Monday Commute in New Jersey: Portal Cutover Diversions Are Still On — Midtown Direct to Hoboken, Regular Schedules Back November 15
Weekend Midtown Direct trains ran to Penn Station. Monday's do not. NJ TRANSIT's Portal North Bridge cutover is in its final two weeks, and the weekday pattern — diversions, consolidations and changed times on every line but Atlantic City — resumes with the morning rush.
Anyone who rode a Midtown Direct train into New York Penn Station this weekend and assumes Monday works the same way should check the schedule before leaving the house. Under NJ TRANSIT's official Portal North Bridge advisory, read in full by this desk, the cutover's weekday pattern resumes Monday: all weekday Midtown Direct trains on the Morris & Essex, Gladstone Branch and Montclair-Boonton lines are diverted to Hoboken, while weekend Midtown Direct service — the arrangement in effect today — operates to and from Penn Station.
The diversions are one piece of a systemwide temporary timetable that began October 11 and runs through November 14, covering every rail line except the Atlantic City Rail Line while Amtrak transfers the final operating track onto the new Portal North Bridge over the Hackensack River between Kearny and Secaucus. NJ TRANSIT warns of train consolidations and cancellations, changed departure times and altered stopping patterns across the five weeks — which means the train a rider caught at a given minute in September may leave earlier, later, or not at all this week, on a schedule published at njtransit.com/portalcutover.
There is a date on the other side of it now. Regular schedules are expected to resume Sunday, November 15, subject to the completion of safety testing, the advisory states — two weeks from Monday. One more date belongs on the calendar inside the window: on Saturday, November 7, buses replace Raritan Valley Line trains between Cranford and Newark for Conrail track replacement work. Until the 15th, the agency's advice stands: check the temporary schedule for your exact line before every trip, because in a cutover, last week's commute is not evidence about this week's.
