportunity to add needed new service, peak-period service into and out of NY Penn on the Raritan Valley Line, without taking away service from other lines with this Nov. 14 schedule change,” said Joe Clift, a transit advocate and former Long Island Rail Road planning director.

Some off-peak hour Raritan Valley Line trains go directly to New York, but rush hour trains terminate in Newark Penn Station where commuters have to change trains. The rush hour one-seat ride has been the long-time goal of the Raritan Valley Line Coalition and mayors in Central Jersey towns served by the rail line.

“Additional one-seat ride service on the RVL must consider a number of points including yard capacity in Raritan as well as other infrastructure upgrades including track and platform capacity,” Smith said.

Until the Gateway Project is built to add two rail tunnels and track in Penn Station New York that would create more train capacity, RVL schedules have been adjusted to allow passengers on more peak period trains to transfer across the same platform at Newark Penn Station to New York trains, he said.

But two of NJ Transit’s 21 morning peak-hour train slots into NY Penn were still missing from the schedule, which could have provided service from the RVL into Penn Station New York, Clift said.

Clift said the changes are “mostly” a return of peak period trains “temporarily discontinued” as far back as January 2018.

Factors considered when adding more trains include changing ridership patterns after the coronavirus pandemic, seating capacity as passenger return, service frequency as well as connections with other trains, Smith said. NJ Transit is currently surveying riders about their travel patterns.

“The overall distribution of riders has shifted toward traveling slightly earlier in the morning and afternoon, and a higher proportion is coming from stations that are closer to our eastern terminals,” Smith said. “Weekend and off-peak service has recovered at a faster pace than peak hour commutation.”

After polling members, the New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers had a wish list for added service, Resto said.

It includes more weekday and weekend Morris & Essex line service to Hoboken and adding some rush hour North Jersey Coast Line service to Hoboken. More M&E trains should stop at Mt. Tabor station, he said.

“Hoboken is a destination for folks out this way and NJT makes it such that one must drive,” Resto said.

Having hourly Montclair Line service to and from Montclair State University on weekends could help NJ Transit attract a “young demographic” it needs, he said.

Others had more mixed reactions.

“I just looked at the Pascack Valley service. From my perspective it is improved: an extra train inbound in the morning, splitting the local stops, works for me,” said Sally Jane Gellert, Lackawanna Commuter Coalition chairwoman. “There are still some trains that skip Woodcliff Lake and Teterboro for no discernible reason. We still have that absurd 5.5 hour gap between the 4:06 and 9:31 p.m. inbound (trains). That should be the next problem attacked.”

Gellert said it may be time to revisit a past proposal to add more passing tracks that would permit some two way rail traffic on the PVL. “Local politicians who objected previously are long gone, and times have changed,” she said.

“For the Pascack Valley Line, any addition to service is good, but these two PVL trains in no way replace the two Metro-North Expresses that were canceled almost 3 1/2 years ago,” said Randy Glucksman, the commuter member of the Metro North advisory council and NJ-ARP member.

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Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com.