NEWARK, N.J. — NJ Transit and Amtrak have announced their operating plans during the five-week process to complete cutover of the Portal North Bridge and fully retire the aging Portal Bridge over the Hackensack River, a long-time operational headache on the Northeast Corridor.
Those plans, as outlined in a conference call today (Thursday, Sept. 17), will once again see NJ Transit operations reduced by about 50% between Newark and New York’s Penn Station, while Amtrak will essentially run a weekend schedule seven days a week.
“This is an opportunity to once and for all put a 116-year-old bridge in the past which has served the system well for a long time,” said NJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri. “But over the last three decades, it has posed extraordinary challenges both to Amtrak and New Jersey Transit. … ultimately, this is about reliability of the infrastructure, which is what our customers have asked for as long as I can remember.”…