NEWARK, N.J. — NJ Transit will suspend all service on Sunday, Jan. 25, because of a severe weather forecast for the agency’s service area. In a press release, NJ Transit said it was taking the step “out of an abundance of caution for the safety of customers and employees,” and in alignment with Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s declaration of a state of emergency.
New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority is also planning service changes.
Sherrill’s declaration, effective at 5 p.m. today (Saturday, Jan. 24), includes a restriction on travel by commercial vehicles beginning at 12:01 a.m. on Sunday.
Bus, light rail, and Access Link service system will be suspended as of 4 a.m. Rail service will operate on a regular Sunday schedule until 2 p.m., at which time it will also be suspended. Rail passengers should plan on reaching their final destination by 2 p.m. The NJ Transit website will be updated later today with information on the last train on each rail line.
Information on Monday service will be determined during the day on Sunday.
More information is available at this advisory.
For the MTA, the Long Island Rail Road will run on a modified Sunday schedule, with no service between Ronkonkoma and Greenport, and half-hourly service on the Babylon Branch. Some previous service changes for maintenance have been canceled. The Metro-North Railroad will operate hourly service on the Hudson, Harlem, and New Haven lines, and regular weekend service on the New Canaan, Danbury, and Waterbury branches.
Current plans call for Monday call for trains to operate on a Saturday schedule with additional rush-hour trains. Check the MTA Train Time appo for details.
Subway service has also had some planned maintenance work canceled, and some express trains will make local stops this weekend. More information is available here.
— To report news or errors, contact trainsnewswire@firecrown.com.
Having lived in the Snow Belt all my life (including in Massachusetts where snow is measured in feet, not inches), a few thoughts.
Forecast for New Jersey tomorrow is lots of snow, but not particularly strong wind or cold. So, snow will be the main problem in New Jersey, not dangerous cold or wind as in, say, North Dakota or northern Minnesota. Each increment of snow lessens the capacity of the roads (which are gridlocked on a good day), and lessens the average performance of a train, so something’s got to give. The something that’s got to give is on a spectrum, schoolchildren first, emergency responders and health care workers last, everyone else on the spectrum in between. The question before us now is where do the railroads come in on this spectrum.
I can see reduced train service. With amended schedules now available on line in real time (as opposed to depending on timetables printed on paper months before), reduced service certainly is doable. But no service?