Glen Ridge Gets Its Penn Station Trains Back. The Rest of the Commute Is Still Being Decided.

NJ Transit expects weekday Montclair-Boonton Line trains from Glen Ridge to run to New York Penn Station again starting Sunday, Nov. 15, subject to completion of safety testing. Under the published schedule, tomorrow, Friday, Nov. 13, is the last weekday of the Hoboken diversion. The train schedule has a fixed end date. The other two ways Glen Ridge gets to Midtown or to its station have no fixed future. One is a private bus that launched because of the bridge work. The other is the borough's own jitney, which just had its replacement bids rejected. Both run on commitments with their own timelines, and those timelines differ from NJ Transit's.

What Changes on Sunday, and What Your November Pass Does After It

NJ Transit's Portal cutover page lays out how tickets work once the diversion ends. For anyone holding a November product, the details are:

1. Monthly and weekly passes. For October and November, NJ Transit told Midtown Direct riders to buy passes to and from Hoboken via Newark Broad Street. Those passes are valid for travel to and from Penn Station New York from Nov. 15 through Nov. 30.
2. FLEXPASS. The same applies. A FLEXPASS bought to Hoboken for November is valid to Penn Station from Nov. 15 through Nov. 30.
3. One-way tickets. From Nov. 15 through Nov. 30, Midtown Direct riders buying one-way tickets into New York go back to buying them to and from Penn Station.
4. The first full weekday. Montclair Local listed Monday, Nov. 16, as the full return to normal service in its timeline of the work.

Weekend riders have had the simplest five weeks. Midtown Direct trains kept running directly to and from Penn Station on Saturdays and Sundays throughout the cutover, and Hoboken passes were honored for those trips.

Five Weeks Through Hoboken

The diversion started Sunday, Oct. 11. Amtrak and NJ Transit were moving the second and final track off the 116-year-old Portal Bridge over the Hackensack River and onto the new Portal North Bridge. While the work went on, trains ran on a single track between Newark and Secaucus. Weekday riders from Glen Ridge got off at Hoboken and used cross-honored service to finish the trip. Those options were PATH between Hoboken and 33rd Street, NY Waterway ferries to West 39th Street, and NJ Transit's 126 bus to the Port Authority Bus Terminal, including Academy buses running on that route.

NJ Transit warned before the work began that those connections had limited capacity. It suggested riding before 7 a.m. or after 9 a.m. inbound, and before 4 p.m. or after 7 p.m. outbound. On the morning of Tuesday, Oct. 13, NorthJersey.com reported frustration and crowding in Hoboken. It described the usual commuter posture as head down, headphones on.

The longer-term case for the bridge came from a local transit advocate. In Montclair Local's preview of the cutover, Nick Giglia of Montclair, founder of Restore Our Transit in Essex, put it this way:

"The work was completed on schedule, and it was in service of a larger goal: having a modern bridge that can accommodate maritime traffic without opening and then occasionally needing to be hit with mallets to close."

He was talking about the first phase of the cutover, which ended in March. During that first phase, Bloomfield resident Joe Amditis, associate director at the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University, built RerouteNJ. The tool shows riders which train to take, where to transfer and which ticket to buy for their line and station. NJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri described the result as a high-level bridge that "ends a century of swing-bridge delays."

That covers the rail side. The two other pieces are less settled.

A Bus Named for the Gas Lamps

On Tuesday, Oct. 13, the same day NorthJersey.com reported crowding in Hoboken, Boxcar started a new route out of Glen Ridge. It is the Gaslamp branch of the company's Essex Express, named for the borough's lamps. Boxcar said it set the stops and times using more than 450 survey responses and real Essex Express trips at the same hours. In mid-October, the Glen Ridge council's community affairs report noted that Boxcar had begun bus service for residents into New York City.

The route starts on Ridgewood Avenue and stops at Bay Street in Montclair. From there it runs up Grove Street to Route 3 and the Lincoln Tunnel. In Glen Ridge it stops at Ridgewood and Linden, Ridgewood and Winsor, the Glen Ridge Post Office at 225 Ridgewood Ave. next to the train station, and the Municipal Building at 825 Bloomfield Ave. The published schedule:

• 6:05 a.m. from the Post Office, starting at 6:01 at Ridgewood and Linden, due at Port Authority about 6:53
• 7:12 a.m. from the Post Office, starting at 7:07 at Ridgewood and Linden, due at Port Authority about 8:23
• 8:20 a.m. from the Municipal Building on Bloomfield Avenue, due at Port Authority about 9:31. This bus skips Ridgewood Avenue to stay clear of school traffic.
• Evenings from Lexington Avenue between 57th and 58th streets at 4:05, 5:25 and 7:15 p.m., reaching Ridgewood and Linden about 5:41, 7:02 and 8:31

Morning drop-offs include Port Authority, Bryant Park and Madison Avenue at 43rd, 47th, 52nd and 57th streets. Seats are reserved in the app before boarding. The listed fares are $24.49 inbound and $22.49 home. With a $39.99 monthly membership they drop to $16.33 and $14.99, or $31.32 for a member's round trip.

The evening times matter most. At the cutover's peak, NJ Transit advised riders to avoid the 4-to-7 p.m. window through Hoboken, and the Gaslamp's 4:05 and 5:25 departures fall inside it. Boxcar stated its commitment carefully. It said it would run the route "until at least November 15th" and that it expects to make the route permanent. That minimum commitment runs out the same Sunday the trains are expected back.

The Shuttle to the Station Runs on a Different Clock

The bus is one open question. The jitney is the other. The jitney is Glen Ridge's own way of getting residents to the Ridgewood Avenue station, and its status is separate from both the train and Boxcar. Two shuttles, the North End Jitney and the South End Jitney, run neighborhood loops to and from the station Monday through Friday. The borough's jitney page lists fares of $30 for a monthly card that must be renewed each month, $25 for a 10-trip book with no expiration, and $4 for a one-way ride, exact change only. The same page says ridership has never recovered to more than 40% of its pre-pandemic level. It also says the program will continue in its current format through Dec. 31, with no immediate changes to routes, schedules or service levels.

The borough had been seeking a microtransit jitney program to follow it. At its Oct. 13 meeting, the council received two proposals, one to run the service and one for fare-collection technology. It voted unanimously on Resolution 139-26 to reject both because they exceeded the funds available for the program. The resolution authorizes the Borough Administrator to issue a new request for bids or seek quotes for fare-collection technology. In his report, Councilor Lefkovits said the borough would keep considering the software application and seek more proposals.

That leaves Glen Ridge with three ways to Midtown or to the station, each on its own timeline.

The rail service has a scheduled return date. The bus has a minimum commitment that runs out this Sunday, and the jitney has a Dec. 31 horizon plus a new round of bidding. Anyone who rides the jitney to the train, or who switched to the Gaslamp's guaranteed seat this fall, will feel these decisions before the year is out. The council's next decisions on the jitney will appear in its agendas and minutes on the borough website, and Boxcar posts route changes on its blog.

At The Home Collective, we follow these borough and transit decisions closely so our clients don't have to. If you're thinking about how the walk to the Ridgewood Avenue station or a seat on the Gaslamp fits into your next move, or how to present that convenience when you sell, we'd be glad to talk it through. Work With Us.