(The following article by Joe Malinconico was posted on the Newark Star-Ledger website on August 6.)
NEWARK, N.J. — Commuters on the Raritan Valley Line don’t need an exercise regimen.
They already get a frantic workout every morning when they make the switch to New York-bound trains at Newark Penn Station.
Down the stairs they rush after the Raritan line drops them at platform 5 in Newark. They then dash through the crowded concourse. Finally, they hustle back up another flight of stairs to another platform to catch the connecting train to Manhattan.
Of course, there are obstacles. Escalators under repair create logjams. Outdated information on station video monitors sends riders to the wrong platforms. Dawdling rail novices get in the way.
Sometimes, rush-hour Raritan Valley commuters make it to the platform in time. Sometimes, they see the red light on the back of a train that has already left the station.
“It’s ridiculous what people have to do to get to their trains,” said commuter Matthew Collins of Fanwood.
More than three years ago, NJ Transit officials dangled some hope for commuters on the Raritan Valley line — which runs from Newark through Union, Somerset and Hunterdon counties — by promising changes that would make the transfer a simple stroll across one platform.
But that project stalled, officials said, because railroad construction crews were busy with other jobs on the tracks between Newark and New York that were considered higher priorities, including new rail signals and the Secaucus Junction transfer station.
Now the agency is looking to revive the improvements for the Raritan Valley line. Earlier this month, NJ Transit decided to spend another $270,000 to update an engineering study done three years ago. The whole project eventually is going to cost $27 million and will take until 2007 to complete, officials said.
That might seem like a lot of money for a project that sounds fairly simple –switching Raritan Valley trains from one track to another on their way into Newark Penn Station. But rerouting traffic on the busiest stretch of passenger railroad in the country never is simple.
At present, during morning rush hours, eastbound Raritan Valley trains make their last stop in Newark on track 5. Commuters then have to make their way to track 1 or 2 to catch trains that carry them into New York.
But NJ Transit officials say they cannot put Raritan Valley trains on track 1 or 2 in Newark during rush hour because those trains would create traffic congestion on the rails in order to get in position to turn around to head back west.
The solution, according to railroad officials, is something rail officials call a “pocket track.” The track would be a small 1,800-foot section of track in Harrison, just beyond Newark Penn Station, that Raritan Valley trains could switch onto to make their turnaround without clogging other rail traffic.
Three years ago, officials figured the pocket track would cost $14.5 million. But now, the price tag has risen to $27 million, largely because of modifications made in the project.
The changes can’t come soon enough for Raritan Valley riders. The difficulties in making the transfer, they say, become much worse when trains are running late.
Take, for example, Michael Einbinder’s experience on a recent Monday morning. After his train from Westfield dropped him off in Newark at about 8:40 a.m., he checked the video monitors in the station to see where to go to catch the next train to New York.
The monitor told him one train was “all aboard” at track 1, that a second train due at the station at 8:44 a.m. on track 1 would be 10 minutes late and a third train would be arriving at track 2 at 8:48 a.m., Einbinder said.
Einbinder opted to try his luck at track 1. But that turned out to be a bad choice.
“If I had known that the next train to New York was going to be on track 2, I would have gone there,” he said. “Instead, with no announcement at all, I waited along with dozens of fellow suffering travelers.”
Someday, Raritan Valley passengers may get a one-seat ride into New York. But that likely won’t happen anytime soon.
Part of the complication is the fact that the Raritan Valley line is not electrified, so its trains run on diesel fuel and only electric-powered trains are allowed to run through the tunnel beneath the Hudson River.
NJ Transit is doing a feasibility study on trains that could run on both electricity and diesel fuel. Yet, even if the agency decided to buy the so-called “duel-mode” equipment, there is already too much rush-hour rail traffic going through the one tunnel to Midtown Manhattan.
Transit officials said they would not have enough capacity to schedule Raritan Valley trains to go into New York City until after a second rail tunnel gets built — a massive multibillion-dollar project that even optimistic projections say would not happen until next decade at the earliest.
That explanation does not satisfy Raritan riders.
“I know NJ Transit hides behind the argument that there is no room in the tunnel for additional trains,” said Harvey Davidson. “NJ Transit said this when I first started commuting in the late 1960s. Yet it added Midtown Direct trains. The Raritan Valley line passengers have not been given a fair opportunity for direct service.”