NJ-ARP Blog

I am proud to admit that my cars have not been on Manhattan streets since 1993. I have traveled to New York exclusively by NJT’s M&E line on weekends. I used to do the same for Hoboken; but, with the two hour gap to get home, I now drive to Journal Square, Jersey City and use PATH.

For the past several years, NJT has added extra MidTown Directs on weekends during the holiday season between Thanksgiving and New Years. The “extra” trains on the hour are express trains after Summit and the trains on the 1/2 hour are “locals”. Despite the total lack of publicity in either local written or radio media, the extra trains are not empty. If they were kept year round, NJT would have another money maker on its hands. Instead, it drops the expresses right after New Year’s and it curtails Hoboken service assuming no one goes to Hoboken on the weekend.

With the choice of restaurants, antique shops and a good place to run, Hoboken is a more than occassional destination for me. I can go there and walk around or I can explore the Jersey City Gold Coast on HBLRT. However, since NJT cut back on Hoboken service, I now elect to drive whenever I want to go to Hoboken. I typically drive to Bayonne, where parking is a lot cheaper and hop on HBLRT or I go to Journal Square and take PATH. The solution for NJT would be so simple: Have a EMU shuttle of one or two cars travel between Hoboken and Newark Broad Street Station so that there is the one train per hour guarantee. I think they can actually run at every 1/2 hour if it were marketed properly; but, I’ll settle for once an hour.

It’s an NJT missed opportunity and it’s disgraceful that the towns along the M&E have met this change with a collective yawn. If you want Hoboken service to run more frequently, please make your views known to NJT, the Governor and/or the DOT Commissioner. Get after your towns to have elected officials wake up and “smell the coffee”.

Posted by coffeelen under Weekend service.