Prudential Center transportation plan
October 11th 2007 08:23 am
Earlier this week, NJ Transit announced their transportation plan for service to the Prudential Center arena in Newark. “The Rock” opens on October 25 with a series of Bon Jovi concerts. The New Jersey Devils play their first home game there on October 27.
NJ Transit plans a number of improvements, including:
- Four new evening express trains on the Northeast Corridor
- Three new evening express trains on the North Jersey Coast Line
- Extra customer service personnel at Newark Penn Station and Newark Broad Street Station
- Later hours for the Newark Penn Station ticket windows, information booth, waiting room, and Customer Service office
- Real-time train departure displays within the Prudential Center
- A ticket vending machine (just one?) adjacent to the Prudential Center box office
- A new large bus shelter at Newark Broad Street Station for passengers taking buses to downtown Newark
All this is very good, and, if NJ Transit sticks with these initiatives, will improve service for people traveling to and from Newark. However, people living to the north and west of the Prudential Center will be getting the short end of the stick. In particular, there are two significant areas for improvement:
1. Evening service on the Morristown Line and Gladstone Branch remains painfully slow. NJ Transit used to operate Newark-Summit express trains as late as 10:34 PM on weeknights, and as late as 11:04 PM on Saturday nights. Now there is no express service in the evening. The result is that the trip from the Prudential Center to home for these passengers will be 2 to 3 hours. Clearly this is a strong incentive for potential passengers to drive to Newark. NJ Transit needs to restore evening express trains to the Morristown Line.
2. Passengers on the Main, Bergen County, and Pascack Valley lines transferring at Secaucus Transfer will be forced to pay peak period fares to NYC to go to weeknight games at the Prudential Center, even though their trip does not go via NYC. Passengers on all other rail lines will be able to purchase off-peak tickets to Newark. So not only do the Main/Bergen/Pascack riders have to change trains, they have to pay significantly more for doing so. NJ Transit needs to develop an alternative fare arrangement that does not penalize Prudential Center patrons just because they have to change trains at Secaucus Transfer. One possibility would be to allow off-peak intra-state fares within 3 hours of a game or concert to riders showing a Prudential Center game or concert ticket.
It will be interesting to see how everything works out and how many people take trains to the Prudential Center. It will also be interesting to see the preferred method of transportation between the Newark Broad Street Station and the Prudential Center - will they take buses or the Newark Light Rail line?
How will you travel to the Prudential Center?
- Train: 37 (62%)
- Bus: 3 (5%)
- Car / Carpool: 8 (13%)
- I wish the Devils had stayed at the Meadowlands: 12 (20%)
Total Voters: 60
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Joe Versaggi responded on 11 Oct 2007 at 9:54 am #
Bergen/Main and Pascack passengers would save money, but take more time, if they go to Hoboken and take 2 PATH trains to Newark.
Bob Scheurle responded on 13 Oct 2007 at 12:00 pm #
I just spotted this item on the NJ Devils web site:
“At Newark Broad Street Station, Academy Bus lines will provide arena-goers an express ‘Prudential Center’ bus that will offer a free 8-minute ride to the arena for all Prudential Center events. Buses will drop-off and pick-up at Lafayette Street directly in front of the arena. NJ Transit buses 13, 27, 39 also service Prudential Center patrons at no charge with proof of a round trip train ticket.”
Bob Scheurle responded on 14 Oct 2007 at 7:43 am #
Here’s an article in the Bergen Record with helpful information for people riding the Main/Bergen/Pascack/Montclair lines to the arena.