New Jersey rail commuters are entering a difficult stretch.
For the next four weeks, trains on the busiest rail line in the country will slow down, reroute, and, in some cases, stop going to New York Penn Station altogether. Officials say the disruptions are a necessary tradeoff—aimed at shoring up infrastructure to improve reliability for decades to come.
Amtrak has begun moving traffic off the aging Portal Bridge and onto the new Portal North Bridge, which travels over the Hackensack River. The transition, known as the Portal Bridge cutover, forces trains to share a single track between Newark and Secaucus while crews complete the work. That consolidation means fewer trains, crowded cars, and longer travel times for hundreds of thousands of daily riders.
NJ Transit commuters will see some of the biggest changes.
Weekday Midtown Direct service into Penn Station is suspended on the Morristown, Gladstone Branch, and Montclair-Boonton lines. Instead, those trains are being diverted to Hoboken Terminal, forcing riders to transfer to PATH trains, ferries, or buses to reach Manhattan. Transit officials warn those connections will be busier than normal—advising riders to travel outside peak commuting hours or work from home if possible.
Riders across the system should also expect modified schedules, earlier departure times, and cancellations. NJ Transit says regular service is expected to resume on March 15.
The mission is to replace one of the most notorious chokepoints in American rail. Built in 1910, the old Portal Bridge is a swing bridge that opens for boat traffic and has long been prone to mechanical failures. When it malfunctions, delays spread across the entire Northeast Corridor, impacting both NJ Transit and Amtrak trains.
The new bridge is designed to eliminate those problems.It’s a fixed-span structure that sits high above the river, allowing marine traffic to pass underneath without interrupting rail service. Officials see the construction as a temporary burden that will alleviate delays moving forward.
The Portal North Bridge is part of the broader Gateway Program, a massive effort to modernize rail infrastructure between New York and New Jersey. While the current phase brings temporary pain, transit leaders say the long-term goal is simple: faster, more reliable service on one of the nation’s most important—and busiest—rail lines.
Until then, commuters should prepare for a tougher trip. Our advice? Plan accordingly.
The New Jersey Digest is a new jersey magazine that has chronicled daily life in the Garden State for over 10 years.