Montclair-Boonton Line Home Page

News flash: The new N.J. Transit schedule for this line came into effect on May 12th and significantly changed the timing of certain trains. Note that the schedule doesn't list all the possible trains you can take. During morning rush hour, you can usually take a Hoboken-bound train and switch to a Midtown train (coming from Summit) at Broad Street Station.

The big issue on the Montclair-Boonton line right now is the lack of weekend service. NJ-ARP is now gearing up a campaign to find out exactly why N.J. Transit keeps putting off weekend service and what we can do to encourage them along.

Have you wanted to take the train to the City on the weekends—only to find there’s no train on the weekends?
Have you then filled your tank with $4/gallon gasoline, gotten stuck in tunnel traffic, and circled like a vulture through Manhattan streets for parking, or shelled out another $40 for a garage—when all you needed was a train line that ran on weekends?
Have you invited friends from the City to visit on weekends—only to have them balk when they learn they have to take a bus? And with DeCamp’s level of service, can you blame them?

What's the Problem?

The Montclair-Boonton line is the only train line in the entire New York metropolitan area that doesn’t run on weekends. N.J. Transit has been very inventive at coming up with new excuses to avoid providing service. It used to be a small but vocal opposition in Montclair. When that died down, N.J. Transit said the hang-up was construction at Newark’s Broad Street Station. Now that the station is nearly done, N.J. Transit says the trouble is track work in the Hudson River tunnel, and there are already rumblings that bridge construction on Bloomfield Avenue will prolong the delay. At this rate, we’ll get weekend service around the same time as regular space flights to Mars.

None of these excuses holds up when you consider a few simple facts.

Weekend service continues on all other train lines, including the Morristown and Gladstone lines. So much for the Broad Street Station excuse.
Some trains already run down the Montclair-Boonton line on the weekends as New Jersey Transit repositions equipment in preparation for Monday. Why can’t those trains carry passengers?
If the Hudson River tunnels have limited capacity, why doesn’t New Jersey Transit explore creative alternatives such as service into Hoboken with timed transfers at Broad Street or Secaucus to New York–bound trains?

Clearly N.J. Transit doesn’t see the urgency for weekend service on our line. Maybe they think no one wants it. We need to raise our voices. Our request is simple: start weekend service immediately. No more excuses.

What Can You Do?

We are starting to circulate a petition to let N.J. Transit officials know that you want to be able to have weekend rail service. Look for the NJ-ARP volunters at the Montclair Farmer’s Market, Glen Ridge Arts Festival, and other local events. Please contact us if you'd like to help; we can send you a PDF of the petition to print out and distribute.
Contact your local elected officials and representatives asking them to push N.J. Transit to do the right thing.
Send a letter to N.J. Transit’s Executive Director Richard Sarles at N.J. Transit, One Penn Plaza East, Newark, NJ 07105. Regular mail is always more effective than email.
Join NJ-ARP and help us continue the fight for weekend service.

Frequently Asked Questions

Isn’t Montclair the hang-up? In the past, a small but vocal group of Montclair residents fought even ordinary weekday train service, let alone weekend service. They held up the line for years, against the wishes of other towns and of the majority of Montclair residents. When Midtown Direct service started up in 2002, N.J. Transit said it would not offer weekend service “at Montclair’s request.” But times have changed. The town of Montclair, having seen the benefits of train service, now supports weekend service.
What about noise? Montclair had opposed weekend service citing the “tremendous noise” the trains would bring. The fact is that noise would be no more than it is during the week. It would be lessened since train service would be at one-hour intervals as on the Morris & Essex line. N.J. Transit is sensitive to horn noise and have muffled the sounds as much as possible.
Why can’t people just take the DeCamp Bus? Buses do not provide an adequate substitute for weekend train service and riders would be well served by having more options. There is no reason DeCamp could not thrive if trains ran on weekends, since buses provide access to areas unserved by the train and fill in gaps in the train schedule. In addition, DeCamp can work in conjunction with N.J. Transit by delivering people to train stations, thus freeing up residents from having to use their automobiles at all. Unfortunately, in the past DeCamp has put more effort into litigation (which courts have dismissed) than service improvements.
Is there really a need for trains on weekends? Trains on other lines are heavily utilized on weekends. As energy prices continue to escalate, ridership continues to rise sharply on the weekends. The DeCamp buses are often so crowded on weekends that there is standing-room only; in fact, sometimes the bus is full and some unlucky souls have to wait an hour at Port Authority for the next one.

These files were created by George Musser.