KEARNY, N.J. — The Northeast Corridor’s new Portal North Bridge was pressed into revenue service ahead of schedule today (Friday, March 13), as trains were rerouted onto the new structure because of problems with catenary poles on the 116-year-old Portal Bridge.
An Amtrak spokesman told NJ.com that trains were rerouted onto the new bridge beginning about 5:45 a.m. because catenary poles on the old bridge were found to be leaning. Amtrak said on its NEC Alerts social media feed that delays between New York and Philadelphia were expected for the remainder of the day, but that normal service was expected to resume by Saturday.
NJ Transit service between Newark and New York Penn Station was suspended at about 5 a.m. because of the issue, resuming about two hours later with limited service and delays of up to an hour, according to NJ Transit’s social media feed. Other transit agencies cross-honored NJ Transit tickets for much of the day; cross-honoring on PATH ended shortly after 7 p.m. ET. As of 9 p.m. ET, NJ Transit service remains limited and is subject to 30-minute delays.
State, federal, and local officials were the first to ride across the bridge on a ceremonial train on Thursday [see “Ceremonial train is first to cross …,” Trains.com, March 12, 2026. Regular operations across the bridge had been scheduled to begin on Sunday.
Service across the Portal Bridge has been limited since Feb. 15 to accommodate the cutover of the first of two tracks on the new, $2.3 billion bridge. The second track is scheduled to be placed in service this fall.
— To report news or errors, contact trainsnewswire@firecrown.com.
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