M&E service adjustments

http://www.njtransit.com/sa/sa_servlet. ... entId=9362

Rescheduling of the 5:54 p.m. Gladstone departure to 6:10 p.m., to allow for fewer stops and to reduce crowding.
Rescheduling of the 6:08 Dover departure to 5:48 p.m. in order to use Multi-level cars for increased ridership at Brick Church, South Orange and Summit stations.
Addition of new Midtown Direct Train 6355, departing New York at 6:20 p.m. and operating to Summit.
Rescheduling of Train 6655, the current 6:20 p.m. departure to express from New York to Millburn.
From Hoboken, Gladstone Trains 437, 439 and 441 will operate earlier. This will coordinate with changes and additions to Midtown Direct service as well as to maintain existing connections to rescheduled Morristown and Montclair Line trains at Newark Broad Street and Summit stations.



This is quite a change, no? Biggest since I've been riding the Gladstone trains since 2005, mostly to Hoboken. My usual train home goes from 6:13pm to 5:59pm. That's not just a couple of minutes, that's a quarter of an hour earlier. Never seen anything that big of a change on a peak time express train.

I wish the LIRR would do this more often. Rush hour schedules haven't changed much for decades, and ridership patterns have shifted.

Keevan wrote:This is quite a change, no? Biggest since I've been riding the Gladstone trains since 2005, mostly to Hoboken. My usual train home goes from 6:13pm to 5:59pm. That's not just a couple of minutes, that's a quarter of an hour earlier. Never seen anything that big of a change on a peak time express train.

Oh dear god, the humanity!

I guess you'll just have to decide whether to take the train 14 minutes earlier or 6 minutes later. This is a monumental moment...

wots hater wrote:

Keevan wrote:This is quite a change, no? Biggest since I've been riding the Gladstone trains since 2005, mostly to Hoboken. My usual train home goes from 6:13pm to 5:59pm. That's not just a couple of minutes, that's a quarter of an hour earlier. Never seen anything that big of a change on a peak time express train.

Oh dear god, the humanity!

I guess you'll just have to decide whether to take the train 14 minutes earlier or 6 minutes later. This is a monumental moment...

Could make a great deal of difference in terms of connections to/from the terminal station in question.

There used to be a 5:03 PM local and a 5:14 express departing Morristown not long ago (I think one of them went to Hoboken and one to NYC, don't remember which was which). Then they consolidated the 2 into 1 express to NYC, at 5:03. This means that now I can no longer leave work on time and catch the express train, instead having to take the 5:36 local. That's over 30 minutes difference and then when you realize I'm connecting to an NEC train and I just missed the last super express out of Newark Penn, it's much worse. Then again, I suppose few people do something like that often enough for people to care.

I see the train was moved even earlier to 5:01 and became a local. Nice job, guys, the only full reverse-peak express of the evening pulled.

zakharin wrote:There used to be a 5:03 PM local and a 5:14 express departing Morristown not long ago (I think one of them went to Hoboken and one to NYC, don't remember which was which). Then they consolidated the 2 into 1 express to NYC, at 5:03. This means that now I can no longer leave work on time and catch the express train, instead having to take the 5:36 local. That's over 30 minutes difference and then when you realize I'm connecting to an NEC train and I just missed the last super express out of Newark Penn, it's much worse. Then again, I suppose few people do something like that often enough for people to care.

South Orange Commuters ARE NOT HAPPY about these changes and understandably so.
http://livingston.patch.com/articles/ir ... ey-transit

The only reasoning I could make out of this new schedule change is NJ Transit most likely assumed that 6435's (5:54 Gladstone Exp) passengers would use the revised 6653 (6:08 Dover express) which was moved to 5:48 in the new schedule and absorbed 6435's stopping pattern between Summit and NYC before making all stops to Dover. The 6:08 uses a 9-car Multi-Level set and offers 1,224 seats which was more needed in the 5:48 slot as opposed to the 6:08 slot (ML replacing the single level for the Inner Zone Midtown Direct stops at BC,SO and SMT). This also resulted in 6651 (originally the 5:48 express to Maplewood-Millburn-Short Hills then all stops Chatham thru Dover being moved to 5:41) this train also uses a 9-car Multi-Level Set. It looks like Maplewood lucked out in this situation and S.Orange not so much.

In the new schedule, 6435 becomes 6437 (6:10 Gladstone Express) stopping at Maplewood Station only before continuing on to the Gladstone Branch, I am assuming Maplewood is the only stop being made because of an equipment swap? I THINK, don't quote me on this, the new 6:10 Gladstone Express uses an 8-car single level set while the 5:19 now has the 9-car set. Even though Maplewood lost an express train in the late 5'o clock hour they now have one in the early 6'o clock hour that operates nonstop to that station. South Orange commuters however, who can't make the new 5:48 departure now must wait until 6:19 FOR A LOCAL. The new 6355 (6:19 Local) makes ALL STOPS to South Orange which understandably sucks. Even those who couldn't make the 5:54 were able to make 6655 (the 6:20) which also was express to South Orange (with an intermediate stop at Brick Church).This means people who were taking the 5:54 express and getting home at 6:23 or even the original 6:20 express getting to South Orange around 6:50 are now taking a local train that is getting them home at 7:00. Meanwhile all the other "Inner Zone" Midtown Direct Stations still have express service during this time. The revised 6655 (6:21 Dover Departure) actually gets to Millburn before the 6:19 gets to South Orange. With that being said, I could actually understand why the 5:54 commuters are a little upset.

Next schedule revision, this will most likely change, which may/or may not be as soon as the Kearney Connector is restored from Hurricane Sandy since major schedule changes will be happening anyway.

zakharin wrote:I see the train was moved even earlier to 5:01 and became a local. Nice job, guys, the only full reverse-peak express of the evening pulled.

I used to take this train. It got into Newark Broad at 5:38, sufficient to catch either the light rail or a bus to Newark Penn to make the 6PM NEC train to Trenton. But now I see there's a Midtown Direct train from Montclair that departs Newark Broad at 5:36. With that, there's probably little reason to have another Midtown Direct train stop there 2 minutes later, so maybe that's why it was made into a local, now getting to Broad at 5:46.

That doesn't help those on the M&E. They could keep it an express train and route it to Hoboken, no? Then you could change at Newark if you were going to New York (or take the PATH). Frankly, I am tired of the "if you don't commute to NYC (or to a lesser extent Philly) you don't matter" attitude in NJ. Even if my situation is highly atypical, I'm sure there are folks who work somewhere on the M&E warranting decent reverse peak service. The trains I take are pretty full after all. And they fill up even more at Summit and stay that way at least until Newark, so I am sure express trains would be welcome.

Of course after the hurricane, there is zero public transportation for me anyway barring going to NYC via bus and then back out via another bus or NYP, which is not exactly a good idea right now.

Chiming in here a little late: the change to the Gladstone MidTOWN train provides a definite service improvement for the Gladstone Branch; a rare catering to the customers there. It seems this already crowded train has become too crowded. Of course, when service finally resumes on the branch, we will see how ridership does.