NJ Transit rail passengers are facing another difficult stretch of commuting, with major service disruptions now underway across the system.
Starting Sunday, train riders entered what officials expect to be five weeks of delays, rerouted trips and schedule changes as crews accelerate work on a replacement for a century-old bridge that has repeatedly caused problems for commuters.
The latest disruption is scheduled to continue through Nov. 15, while construction teams install the final section of track on the new Portal North Bridge over the Hackensack River between Kearny and Secaucus, officials said.
The $2.3 billion bridge project is expected to constrain traffic at the critical Northeast Corridor crossing, leading to cancellations and timetable changes on nearly every NJ Transit rail line.
Weekday passengers on the Morris & Essex, Gladstone Branch and Montclair-Boonton lines will no longer travel directly to New York’s Penn Station. Instead, those trains will be diverted to Hoboken during what NJ Transit described as “major temporary service disruptions.”
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NJ Transit is accepting affected tickets on its buses, as well as at PATH and ferry stations in Hoboken. Still, the agency urged commuters with the option to work remotely to “consider doing so to the greatest extent possible during this time period.”
Passengers using the North Jersey Coast, Port Jervis and Raritan Valley lines will also face bus service because of separate track and bridge construction, according to transit officials.
Amtrak customers will feel the impact as well. The railroad plans to reduce service to New York Penn Station from the south and west while the NJ Transit construction continues.
The only NJ Transit passengers spared by the bridge work are those traveling on the Atlantic City Line, which does not operate into Manhattan.
Once completed, the new fixed-span bridge is expected to improve reliability by allowing large vessels to pass beneath it without requiring the bridge to open. The existing drawbridge was built in 1910 and must currently lift for passing ships.
The replacement is part of the politically controversial, delayed $17 billion Gateway Project, a sweeping effort to upgrade rail infrastructure between Newark and New York City.
