Three members of the Ampere Alliance appeared at the Lackawanna Coalition meeting on February 27 and described their efforts to persuade New Jersey Transit to restore service at the Ampere Station, for the first time after it was discontinued almost 32 years ago.
Continue Reading Residents of the Ampere Neighborhood Want Their Station BackReport from the Chair: Jan./Feb. 2023
A new year starts this month: my 3rd as Lackawanna Coalition chairperson, and NJ Transit Rail’s 41st. The Coalition has a new Web site, the forum is back in operation, and we are looking forward to being the advocate host of the Rail Users’ Network’s in-person conference in the spring. Our resolution supporting the expansion of weekend service on the Montclair-Boonton line caught the attention of Board Member James Adams, who asked Kevin Corbett to look into the possibilities and interest of local communities. We continue to look for more transparency from NJ Transit, something for which we have advocated for years, if not decades.
The lack of a so-called Customer Advocate has become almost absurd; every meeting, there are at least a few members of the public asking about it, yet no progress—possibly because they have written a job description impossible to fill. How about just expanding telephone support hours? 6 a.m. to midnight would be great; we’d settle for a 10 p.m. closing, instead of the current 5 p.m.—actually earlier, as I have had the switchboard shut off at 4:50 when I was holding. Wouldn’t you expect that operators would answer the questions of those on hold before leaving? We all like to leave our office on time, but providing the best customer service means giving just a little extra. However, that should only rarely be a consideration: one would expect that shift schedules would allow workers to answer all waiting calls and still clock out on time.
Coalition Calls for Hourly Weekend Service for Montclair and Hoboken
At its November meeting, the Lackawanna Coalition passed a resolution calling on NJ Transit to start running hourly service between Montclair and Hoboken on Saturdays and Sundays, no later than the beginning of the next fiscal year this coming July 1.
The principal “Resolved” clause says: “the Lackawanna Coalition calls for New Jersey Transit to implement hourly weekend passenger-rail service between Hoboken and Montclair State University stations, scheduled for connections with Morris & Essex Line trains at Broad Street Station in Newark, as the trains that run on the current schedule are scheduled for such connections. . .”
Continue Reading Coalition Calls for Hourly Weekend Service for Montclair and HobokenNJ Transit Rail Celebrates 40th Anniversary
It has now been slightly more than 40 years since NJ Transit started running its trains under its own flag. While the different lines were originally operated by historical railroads, such as the Morris & Essex (M&E), Gladstone, and Montclair lines by the Lackawanna Railroad until 1960, the statewide system was run by the Consolidated Rail Corp. (Conrail), with help from the Commuter Operating Agency (COA) at the New Jersey Department of Transportation.
According to Coalition member Jim Blaze, who worked as a manager for Conrail at the time, Congress mandated in 1981 that Conrail had to give up its local passenger operations by the end of 1982. In a hurry, and just in time for New Years’ Day1983, 3 regional railroads were born: Metro-North in New York State, NJ Transit Rail, and SEPTA Regional Rail in the Philadelphia area.
Continue Reading NJ Transit Rail Celebrates 40th AnniversaryA Train Trip to Hike Mills Reservation
Yesterday, I took the train to Mills Reservation and did a two-mile hike there. Mills Reservation is one of the few hikes in New Jersey accessible by train. I’ve gone there by train several times in the past, taking the Montclair-Boonton Line to the Montclair Heights station and walking up Normal Avenue to the park. But this requires an 0.4-mile roadwalk along Normal Avenue, a rather narrow and heavily trafficked street, which lacks sidewalks for part of the way.
For yesterday’s trip, I decided to detrain at the Mountain Avenue station, the next stop to the south. This way, I had only a short road walk on Laurel Place—a dead-end residential street with sidewalks. From there, I could climb a grassy slope and follow the Lenape Trail to the park at the crest of the ridge. This ended up being a far more pleasant and safe route.
Yesterday was a perfect day to visit the park, which affords magnificent views of the New York City skyline:
Falling Tree Pulls Wire Down—
No Service on M&E Lines for Seven Days
Service was suspended on most of the Morris & Essex (M&E) Line, along with the Gladstone Branch, for an entire week, beginning on Monday evening, March 7. A strong storm blew a large tree onto the elevated M&E right-of-way near Jefferson Avenue in Maplewood, between the Maplewood and South Orange stations. It pulled down the overhead wires (“catenary”) that power the trains running on the line and damaged the wires’ supporting structure. On Tuesday, nothing ran anywhere on either the M&E or the Gladstone Branch. By Wednesday, hourly service (different from and slower than normal) had been established between South Orange and New York Penn Station. However, there was no service at all—not even limited diesel service—past South Orange.
