NJ Transit To Resume One-Seat Rides On Raritan Valley LIne

WESTFIELD, NJ - After months of community rallies, politicians canvassing train stations and riders enduring an even more insufferable commute than usual, NJ Transit will be resuming off-peak, one-seat rides on the Raritan Valley Train line.

"Lets start the week with some good and long-awaited news. One-seat, off-peak rides into New York/Penn Station along the Raritan Valley Line will resume on Monday, Nov. 4," Governor Phil Murphy announced alongside Congressman Tom Malinowski and other state and local officials at the Westfield train station on Monday. "This restoration will cover all five midday daily round trips and three of the four scheduled evening round trip trains. And that last train, which is the last nightly train to New York, will be rescheduled to cut the wait time for the connecting ride into Newark/Penn from 24 minutes to eight minutes."

Murphy also noted they would like to make wait time changes to the "peak side of life" as well.

The service was temporarily suspended in September 2018 as NJ Transit continued its installation of Positive Train Control, a system designed to automatically stop a train before certain accidents occur, on its rail fleet.

“After the Christie Administration left Positive Train Control implementation to languish on the backburner leading to service cuts on the Raritan Valley Line, our Administration has worked diligently to ensure that our commuters get the service and safety they deserve,” said Governor Murphy. “With NJ Transit’s completion of an important phase of that project, RVL riders, who rely on NJ Transit every day to get to and from work, have waited long enough for this service restoration. I’m proud to announce today that we will resume NJ Transit’s off-peak, one-seat rides to NY Penn Station on the RVL and make good on our promise to provide more reliable service for customers in these communities.”

Murphy said that the service restoration means the elimination of major headaches for thousands of train riders.

"It means that the staffing and equipment required for reliable and sustainable service has been secured. It means more time actually getting where you need to go and less time waiting," he said.

Malinowski noted that many communities felt the impact of the service change, which happened in September of 2018.

"We're in Westfield but we have elected officials and community leaders from as far away as Hunterdon County," Malinowski said. "This line serves so many people, so many communities, so many families it is so critical to our growing economy and so critical to our hopes for a growing economy in this part of New Jersey."

Malinowski said that what the commuters go through, every single day, is just unacceptable.

“It’s wrong that Raritan Valley line passengers had no one seat ride service to New York, despite the line having more daily riders than other New Jersey Transit lines whose trains go straight through to the city,” said Malinowski. “The restoration of off-peak one seat ride service is a good step forward, and I’m grateful to Governor Murphy for working with my office, as well as with the Raritan Valley Line Mayor’s Alliance and the Raritan Valley Rail Coalition, to make it happen. We will keep pushing for rush hour service as well.”

Transportation Commissioner Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti said she appreciated customers' patience and those sentiments were echoed by NJ Transit CEO and President Kevin Corbett.

"This restoration is another example of our continued commitment to an improved customer experience for all of our customers,” Corbett said.

Fanwood Mayor Colleen Mahr, part of the Raritan Valley Line Mayor’s Alliance noted that 23,000 residents ride the Raritan Valley line trains everyday.

“We are here today because of the on-going collaboration between the Governor’s office, Congressional and State legislators, mayors, and county officials, all working together for the very one important constituent that we all share, which is the commuter,” she said.

Based on increased availability of dual-mode locomotives, all five midday one-seat RVL round-trips that operated prior to September 2018 will be restored on November 4th, and three of the four evening round trips will be restored. The final evening round trip – which departed Raritan at 9:53 p.m. and departed New York at 12:08 a.m. – will not be restored due to the need to inspect and prepare dual-powered trains for the next morning’s service. However, the current 9:53 p.m. departure from Raritan will operate 16 minutes later, reducing the connecting time at Newark for New York-bound customers from 24 minutes to eight minutes. Returning from New York, customers will continue to use Train 3201 (departing at 12:05 a.m.) to connect with Train 5401 at Newark, with a seven minute connection time.

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