Final Portal North Bridge track shift cuts NJ Transit service until Nov. 15

Crews are about to shift the final track from the old Portal Bridge onto its new replacement over the Hackensack River, and NJ Transit riders will feel it for five weeks. Beginning Sunday, Oct. 11, every rail line in the system except the Atlantic City Rail Line will see changes.

Expect some trains to be canceled, others to leave at new times and stopping patterns to shift. NJ Transit plans to bring back its normal schedule on Sunday, Nov. 15, once the track work and safety testing wrap up.

Which NJ Transit trains go to Hoboken instead of Penn Station

Three routes lose their direct weekday link to Manhattan. Monday through Friday, any Montclair-Boonton, Morris & Essex or Gladstone Branch train scheduled to run into or out of New York Penn Station will use Hoboken as its terminal instead. From Hoboken, riders heading to the city can switch to PATH, a NY Waterway ferry or an NJ Transit bus. Weekend service on all three routes still reaches Penn Station.

Some customers on the Raritan Valley, Port Jervis and North Jersey Coast lines will also end up on buses, because unrelated construction is taking place on those routes. Amtrak, meanwhile, will use the lighter rail schedule to carry out eight maintenance projects along the Northeast Corridor.

Why the Portal North Bridge cutover matters

The bridge being retired over the Hackensack has stood for more than 100 years. The Portal North Bridge sits 50 feet above the water, double the old bridge’s clearance, so boats can pass beneath it without stopping train traffic.

NJ Transit and Amtrak have posted the revised timetables on their websites. For real-time updates, riders can check each agency’s app and social media accounts.