What's wrong with this picture? You could only see a train coming into Glen Ridge station Monday through Friday. And that -- the lack of weekend service on NJ Transit's Montclair Boonton line -- has spurred Montclair Mayor Jerry Fried into action.
"The time has come for this," says Fried. "Montclair Booton is the only line that doesn't go into the city on weekends." Fried is bringing his case to NJ Transit's regular board meeting in Newark tomorrow morning, and he'll be joined by Montclair BID executive director Tom Lonergan, along with a weekend business commuter from Montclair and a student at Montclair State.
The bicycling mayor has already gotten support from politicians and leaders up and down the tracks -- "everybody along the way" -- including Frank Lautenberg, Donald Payne, Bill Pascrell, Nia Gill and Montclair State president Susan Cole. "There's a tremendous groundswell of support," says Fried. "People really want to take public transportation into the city."
Longtime readers of Baristanet know that weekend train service is something like a vanishing horizon line. When we first started writing about it, weekend service was planned for 2006. That obviously never happened. When we asked about it this March, NJ Transit said they would be "taking another look" in a year or so.
"There's a lot of excuses," says Fried. For example, the excuse of scheduled repair work on the Bloomfield Ave. bridge at the Montclair-Glen Ridge border. If NJ Transit ran weekend service using diesel, rather than electricity, while bridge work was being done, Fried says, train service would not be a safety hazard to construction workers.
"It's an equity issue," he added. "We're sort of subsidizing all the other lines."
Which, from a public policy point of view, makes no sense at all. Says Fried: "Essex County is the place where we should have the best public transportation. We have the most density."
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Comments (42)
You go.... I think it's high time that we had train service on weekends!
How about good weekday service?
I guess he can't ride his bike through the Lincoln Tunnel.
Personally, I'd rather just drive into NYC on the weekends...If I go into the city, it's usually for a play, so if I park in Port Authority, I'm right there.
It's too bad that the mayors of Glen Ridge and Bloomfield aren't also coming along, since all three towns are affected by the lack of weekend service. I wonder if any effort was made to get them "on board"...?
Fried says the mayor of both Glen Ridge and Bloomfield are onboard, even if they're not attending. He is representing all elected officials with constituencies along the route.
Nellie,
If I go into NYC on the weekend, it's usually for something incredibly far off Broadway or a night club.
My options for either of those currently involve the choice of driving for upwards of an hour to find parking or shelling out $50+ to park in a garage (if I can even find one with space).
I sincerely hope he can make some headway on this issue! Also, isn't train service more ecological?
even scaled-back weekend service would be most welcome. I don't see how the fixing of shortcomings on day service could be affected by the addition of a few runs.
Dean Kammen's new invention, the PTB or personal teleportation booth will render this discussion moot. It's scheduled for release in May of 2158.
It would be fantastic to have weekend service! Even if they only ran a few trains - one or two around dinner time and one or two a bit later in the evening? If they have to run diesel so that the work can continue on the bridge, then so be it.
It would be nice to be able to enjoy the city and not worry about who has to drive home or where you're going to park.
I'm sure the conductors, train men, and engineers wouldn't mind a little OT. The lack of weekend service was a sore point 25 years ago. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it now. I bet we won't see if within 5 years, if ever.
I personally hate NYC. I've been working in NYC since 1982 and am so completely burned out by the place that the likelihood of me wanting to go there on weekends is about the same as an asteroid strike in downtown Montclair at 4:13PM this afternoon.
NYC, yeeeech! you can have it.. Weekend service, don't hold your breath.
MellonBrush2, have you considered anger-management classes? It sure is good to have a mayor who is actively promoting mass transit.
"My options for either of those currently involve the choice of driving for upwards of an hour to find parking or shelling out $50+ to park in a garage"
I dont know where you are parking, but youre getting ripped off. Theres no reason you should be paying more than $25.
Jerry: Let's: 1)determine just how much demand there is for weekend service. Is it really enough to justify an entire train? Alot of people will still opt for driving in, or even using the bus. 2) Doesn't giving residents the oppt'y to LEAVE Montclair on the weekend for amusement contradict our "shop local" agenda? There are plenty of restaurants, entertainment, and other venues already here in Town that could use our patronage 3)trains on weekends equals more traffic at crossings, noise, potential for accidents, since they can't use whistles, right?
It's about time someone took up the cause for weekend train service. It's long, long overdue. Thank you, Mayor Fried!!!!!
Fried can promote all he wants and this might endear him to some voters, but weekend service won't happen.
People have been asking for it for over 25 years. It's a mirage folks. Drive, hitchhike, take DeCamp, whatever. If you think weekend service is going to happen then I've got a bridge you might be interested in.
