Meadowlands Rail Line

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New Meadowlands stadium exterior.jpg
Station (foreground) at MetLife Stadium
Overview
Type Event shuttle
System New Jersey Transit
Locale North Jersey
Termini Hoboken Terminal
Meadowlands
Stations 3
Daily ridership n/a
Operation
Opened 2009
Owner New Jersey Transit
Operator(s) New Jersey Transit
Technical
No. of tracks 2
Track gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)
Route map

Meadowlands Rail Line is a rail line in New Jersey, United States, operated by New Jersey Transit (NJT). Trains run between the Meadowlands Sports Complex and Secaucus Junction, some with continuing service to Hoboken Terminal. There is a limited service on the line, with trains only operating in conjunction with major events.[1]

Upon its opening on July 20, 2009, it became the newest route of New Jersey Transit rail operations. It is represented on NJT maps with the color white; unlike other lines, it does not have a logo.[2] It was built at a cost of $185 million.[3]

The Meadowlands Station was built as a part of the rail network expansion and is next to MetLife Stadium, equidistant from the Meadowlands Racetrack, the Izod Center and unopened American Dream Meadowlands.[4]

Service

NJ Transit runs trains along the Meadowlands Rail Line for events where 50,000 or more attendees are expected, including New York Jets and New York Giants games. Trains begin running 3​1⁄2 hours before an event and stop up to two hours after its conclusion. Travel time between Meadowlands Station and Secaucus Junction is 10 to 13 minutes; a trip to or from Hoboken Terminal takes about 23 minutes.[5] The agency considers full capacity to be 10,000 passengers per hour.[6] NJT officials have said they will begin daily service when the American Dream Meadowlands retail and entertainment complex opens.[7] In anticipation of increased ridership for Super Bowl XLVIII in February 2014 NJT extended platforms at Secaucus Junction by 120 ft (37 m) to accommodate multi-level 10-car train sets which can handle about 1,400 to 1,800 passengers per trip, moving about 14,000 or 15,000 people an hour.[8]

Secaucus Junction is a major interchange station for NJ Transit where all but three of its commuter lines stop. Connections are available to the Northeast Corridor Line and the North Jersey Coast Line to New York Penn Station and Newark Penn Station and points south; the Morris and Essex Lines Midtown Direct to New York Penn Station and points west; the Main Line, the Bergen County Line, and the Pascack Valley Line to points north. At its eastern terminus Hoboken Terminal connections to PATH trains, Hudson Bergen Light Rail, New York Waterway ferries and local buses are available.[9][10]

The Train to the Game is an excursion train operated jointly by Metro-North Railroad and NJ Transit, for Sunday football games starting at 1 pm. Trains running as part of this service originate at New Haven. They travel through southwestern Connecticut and Westchester County, cross Manhattan via New York Penn (thus avoiding the normally required transfer from Grand Central Terminal,) and continue through the North River Tunnels as regular NJT trains to Secaucus Junction.[11] When the service first began, three trains operated in each direction.[12] However, this was reduced to one train in each direction starting with the 2010 Football Season.[13]

In 2012, New Jersey Transit began introducing online ticketing service by offering round-trip tickets from New York Penn Station to Met Life Stadium during the 2012 NFL season.[14]

History

The Meadowlands Sports Complex, which opened in 1976, was until 2009 accessible only via automobile or bus. The decision to build a rail line to it was welcome[by whom?] but the route was a source of controversy. A portion of the line is a 2.3-mile-long (3.7 km) spur line connected via a new wye connection to the existing network. The line as built is a spur off the Pascack Valley Line, which travels further than if it had branched directly off the Bergen County Line. The decision to spend $6.2 million to acquire a right-of-way that travels through a federal Superfund site was also contentious.[15]

The opening ceremonies for the line took place on July 20, 2009. New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, New York Giants owner John Mara, New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, and players from the Giants and Jets rode a special train from Hoboken to the new station for a ribbon-cutting ceremony.[3] The station opened to the public on July 26, 2009, for the championship game of the CONCACAF Gold Cup tournament between the United States and Mexico. It is estimated that 6,000 arrived via the new rail line.[16]

Ridership to National Football League games increased by 50 percent in the rail line's second year of operation. In 2010, about 10,500 attendees at New York Jets games and 8,000 attendees at New York Giants games arrived by train.[17]

In an operation dubbed the Mass Transit Super Bowl for Super Bowl XLVIII on February 2, 2014, record numbers of riders took the shuttle to Meadowlands before the game, and were faced with waits of up to 90 minutes, due to security delays.[18] After the game ended there more delay as demanded exceeded the Meadowlands station's regular operating capacity. At one point, fans were asked to remain inside the stadium until more trains were dispatched to load passengers from the station.[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] In total 28,301 riders arrived at the stadium and 35,264 (nearly three times as many riders as NJ Transit predicted) left via train.[30]

Stations

Zone
[31]		 Station[31] Miles (km)
from HOB		 Date
opened		 Connections / notes[31]
1 Hoboken Terminal Handicapped/disabled access
(limited service)		 0.0 (0.0) 1903 BSicon BAHN.svg NJ Transit: Bergen County, Gladstone, Main, Montclair-Boonton, Morristown, North Jersey Coast, Pascack Valley, and Raritan Valley Lines
BSicon BAHN.svg Metro-North: Port Jervis Line
BSicon TRAM.svg Hudson-Bergen Light Rail: Hoboken-8th Street, Hoboken-Tonnelle
BSicon SUBWAY.svg PATH: HOB-WTC, HOB-33, JSQ-33 (via HOB)
Bus transport NJT Bus: 22, 22X, 23, 54, 68, 85, 87, 89, 126
BSicon BOOT.svg New York Waterway to Battery Park City
Secaucus Junction Handicapped/disabled access 3.5 (5.6) 2003 BSicon BAHN.svg NJ Transit: Bergen County, Gladstone, Main, Montclair-Boonton, Morristown, North Jersey Coast, Northeast Corridor, Pascack Valley, and Raritan Valley Lines
BSicon BAHN.svg Metro-North: Port Jervis Line
Bus transport NJT Bus: 2, 78, 129, 329, 353
Meadowlands Sports Complex Handicapped/disabled access 9.9 (15.9) 2009 Bus transport NJT Bus: 351, 353, 703, 772
Meadowlands Sports Complex (Izod Center, Meadowlands Racetrack, MetLife Stadium)

References

The rail line provides service to Secaucus Junction and Hoboken Terminal
  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Take The Train to the Game at the Wayback Machine (archived February 2, 2010)
  13. ↑ Take The Train to the Game at the Wayback Machine (archived August 21, 2010)
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 31.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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