Temporary service changes begin on NJ Transit due to Portal North Bridge construction
Planned construction on the Portal North Bridge could cause some headaches for NJ Transit commuters over the next month.
Nearly all Midtown-bound trains will be getting a detour.
Transit officials say the tradeoff is worth it in the long run because it will lead to fewer delays, but at places like the Hoboken Terminal, things are going to get a whole lot busier in the short term, especially during rush hour.
Temporary service changes started Sunday for NJ Transit riders, as construction crews continue to work on the new Portal North Bridge, moving over the final track from the 116-year-old bridge to the new one over the Hackensack River.
Officials said they hope when the construction wraps up, it will put a dent in delays, as the current bridge has experienced malfunctions over the years.
The new Portal Bridge won't have to open for boats passing under it, like the old one, which sometimes failed to close properly.
"If you give us these next five weeks, this bridge will not be a problem for the next 100 years," NJ Transit President and CEO Kris Kolluri said last week. "We are actually trying to build a reliable system. In order to do that, this is an important part of it."
NJ Transit says about 30,000 people take the Midtown Direct service every weekday, and they are the commuters the changes are going to impact for the next five weeks. Trains on the Morristown, Gladstone, and Montclair-Boonton lines will end at the Hoboken Terminal instead of at Penn Station.
Luckily, there are plenty of options, like the PATH train, the 126 bus or the NY Waterway ferry, to get to Manhattan. All three will accept tickets from the other to keep people moving.
"I think that's going to cause a lot of traffic there's already too many weird transfers to get here," one rider said. "It's much faster to just go straight into Manhattan."
Officials say there are also going to be more express trains during the week to handle that rush. If you are a weekend commuter, you'll still be able to get to Penn Station, even with those changes.