I'm sure all local citizens can now sleep better knowing that Montclair's spandex-clad, pedalling Mayor has discovered powered mass transit as an issue. And with allies like Gill, Pascrell, Cole, "Lautenburg" (sic, Debbie) and Payne, why, all doors will surely open...these are the modern political equivalent of baseball's "Murderers' Row," to be sure.
Dear Cranky:
I think if you took a poll, the majority of people would want weekend train service. We need to get w/ the times! I for one don't always want to drive into the city -- or worse -- use DeCamp.
Also, having weekend train service will actually promote more people coming TO Montclair to enjoy our restaurants, shops, etc. That would be a boon to the local economy. And so what about waiting a few extra minutes at a train crossing -- we do it during the week!
jimmy229oz,
I would love the location of some Village area parking lots or near the Javitz Center (for things like NYC Comi-con) that charge $25 for all day parking.
If we wanted to park in a Hoboken garage and take the PATH over, then that sounds right. But, parking in NYC proper for either combined shopping / clubbing days or convention going on weekends has never cost me less than $50.
Yup. Well, I'm in "The City" five days per week, but can't recall the last time I heard someone say they HAD to go and check out Baby Boom, Falafel Hut, or lakawanna Plaza!
"I would love the location of some Village area parking lots or near the Javitz Center (for things like NYC Comi-con) that charge $25 for all day parking."
All I know is that every lot from 14th to 33rd offers all day parking for $25.
Try the lot at 19th and 8th.
Apologies. 26th and 8th.
Well people's personal decisions for not needing weekend train service (thankfully totally irrelevant), snarky bike boy jokes and referencing of the historty of why 25 years of no service means resigning ourselves to no service ever aside, this is a good thing. The mayor needs to do more than attend one board meeting but let's hope it's a start of some pressure on NJT.
Weekend service would require simply running once an hour trains -- one in and one out. That has nothing to do with "improving daytime service". That's not likely to happen for 8 years when they get this second set of tunnels built.
I still want to know why Montclair can't drop the ridiculous whistle ban that is going to cost us 3/4 million dollars. Maybe if we stopped fighting NJT on pointless issues, they'd be willing to work with a town with 6 train stations and a demonstrated need for more service.
With my house and yard backing on to the train line, like so many of our Barista neighbors, I welcome the quiet of weekends.
I would love to find a middle ground with 3 trains in and 3 trains out. May I suggest:
Outbound (starting at MSU)
9am
4pm
9pm
Return times from Penn:
11am
6pm
1am
What d'ya think???
I'm with you, dxr[etc.].
If people want to drive in on weekends that's fine for them--but there are plenty of us who'd like to have regular weekend train service. I do actually have friends who'd come visit much more often from Manhattan/Brooklyn if there were better mass transit options.
And BP, sorry--but I don't think NJT will let you personally dictate the weekend schedule. 3 in/out would be too restrictive for most who use mass transit.
Also, what *is* the deal with all the snarkiness about Fried's interest in/commitment to cycling? Seems to me there are many in B'ville who'd benefit from more cycling and less driving--in many ways. If he's able to make that easier to do, I'll be a big fan.
I think we should just get Essex County Parks Dept to pave over the railroad tracks with enough asphalt to make 6" curbs.
It would be like an express lane into the city for Montclair residents! We could charge neighboring towns to use our lanes, and lower property taxes.
Not enough people use the train service on the weekends to make realistic. Having a "personal train service" so the yuppies can go see a play or a fave sushi place once every month doesn't cut it.
Take the bus like the rest of the real world..daddio^
"I would love the location of some Village area parking lots or near the Javitz Center"
There's a very hi capacity parking on 38 & 12th right across from the Javitz. It's staffed 24 hours per day. They'll pick up your car from anywhere It's only 185 per nite + 20 per day plus 110 convenience fee. It's called the tow yard. It's pulling cars in nonstop, 24/7/365.
I just experienced their hi level of service, they moved my car from a no standing well hidden signed zone in the village, very quickly and efficiently in no time at all.
The posters who above complain that "snarkiness" is directed against Montclair's mayor Fried for his interest in bicycle riding seem to miss the actual point of such comments.
Fried basically ran on a platform of increased bike riding and very little else. Since taking office he has proven woefully short on political accomplishment in any area other than, to date, the promotion of bicycle riding. Such a cause may indeed be considered worthy by the standards of this very website, and perhaps even by many Montclair liberals. But others would like to see Fried held to some higher, more generally valuable measure. I seem to recall an issue of local property taxes, for example...
As it stands now, he comes off as verging on buffoonery in his own pedaling way, an empty albeit tight-fitting Spandex outfit.
