NJ-ARP Blog

You may have heard that the Pascack Valley Line will have off-peak and weekend service starting October 28, 2007. NJ Transit has installed four passing sidings and a new signal system on the line (a project that took years longer than it should have), allowing the increase in service.

NJ Transit and Metro-North haven’t finalized the schedule yet. There is a draft schedule floating around the ‘Net, but it turns out it’s from November, 2005. It’s likely that the final schedule will be somewhat different.

Due to a lawsuit filed by Emerson, Hillsdale, Montvale, Old Tappan, Oradell, Park Ridge, River Edge, Westwood and Woodcliff Lake, the sidings are in less-than-optimal locations. We’ll have to wait until the final schedules are released to see if that will affect the service. If riders are unhappy with the resulting schedule, they can place the blame on the above nine communities. There is also speculation that some or all of those towns might get less or no off-peak service due to their lawsuit.

In any case, the increase in service is certainly welcome and long overdue. That’s especially true when one considers that while we were waiting for the passing sidings, NJ Transit could have operated trains every two hours all weekend long without any sidings.

Posted by Bob Scheurle under Schedules & Weekend service.