NJ Transit Portal Bridge Cutover Enters Its Final Weeks, With Service Changes Through November 14
NJ Transit and Amtrak riders are in the middle of five weeks of reduced and diverted service while the final track is connected to the new Portal North Bridge, with regular schedules expected back on November 15.
The Portal North Bridge cutover that has reshaped New Jersey commuting since October 11 is entering its final weeks. NJ Transit and Amtrak are running five weeks of temporary service changes - through November 14 - while crews transfer the final operating track from the old Portal Bridge to its replacement over the Hackensack River between Kearny and Secaucus, according to the agencies' published service reporting. Regular schedules are expected to resume Sunday, November 15, subject to safety testing.
The bridge being retired opened in 1910 and has long been a source of delays when its swing span sticks open. Its $2.3 billion replacement is a higher, fixed bridge designed to remove that failure point from the Northeast Corridor. During the cutover, weekday Midtown Direct trains on the Morris & Essex Line, the Gladstone Branch and the Montclair-Boonton Line terminate at Hoboken instead of Penn Station New York, while weekend Midtown Direct service continues to Penn Station.
Riders on diverted trains can use cross-honoring on PATH between Hoboken and 33rd Street, NY Waterway ferries between Hoboken and West 39th Street, and NJ Transit's Route 126 buses to the Port Authority Bus Terminal, and PATH has added peak-period trains so Hoboken services run about every six minutes. More than 280 Amtrak trains are being eliminated across the five-week period. Saturday brought a separate, unrelated delay on the Morris & Essex Line, where train #6920 to Penn Station ran up to 45 minutes late after a request for police assistance for an unruly customer at Madison, NJ Transit reported.