Continue Reading Falling Tree Pulls Wire Down—
No Service on M&E Lines for Seven Days
M&E, Montclair Restored after Storm
Morris & Essex and Montclair-Boonton lines are scheduled to restore service at noon, Saturday, Feb. 9; service had been suspended at 8 p.m. on Friday during the snowstorm. NJT attributed this action to the vulnerability of those lines to tree damage, citing the experience of Superstorm Sandy in October (which has resulted in continuing reduction of service on those lines). It had originally been announced that service would remain suspended through Saturday.
NJT’s action appears to conflict with weather forecasts that, at the time of the announcement, were actually becoming less severe; once the storm began to abate on Saturday morning, total snowfall reports did not exceed 12″ in the M&E territory, although wind gusts remained a threat on Saturday, especially with tree limbs already weighted with snow. In general, however, the experience in the M&E territory was no more severe than elsewhere on the NJT system, which remained in operation. Bus services north of Interstate 195 (that is, all of north Jersey) were also suspended at 8 p.m. on Friday, and restored at 8 a.m. on Saturday.
The short suspension may be attributed to an overabundance of caution, but the selection of the M&E and Boonton lines for suspension suggests that NJT may not have enough equipment to keep all lines running during an emergency. Weather forecasts were equally severe or even worse for other lines, which were not suspended. The NJT press release announcing the suspension noted a lack of “system redundancies”, which supports the notion that the system is stretched thin after Hurricane Sandy, and that the suspension of the M&E and Boonton lines was a question of priority-setting rather than prompted by unusual risk to those lines.
NJT Posts New Rail Schedules without Notice
New Jersey Transit has just posted new schedules for all rail lines to their web site, as service takes another step toward returning to pre-Sandy levels. The new weekday schedules take effect this Monday. There are improvements on the Morris & Essex, Montclair-Boonton, and Gladstone lines, although there are still some serious gaps in service, and the level of weekday service to Gladstone is still far below pre-Sandy levels.
While we compliment NJT on increasing the number of trains, we remain concerned that NJT has refused to discuss any potential schedule changes with us, as the representative of our riders and our communities. We are also concerned that the new schedules were posted on the business day before they are slated to take effect.
NJT Relaxes Some Weekend Bicycle Restrictions, but It’s Little Help on Our Lines
New Jersey Transit announced on Monday, August 6th, that it would relax some of the weekend restrictions against the use of bicycles on trains, beginning on Saturday, August 11th. The restrictions that went into effect in July prohibited bicycles on all inbound trains that would arrive at their terminals in Newark, Hoboken, or New York between 9:00 and 12:00 in the morning, and leaving those terminals between 5:00 and 8:00 p.m. The regulation does not apply to trains going in the opposite direction, which would carry New York-based cyclists to New Jersey.
NJT announced that the weekend restriction would no longer apply to trains that terminate in Hoboken, or Raritan Valley Line trains that terminate at Newark. The restrictions on weekend bicycle use on the Northeast Corridor, North Jersey Coast, and Morris & Essex (M&E) lines remain in full force and effect.
Cyclists on the M&E line must take the 7:05 train from Dover, or an earlier train, to reach their destination before the restricted period begins. They must also leave Penn Station on the 4:11 train, or wait until 8:11; a gap of 4 hours. Although trains on the Gladstone Branch may now carry bicycles, Gladstone trains terminate at Summit on weekends. Cyclists cannot use M&E trains east of Summit during the restricted hours, so they are subject to the same restrictions as M&E riders.
The only improvement for riders on our rail lines is that cyclists getting on trains at Bay St. (Montclair), Glen Ridge, Bloomfield, or Watsessing Avenue can now use 2 trains to Hoboken and 1 train from Hoboken that they could not have used before.
Severe Service Disruptions Plague Northeast Corridor Line, Affecting M&E Line Riders
Three severe service disruptions in as many days made commuting difficult for New Jersey rail riders on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, June 21st, 22nd, and 23d. Although the difficulties originated on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor Line, some commuters and other riders on the Morris & Essex, Montclair-Boonton, and Gladstone Lines were affected. These lines use NEC track for some of their route to New York Penn Station.
Lackawanna Coalition Chair David Peter Alan has called for Amtrak and New Jersey Transit to upgrade the electrical system on the railroad, which was built in the 1930s and has been blamed for the disruptions. Alan also said that the railroad should be brought to a state of good repair before pursuing major expansion projects.