MetLife Concert Rail Service on BetMGM Meadowlands Rail Line

Why be surprised that NJT got caught with trousers down again. Midtown Direct trains were too short in the beginning of service (leading to overcrowding), HBLR was too slow, the stub platforms at Monmouth Park were never electrified and were eventually closed, no Monty-Boonty weekend service, no weekend express service to the shore...oh why go on, because only certain people are allowed to be sarcastic on here nowadays, right?

Probably too much at this point to call for direct trains leaving the Meadowlands bound for the Newark Division via the wye at West End and the Waterfront Connection. Only MSG's good enough to warrant special and "extra" trains, hmm...

Dump The Air wrote:Any inconveniences concert goers suffered those two nights is suitable punishment for accually enjoying U2's music.

LoLz....

On another note... Jets game tomorrow. At about 4AM an extra train came east through Newark with what looked like just about every train that would normally be sitting up in Port Morris.

gardendance wrote:

cruiser939 wrote: NJT spent no money "to build this incredible transit complex". The Port Authority footed the bill for this project.

cruiser939 you're splitting hairs. Whether NJT or Port Authority, it was still public money whose use or misuse influenced allocation of public money to other projects.

argh.... How many times do I have to inform the ill-informed public for the Port Authority... The Port Authority gets ZERO-NOTHING-GOOD-DAY-SIR from tax dollars. What they do get are grants/funding available from the FEDS and the regular money that they operate on comes from their fares from facilities (tunnels, bridges, PATH, airports), and rent from tenants (Hoboken Pier C/Waterfront, Port Newark/Elizabeth, Auto Marine Terminal). <-THAT'S how/where the Port Authority makes money. So please don't say it was tax money misappropriated. They are a bi-state agency present to further the growth of the port region.

From the Daily News..........

Blunder road: NJTransit chief must get Meadowlands rail service on track

Editorials

Saturday, September 26th 2009, 4:00 AM

The man in the photo is the railroad boss who is responsible for the nightmares suffered by thousands of music fans who made the mistake of relying on NJTransit to get to and from U2 concerts at the Meadowlands.

Richard Sarles is the line's executive director and a slow learner. In July, there was chaos when soccer fans showed up to use NJTransit's new service to the stadium for a match between the U.S. and Mexico. There were similar bottlenecks at Penn Station for the Giants' home opener.

The U2 fiasco was the worst. On two nights, there were too few ticket machines, too few agents and too few trains to handle 20,000 people - many of whom used to go by buses that had been eliminated. A half-hour trip turned into a three-hour jam-packed ordeal.

Next week, Bruce Springsteen has three Meadowlands dates. NJTransit has promised to do better by reinstituting bus service and encouraging people to use other transportation. This better work. If it doesn't, a head should roll. The one you see here.

From: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/200 ... track.html

Maybe somebody should take examples on how to operate this service similar to how LIRR and Metro-North run their Citi Field and Yankee Stadium stations with ticket collectors on the ground at all entrances.

It would help if the station was run-throgh for faster movement of trains but that is yet to come.

PullmanCo wrote:Probably too much at this point to call for direct trains leaving the Meadowlands bound for the Newark Division via the wye at West End and the Waterfront Connection. Only MSG's good enough to warrant special and "extra" trains, hmm...

So, your solution to the problem is to try and segregate from the thousands of people trying to leave the stadium at one time, only those passengers heading to points west on the NEC or the Coast Line? No doubt those trains would be sitting in the station at the Meadowlands for some time, taking up a station track while loading, causing mass confusion as nobody pays attention to where the train is going. The train would therefore be in the station much longer, waiting for only those passengers heading that way. This would further delay those passengers who are already complaining. The way things are now, it doesn't matter what train you get on, their all going to the same place. No confusion, no delays in waiting for a full load of people going to a specific line.

I don't know of any time in recent history when a concert or game at MSG has had special or "extra" trains. Those passengers are handled on regularly scheduled trains. Your also trying to compare a 12 track station (if we allow that the LIRR will be using 13-21, although NJT may be using more tracks) designed to route people to trains headed to different destinations, with announcements and numerous monitors to indicate where trains are going, to a 3 track station designed to move the most people out of the station as quickly as possible.

