Main/Bergen Line Ridership

It seems that especially on weekends, ridership on the Main/Bergen Lines has grown in recent months. When they first started the expanded schedule, many of the trains used 1 or 2 cars for passengers. For the past few weeks I've noticed eastbound trains on Saturday and Sunday out of Suffern from 4:30 on are regularly using 3 cars. Even the 10:16 out of Suffern last night had 3 cars full of passengers. NJT has to be impressed with the ridership on weekends.

SecaucusJunction wrote:It seems that especially on weekends, ridership on the Main/Bergen Lines has grown in recent months. When they first started the expanded schedule, many of the trains used 1 or 2 cars for passengers. For the past few weeks I've noticed eastbound trains on Saturday and Sunday out of Suffern from 4:30 on are regularly using 3 cars. Even the 10:16 out of Suffern last night had 3 cars full of passengers. NJT has to be impressed with the ridership on weekends.

Well that's good to hear. Secaucus Junction will probably make ridership grow and grow in the course of the upcoming years. As NJT tweaks it and more and more people utilize it and as our state becomes more populate, it will get more and more use as will the M/B/P and Port Jervis Lines.

Look what they did to cause this to happen! They added HOURLY trains on the weekend, where before there had been 2-hour intervals, or WORSE on Sunday. "Provide the service and they will come."

Now, where in the hell is the weekday service to match it? That one has stumped me for quite awhile. I went to Hoboken in the evening a few weeks ago... my friend is closest to Radburn station, but it made more sense for him to drive to Glen Rock, because the last train, a full hour later than the train earlier, goes via the Main Line instead of Bergen. If they only add one train, it should at LEAST be another train running down the Bergen at the same time. And the problem with the Main/Bergen is sometimes you want to leave on the Main and come back on the Bergen because of the way the schedule gaps work out. For me, this works, because I am equidistant from the Main and the Bergen, but for most, how does one decide where to leave their car?

ryanov wrote:Look what they did to cause this to happen! They added HOURLY trains on the weekend, where before there had been 2-hour intervals, or WORSE on Sunday. "Provide the service and they will come."

Now, where in the hell is the weekday service to match it? That one has stumped me for quite awhile. I went to Hoboken in the evening a few weeks ago... my friend is closest to Radburn station, but it made more sense for him to drive to Glen Rock, because the last train, a full hour later than the train earlier, goes via the Main Line instead of Bergen. If they only add one train, it should at LEAST be another train running down the Bergen at the same time. And the problem with the Main/Bergen is sometimes you want to leave on the Main and come back on the Bergen because of the way the schedule gaps work out. For me, this works, because I am equidistant from the Main and the Bergen, but for most, how does one decide where to leave their car?

Good point. When I railfanned to Ridgewood 2 months back (to Ridgewood via Main/from Ridgewood back to Hoboken via Bergen) I was surprised by the lack of trains (and the plethora of them on weekends.) It is really a really dumb thing. The folks in Ridgewood, Ho-Ho-Kus, Waldwick, Allendale, Ramsey, Mahway and Suffern get hourly service but the rest get the cheap service.

i was coming back from new york (nec to main via secaucus) last wednesday and i noticed 30 people waiting for the outbound main line train at secaucus. this was around 1100pm.
so, it seems that more people are using sec and/or the bergen/main line.