(The following article by Joe Malinconico was posted on the Star-Ledger website on November 13.)
NEWARK, N.J. — The countdown to the weekday opening of New Jersey’s largest train station has begun.
NJ Transit officials said yesterday that Secaucus Junction, the $609 million station that will provide connections among the agency’s main rail lines, will start full service Dec. 15. The station has been operating on weekends since early September.
The main beneficiaries of the station will be commuters from Bergen and Passaic counties, who will be able to make a simple transfer in Secaucus from trains on the Bergen, Main and Pascack Valley lines to New York-bound trains. Those folks now have to ride into Hoboken Terminal and switch to PATH trains, a trip that officials say takes about 15 minutes longer.
But some rail riders on the Northeast Corridor, Midtown Direct and North Jersey Coast lines are looking at the Secaucus opening with apprehension. The extra stop will add three to four minutes on many trips to the city and their trains may become even more crowded with riders making the transfer at Secaucus.
James Redeker, an assistant executive director at NJ Transit, said the agency has been adding trains and passenger cars to its New York lines in preparation for the opening of Secaucus Junction.
“There will be plenty of capacity,” Redeker said. “There’s more capacity than they need.”
A critical factor will be the reopening of the PATH station in Lower Manhattan on Nov. 23. Once that happens, NJ Transit is counting on commuters getting off its trains at Newark Penn Station and taking PATH trains to the site of the World Trade Center, creating space for more people to get aboard in Secaucus.
NJ Transit expects that between 6 and 10 a.m., about 4,900 passengers will make the switch from its trains to the PATH in Newark. After trains leave Newark, they will continue on to Secaucus, where the railroad figures 4,700 commuters will get aboard to make the transfer.
After the PATH station reopens, NJ Transit will monitor the flow of commuting traffic to make sure enough people are switching in Newark.
Not every train on the Northeast Corridor, North Jersey Coast Line and Midtown Direct lines will stop at Secaucus. Officials say about six of every 10 trains will make the stop.