Of course, as always, Im open to any suggestion to improve the operation of the service. Im sure if a reasonable and workable solution comes up Crusier can pass it on (and hopefully claim a well deserved bonus).

airman00 wrote: NJT no doubt did the best they could, given the circumstances.

I'm reminded of that quote from The Rock{/i] about your best, winners, losers, and the prom queen.

What's wrong with just saying NJT blew it, and moving on to "how not to screw up in the future"? Though it looks like this bad PR will fix the problem for them - at this point, any rational person's going to drive. Wait three hours on a platform standing, or wait three hours sitting in air conditioned/heated comfort of your car. Tough choice, there.

Shea and Yankee Stadium have the advantage of being able to share the load with the Subway, remember.

Still, why can't NJT at least have busses ready to go, to take any overflow? They're New Jersey Transit, not New Jersey Rail and Bus Lines. Sure it's not a train, but after a concert, when you just want to get home, it's just as good or better - if it gets you there faster.

As far as Warrington Jr, whoops, I mean Sarles, why the hell is he still in that job?

Found a YouTube vid of the chaos of people waiting in Secaucus.

Nasadowsk wrote:Though it looks like this bad PR will fix the problem for them - at this point, any rational person's going to drive. Wait three hours on a platform standing, or wait three hours sitting in air conditioned/heated comfort of your car. Tough choice, there.

First of all MORE people took the train Thursday, after all the bad press, then Wednesday. Second, nobody was waiting 3 hours. At worst, some people had to wait 90 minutes. Speaking of that, however, from the time the crowd started to break up Thursday (which was actually before the end of the concert) til the time the last train left the Meadowlands with the last 40 passengers was less than 2 hours. While some people had to wait to get on a train to leave, at the time they were leaving on their train (even the last one), there was still heavy traffic and long delays leaving the parking lots.

According to DepartureVision, there is service every 5-10 minutes to the Meadowlands today. I'm surprised the terminal can take it!

http://dv.njtransit.com/mobile/tid-mobile.aspx?sid=TS

Amtrak7 wrote:According to DepartureVision, there is service every 5-10 minutes to the Meadowlands today. I'm surprised the terminal can take it!

The service normally runs on those headways.

OportRailfan wrote:

gardendance wrote:

cruiser939 wrote: NJT spent no money "to build this incredible transit complex". The Port Authority footed the bill for this project.

cruiser939 you're splitting hairs. Whether NJT or Port Authority, it was still public money whose use or misuse influenced allocation of public money to other projects.

argh.... How many times do I have to inform the ill-informed public for the Port Authority... The Port Authority gets ZERO-NOTHING-GOOD-DAY-SIR from tax dollars. What they do get are grants/funding available from the FEDS and the regular money that they operate on comes from their fares from facilities (tunnels, bridges, PATH, airports), and rent from tenants (Hoboken Pier C/Waterfront, Port Newark/Elizabeth, Auto Marine Terminal). <-THAT'S how/where the Port Authority makes money. So please don't say it was tax money misappropriated. They are a bi-state agency present to further the growth of the port region.

and where do these so-called "Feds" get THEIR money from?? are they selling trinkets downtown to raise cash, no. Hmmm.....oh wait thats right....FEDERAL TAXES ! Dummy.

OportRailfan, I'm not sure why you include my quote. I did not say tax dollars, I said public money. Regardless of whether it's a tax, user fee, toll, or rent on semi-public property, I still feel it's the public's coffers. And as I mentioned, its use, or misuse, influenced how the rest of the public pie got divided up, or withheld, for other transit projects.

Well, I'm still taking the train from Hoboken to see Springsteen. I saw no evidence of those crowds in Hoboken, but then I was through there about 5:30.

But the good thing is I am meeting the family at the stadium then driving home.

ScottTheNiceGuy wrote:Found a YouTube vid of the chaos of people waiting in Secaucus.

This was obviously taken during the couple minutes when we would periodically have to hold the flow of customers to G/H platform in order to close the doors on the trains. Those people almost definitely got on the next train through.