It isn't a tunnel capacity issue as the Midtown Direct trains that originate at MSU at present already have thier own slots. All I am suggesting is simply using those same trains and those same tunnel slots and starting them out at Port Morris Yard or wherever. That eliminates a diesel shuttle trainset and at the same time offers Midtown Direct service to anyone foolhardy enough to use it west of Montclair.
I agree that catenary would be nice, but with diesel territory ending way out at Hackettstown and with that odd spur to Andover coming on line (one day) as diesel, it might make sense just to go with dual modes. At the very least, wire should be strung up to Port Morris. The yard out there should be rebuilt to handle all of the trains presently in the little yard at Dover and also up at Great Notch. Lake Hopatcong and Mount Arlington Park and ride should be expanded exponentially as having electric service at those stations would allow a no transfer, one seat ride to Midtown Manhattan.
But then we're back to the original point of this thread: Would NJ Transit actually run a train fast enough from Mount Arlington to actually compete with the bus service presently availale? I have my doubts.
Forgive an adventure into Foamerville... Wouldn't it be nice to see the old Lower Boonton, the original Erie and Greenwood Lake from Montclair east to Hoboken, rebuilt and used as a sort of bypass for non Midtown Direct trains originating in WORM territory? While not ideal, trains from far out on the system could run all necessary stops west of Montclair, do at stop at MSU so people could transfer to Midtown trains if needs be, and then run no stops to Hoboken. All of the Montclair stops and stops east could be eliminated and a goodly amount of time could be saved without interfering with trains on the old Lackawanna Montclair Branch. It would never happen, of course, and chances are those trains would end up stopping at the stations that were abandoned when the Montclair Connection opened, thus eliminating most of the time savings anyway. Like I said, just a quick trip into Foamerville.
Be well. Do good work.
Semperfidelis