Major service cuts, disruptions loom for NJ Transit, Amtrak riders

Colleen Wilson, NorthJersey.com

Thu, January 15, 2026 at 11:03 PM UTC

5 min read

There will be a 50% reduction in train service for four weeks starting in mid-February as NJ Transit, Amtrak and construction crews work to transition one track of the new Portal North Bridge to existing tracks and systems.

The new service plan will go into effect Feb. 15 and is expected to last through March 14, NJ Transit and Amtrak officials said on Thursday, Jan. 15.

Service on some NJ Transit lines will be cut back. Weekday Midtown Direct trains that normally terminate at Penn Station in Manhattan will be diverted to Hoboken. From there, riders headed to Manhattan could use the NY Waterway ferry, PATH train service or the 126 bus.

Story continues below photo gallery

Normal NJ Transit and Amtrak service is expected to resume March 15 on one track of the old Portal Bridge and on one track of the new $2.3 billion bridge. A second outage will be planned later this year, most likely in the fall, to cut over the second track on the new bridge.

"Our promise and our commitment is to not only work to provide mitigating strategies ... but more importantly, at the end of the process, we will have a brand new bridge on the system to replace a bridge that is 112 years old," said Kris Kolluri, NJ Transit's president and CEO.

"The Portal North Bridge will help eliminate one of the largest causes of delays and reliability on the Northeast Corridor and it will do this by replacing what we have today with modern systems, modern technology and a fixed-span design, which will not have to be opened and closed for marine traffic underneath," said Amtrak President Roger Harris.

It's possible that additional days beyond the four-week period will be needed to finish the job, but officials said they were confident in their timeline, which includes recovery days in case of bad weather or unforeseen difficulties.

Why will it take four weeks?

Kolluri compared the cutover process to "building and flying a plane at the same time — that's how complex this endeavor is."

The work is taking place on a 2.5-mile section of the Northeast Corridor between Newark Penn Station and Secaucus Junction Station — the busiest stretch of passenger railroad in North America. On any given weekday, more than 450 trains travel across the Hackensack River using the current Portal Bridge.

An Amtrak train crosses the old Portal Bridge during construction of the third and final arch for the Portal North Bridge over the Hackensack River in Kearny on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025.

Amtrak and NJ Transit have been planning this service cutback for a year. Every hour of the work had to be meticulously planned. Connecting the new bridge to the existing track required building Lego-like pieces of track in advance that will get put in place during the outage.

News of the planning for the weeks-long outage was first reported by NorthJersey.com in November.

During these four weeks in February and March, there will be two shifts of 70- to 90-person crews working seven days per week. They will be:

Removing six old catenary poles and foundations that are in the way of the new track alignment
Building two new "interlockings," which prevent trains from colliding, and will require five turnouts, 20 switch machines and 15 new signal huts
Installing 4,500 linear feet of new track and demolishing 6,000 feet of old track
Attaching 4,500 linear feet of overhead wires, known as catenary
Testing multiple software and signal systems, including positive train control, a mandated automatic braking system

The planners considered trying to do this work on weekends and overnight, officials said, but they decided that wouldn't work because of a complicated process to move six poles and wires out of the way of where new track will be installed.

"There are these indivisible chunks of work that just need to be done together," Harris said.

What are the impacts to NJ Transit?

In figuring out how to make service reductions, Kolluri said the agency sought to maximize capacity, maintain service on all rail lines and ensure customer safety.

Weekday changes

All Midtown Direct service — on the Morristown Line, Gladstone Branch and Montclair-Boonton line — is being diverted to Hoboken.
Northeast Corridor trains will be reduced to 112, from 133.
North Jersey Coast Line trains will be reduced to 92, from 109.
Raritan Valley Line trains will be reduced to 49, from 52.
Morristown Line and Gladstone Branch trains will be reduced to 141, from 149.
Montclair-Boonton Line trains will be reduced to 60, from 64.
Bergen County, Pascack Valley, Port Jervis and Main Line trains will remain unchanged, aside from some connecting times, and 44 shuttle trips between Secaucus and Penn Station New York will be added.

Weekend changes

New York: Existing weekend service to and from New York Penn Station will continue on lines that already have it, but timing of hourly service may shift up to 30 minutes. Raritan Valley Line service does not change.
Midtown Direct: Hoboken connections to and from Morristown Line will occur at Secaucus instead of Newark Broad Street. Montclair-Boonton Line schedule continues to operate bi-hourly, but at different times to maintain the New York connection at Newark. Last trips connecting Montclair and Gladstone will operate 30 minutes earlier.
Bergen County, Pascack Valley, Port Jervis and Main Line: 34 shuttle trips will be added between Secaucus and New York Penn Station to maintain connections.

What else should NJ Transit commuters know?

Midtown Direct customers on the Morristown, Gladstone and Montclair-Boonton trains should purchase NJ Transit tickets to and from Hoboken. Those tickets will be cross-honored on:

PATH at Hoboken and 33rd Street stations only
NY Waterway ferry service between Hoboken and Midtown only
NJ Transit's 126 bus between Hoboken and the Port Authority Bus Terminal

The popular FLEXPASS program is returning, with a start date of Feb. 15. Customers can purchase 20 one-way tickets, at a 15% discount, which must be used within 30 days.

NJ Transit will communicate service alerts and other impacts through its normal digital channels online, on the app and on social media.

More information with specific details about schedules is available on NJ Transit's website: njtransit.com/portalcutover.

What are the impacts to Amtrak?

More than 280 Amtrak trains will be impacted by the outage.

Here are the specifics:

Weekday Acela trains will be reduced to 18, from 20
Weekday Northeast Regional trains will be reduced to 40, from 44
Weekday Keystone trains will be reduced to 10, from 24
Long distance trains will not see a change in service.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ Transit and Amtrak riders to face service cuts, disruptions

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