"Snarkiness," too, was never at all in short supply on this site, both from posters and the Baristas themselves, back when Ed Remsen actually served rather ably as Montclair's mayor. While Fried's relative kid glove treatment to date is rather curious, that he has suddenly chosen to cast himself as a champion of weekend train service notwithstanding. Really, folks are much happier with Fried? Now why do I doubt that?
I agree with cathar. I have nothing against biking, but I do think that the words Fried and Bike show up in the same sentence way too often.
MellonBrush2: Thanks for introducing me to Dean Kamen. After NY State refused him a wind turbine on his land, he created "North Dumpling Island" -- 3 acres in Long Island which he declared an independent nation, with a territorial limit of 200 inches. Known as "Lord Dumpling", he appointed friends and family to positions in the Dumpling cabinet, including Ministers of Brunch and Nepotism.
kpny1: Love the Montclair Expressway idea. Hordes of yuppies riding Kamen's Segway Personal Transporter into Manhattan for fusion food.
Let Secaucus eat cake!
DaKat, On what are you basing your comment? Have you ridden the Northeast Corridor line on a weekend ever? The trains, particularly at night are frequently used. And considering Montclair is home to a local college, I doubt very much that it would just be yuppies riding the train in.
The fact that this town doesn't have weekend train service and only provides the option of an unreliable bus service is really surprising. Especially since Montclair is home to so many former New Yorkers. One town over, in Clifton, they have both a reliable bus service as well as weekend train service.
It's great to see so many people enthusiastic about the campaign for weekend service, which, behind the headlines, is a grassroots effort. If you'd like to help out (e.g. with distributing the petition), or if you have any specific questions about the support Jerry has gotten from the other mayors and officials, please let me know!
George Musser
georgejr@musser.com
Yee-ha to weekend train service. YES YES YES.
If Mayor Fried gets this accomplished, I will vote for him next time. Absolutely.
Taking the BUS into NYC on weekends does NOT compare to taking the train. Anyone who's done it (taken the bus) with two young kids and stood in line for an hour at 6 PM waiting to possibly get on the next one out of the Port will know what I mean.
Also, what's with the "yuppie" allusions? Last time I heard this term was like 20 years ago. And even then it was typically bandied about by people who were, well, kinda tired.
If a yuppie is someone who's successful, well-educated, happy, and likes to use mass transit as often as possible, then I am one and proud of it.
Well, I dunno... I kind of think the words 'Nellie' and 'Bike Boy' show up in the same post too often. The joke (if one could call it that) is frayed and tired. Time to move on.
[And by the way, this action of Fried's doesn't appear to have anything to do with cycling, yet y'all have brought it around to that topic again. If you don't want to keep hearing about it, then fer Pete's sake stop bringing it up!]
Is it true that people bring their bikes on trains sometimes? QED: Mr. Mayor Bike Boy!
Back when I took the train to NYC, someone used to get on in Glen Ridge sometimes with a bike..Not Bike Boy, though, unless he looked a lot different then.
read this, there are many definitions of success. Perhaps other posters simply disagree with your interpretation of the word. Your own description of yourself thus sounds quite unnecessarily presumptive, at least to the rest of us groundlings "down here."
Katebirdrex, it is Montclair's mayor who has taken upon himself the mantle of "Mr. Bicycling," not posters. It is thus he who should have known better in the first place, who basically ran his entire mayoral campaign on the issue of seeing to it that Montclair is bicycle-friendly. (Ed Remsen was a politician of much more wide-ranging interests and, I believe, far greater accomplishments.) And can you in fact name three or four other local issues of genuine import in which he is known to have taken a direct, strong interest?
Ed Remsen was a HORRIBLE mayor and a petty, mean-spirited human being. Of course people were snarky.
While I don't expect you to understand, git2itgal, the "party line" promulgated here was that Ed Remsen was a bad mayor. That, however, does not necessarily make it so.
Similarly, the party line seemingly being offered up so far about Fried here is that his obsession with bicycling, to the virtual exclusion of much else he should be attending to first, makes him a worthy and admirable, even ecologically concerned, figure. That, too, does not make it necessarily so.
Fried has simply not been subjected yet to the at-least-weekly onslaught of items which, in effect, constantly questioned Remsen's core competence. (And you don't remember the photos of Remsen in bicycling clothes which of course made him look ridiculous, even though few males other than Lance Armstrong or Jackie Ickx will ever look comfortable in such garb?) I suggest, for starters, a Baristanet poll on how folks here think Fried is really doing. It'd certainly be of more relevance than yesterday's silly effort about umbrellas.
I would love to know the real reason for the lack of weekend service on the Boonton line.
Eventually they have to run out of excuses, no?
By my reckoning, NJT has enough excuses to last until March 2087.