NEW YORK — As of Monday, Aug. 19, Amtrak has added additional Northeast Corridor service to two stops in New Jersey.
New Brunswick and Princeton Junction, N.J., will gain weekday service, Delaware Business Now reports, with New Brunswick served by four southbound and two northbound trains, and Princeton Junction seeing five southbound and two northbound trains.
Most of the trains involved serve both communities, and all but one are Northeast Regional trains. Southbound train No. 111 (departing New York at 5:30 a.m.) will stop at New Brunswick at 5:55 a.m. and Princeton Junction at 6:18 a.m.; No. 89, the Palmetto (departing New York at 5:51 a.m.) stops at New Brunswick at 6:31 a.m. and Princeton Junction at 6:45 a.m.; No. 171, (departing New York at 12:35 p.m.), stops at New Brunswick at 1:20 p.m. and Princeton Junction at 1:35 p.m., and No. 177 (departing New York at 10:05) stops at New Brunswick at 10:46 p.m. and Princeton Junction at 11:01 p.m. Princeton Junction is also served by train No. 193, which departs New York at 5:27 p.m. and stops at Princeton Junction at 6:13 p.m.
Northbound, both stations will be served by train No. 148, which departs Washington, D.C., at 4:55 p.m. with stops in Princeton Junction at 7:35 p.m. and New Brunswick at 7:49 p.m.; and by No. 138, which departs Washington at 5:55 p.m., stopping in Princeton Junction at 8:35 p.m. and New Brunswick at 8:49 p.m.
Both stations already have extensive service by NJ Transit, but the Amtrak service can cut travel times to and from New York by more than a half-hour compared to the commuter railroad.
Completely unnecessary. There is an NJT every few minutes. These Princeton snobs can take NJT to Trenton and walk across the platform to be on Amtrak. They don’t even have to go upstairs.
One of the reasons that Concord Coach between Portland, ME and Boston is so popular is that it doesn’t make any stops between the two cities. As a result it can post a travel time that is over 1/2 hour faster than the Downeaster. The tradeoff is that people in the locations between Portland and Haverhill, MA have no access to the bus. They have to rely on the unreliable Downeaster. But those intermediate stops that the train makes serves to boost ridership on the train. There are always tradeoffs in life.
The trade off is making Amtrak trains into real locals, making travel times from main terminals longer. No one wants to be on an Amtrak train that makes 4-5 stops in NJ.
Jason, I imagine the service is oriented toward New Jersey people going to Washington DC. Of course, New Jersey to Boston is a decent market too.
I’ve always wondered why Amtrak hasn’t stopped at Edison and Elizabeth, two towns with significant population. Presumably those people can take NJ Trasnit to New Brunswick or Newark, but would Amtrak ridership increase with stops there?
I’ve also wondered about Amtrak stopping in Seacausus. Seems like a lot of potential there too, with the big parking area and easy connections to former Erie route trains heading to big population suburbs.
this service is needed because they are at peek operating times and New Jersey Transit and MARC can not take the volume the solution is more Amtrak trains to lower the volume.
It seems odd to have such an abundance of service southbound, but only two trains going northbound, and both northbound trains only in the evening.
It’s the classic trade off between faster trains and picking up passengers by providing more destinations. With cars and highways, we have both. Virtually all trips are non-stop from origin to destination as fast as the road network will allow. Unfortunately, trains just aren’t structured that way.
Christophe: I’ve also wondered why Amtrak can’t stop in Secaucus. The last time that Amtrak stopped in Secaucus was to pick up Senator Lautenberg’s body.
Charles – I am not wrong. Certainly there are people who would like a direct trip from those stations, but they are far outnumbered by the people from the big cities who want minimal stops between. NJ Transit serves as a feeder with same platform transfer to the through Amtrak trains.
JEFFREY – You’re wrong. There are people who want to be on an Amtrak train that makes local stops. Namely, the people going to or from those local stops.