Rail commuters in New Jersey are bracing for another challenging month. Starting Sunday, they’ll face what is anticipated to be five weeks of significant delays and necessary changes as construction increases on a new bridge intended to replace an aging structure that’s been in place for over a century—something that has consistently caused frustration for travelers.
This latest round of inconvenience is expected to last until November 15, as crews finalize the final section of track for the new Portal North Bridge spanning the Hackensack River, connecting Kearny and Secaucus, according to officials.
The $2.3 billion endeavor is likely to congest the crucial Northeast Corridor crossing and lead to cancellations and altered schedules across almost every NJ Transit train line.
Passengers using the Morris & Essex, Gladstone Branch, and Montclair-Boonton lines will see their weekday trains no longer terminating at New York’s Penn Station. Instead, trains will be redirected to Hoboken due to these “major temporary service disruptions,” the transit agency has indicated.
The agency is allowing the use of NJ Transit tickets on its buses, as well as at PATH and ferry stations in Hoboken. Yet, officials have suggested that commuters who can work from home might want to “consider doing so to the greatest extent possible during this timeframe.”
Furthermore, passengers on the North Jersey Coast, Port Jervis, and Raritan Valley lines will have to rely on bus services due to ongoing and unrelated track and bridge repairs, as noted by officials.
Amtrak travelers will also feel the impact since the railroad is reducing the number of trains heading to New York Penn Station from the southern and western routes due to the construction.
Only those utilizing the Atlantic City Line, which does not go to Manhattan, will be unaffected by these developments.
Officials assert that the new fixed-span bridge will ultimately lessen the potential for delays by allowing larger vessels to pass underneath without needing to open for them, unlike the previous drawbridge, which was established in 1910.
This bridge replacement is part of the debated and delayed $17 billion Gateway Project, which aims to enhance infrastructure between Newark and New York City.
