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  • Parking at Secaucus

  • Discussion related to New Jersey Transit rail and light rail operations.
Discussion related to New Jersey Transit rail and light rail operations.

Moderators: lensovet, Kaback9, nick11a

 #1200831  by zakharin
 
How full is the parking lot at Secaucus these days. Am I safe parking there in the middle of the day or would it be completely full?

Thanks
 #1201114  by JCGUY
 
The lot gets completely full. It really should be expanded rather dramatically. The company running it has raised prices and eliminated discounts, the lot is a huge success. People park in spaces that aren't actually parking spaces, and you may have to do the shopping mall at Christmastime parking thing where you follow a returning passenger back to his car. I don't know if the crowds are a bit less in the summer, however. You may luck out if you come in late enough by catching some turnover with people returning back to the lot on their ways out, but it is one the dicey side. You may also have a bit better luck if the lot is full by using the valet service they have.
 #1201117  by ACeInTheHole
 
DO NOT Valet the car... I can thunk of several forums where people who were valets have told stories about how they abused cars.
 #1203068  by Amtrak7
 
Looking on Google Maps: is that lot south of New County Rd and east of the Main Line tracks the only parking there is at SEC?! Seems awful little, especially for a new station.
 #1203087  by oknazevad
 
Yes. And it wasn't even there when the station opened.

But that's because Secaucus is principally a transfer station, meant to allow passengers coming from outlying stations to change their destination, not to have people drive up to the station and hop on a train there.
 #1203091  by ACeInTheHole
 
Lirr.. Go do a quick google search.. Valet horror stories... Just because you dont notice anything wrong with the car doesnt mean squat... Park it yourself and keep the keys in your pocket. Trust me.
 #1207934  by zakharin
 
Thanks. I ended up parking there with valet. No problems with the car. No problems with the parking space. Major problem with the price, but I guess you can't have everything
 #1209341  by drewh
 
I actually use Secaucus quite a bit with the valet because it's really hard to get parking in Metuchen or MetroPark at rush hours without allotting a ton of extra time and can't trust a cab to come either without calling 40 mins before. Shame we don't have more and easier parking at local stations or for that matter convenient reliable feeder service.
 #1209363  by F40
 
At Metuchen, you can use the large parking lot on New St. Although it can get crowded, I have always been able to find a spot there. It's at most a 5 minute walk to the station itself.

At Metropark, I have always been able to park in the overflow lot at the very least. I am not sure nowadays, though, how fast it fills up.
 #1209595  by ryanov
 
I'm glad it's really expensive. I really wish the lot were never built; use your local station and bus feeder service.
 #1209746  by millerm277
 
Why exactly would you wish the lot was never built? It's being used, which means there is demand for it that the local stations/bus feeder services AREN'T meeting as well, especially that people are willing to take the Turnpike (toll road) AND pay a high price for the lot to park in it, to avoid whatever other alternative they had (if any). The lot is full, there's a massive highway for access to it so no local traffic issues and there's plenty of space to expand it, get paving.

Most people don't really like making connections between commuter services (hence the 1-seat ride often talked about). NJ Transit schedules also don't have high frequency outside of the busiest hours, especially for a reverse-commute or other commute that isn't suburb - NYC/waterfront and back. The beauty of Secaucus, is frequency. You don't have to have a set schedule or know anything, you can show up, park, and a train to take you to NYP will be there shortly.

PATH is a pain to directly access for anyone not coming in on I-280, and exacerbates urban traffic problems, as you can only get to it (by car) by driving to downtown Newark, or the overloaded Skyway/Turnpike Extension, and then driving in downtown JC, which many people do every day.
 #1209837  by ryanov
 
It's bad for the environment, it creates traffic on roads where there's an alternative that people are simply to lazy to use, it lowers ridership on services that people use, which put them in jeopardy, and on and on. Getting people out of their cars is a good thing for everyone. Enticements for people to drive as close to NY as possible and THEN get out of their cars benefits no one, except maybe the remaining people driving into NYC. I really don't have a lot of sympathy for not wanting to look at the schedule. Use your local station, suck it up and look at the schedule: problem solved. I'm really not hoping for the world to be set up around people who don't like "knowing anything." We've got enough of that already.
 #1210240  by zakharin
 
I can't believe some of the self-righteousness on display here. I have been a pedestrian, and not by choice, for many years, so I took the train from my local station (Morristown at the time my original question was posted) because I had to. Now that I can drive, it's like a whole new world is open to me. Do you realize that off-peak trains on the M&E are all locals, and that they run every hour at best? The problem is not "looking at the schedule". The problem is having to build in the time between the train's arrival at NYP and my actually scheduled appointment, on top of an extra 20-30 minutes of travel time. During midday (which this was) there are not a lot of cars on the road. I can get to Secaucus in a relatively short period of time. I'm sorry, but as much of a railroad supporter as I am, I will not accommodate the train schedule. The train schedule is supposed to accommodate me, or I don't use it. And I'm lucky I was going to NYC where at least I can get some level of service from somewhere. That is not where I usually need to go. It's to Cherry Hill. And I've done it by train before, but it involves the M&E, the Newark Light Rail, the NEC, and the River LINE. It takes only 90 minutes to drive there.

I understand that most of the ridership these trains get is from people commuting to NYC (which is probably better than driving if you have any train service to NYC nearby), but people will do what is faster and more convenient. And taking away parking at SEC is not a step in the right direction. And please don't start telling me about limited slots into NYP and lack of ridership in south Jersey or during off-peak or reverse-peak hours. I know all these things, but if the railroad (or a particular line) doesn't serve *me* then *I* will not use it. And please don't criticize me for that.