Are you planning to ride the inaugural train from Baristaville to NYC or Hoboken? We want to hear about it. Send your reactions, anecdotes, photos, or how you used this new service and why to tips@baristanet.com."
Hard to believe it's finallly happening, but it's an answer to my prayers: weekend train service connecting Montclair to Newark, New York City and Hoboken starts tomorrow, November 8. Trains depart from Montclair's Bay St. station, serving the Glen Ridge, Bloomfield and Watsessing Avenue stations.
Bay Street trains depart every two hours from 7:05 a.m. to 9:05 p.m., with an extra run at 12:05 a.m. For the return to Montclair, the first train pushes off from New York's Penn Station at 6:11 a.m. and every two hours until 8:11 p.m.; late night trains at 11:11 p.m. and at 1:34 a.m.
The trip to Penn Station is 35 minutes and the trip back 39 minutes. Trains end in Hoboken; to get to NY's Penn Station, transfer at Newark Broad Street.
Passengers holding weekly and monthly tickets will not have to pay a fare aboard the weekend trains. Others will pay the same fares as on weekdays. On weekends two children under 12 years old can travel free with every adult.
To encourage use of weekend trains, Montclair Parking Authority is allowing free parking at the Bay Street station parking deck on Saturdays and Sundays through Dec. 31.
New Jersey Transit and Montclair are planning to expand service to additional Montclair stations, depending on utilization.
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Comments (18)
Excuse me? Free parking until Dec. 31st? Parking is FREE at all the Montclair stations after 6pm and on weekends so why should Bay Street have it only until Dec. 31st? The same with Maplewood and Milburn -- free on weekends -- all the time. Real encouragement for riding the weekend trains does not include squeezing even more money from potential riders.
How else is Montclair going to pay for the new BOE expenditures.
I guess you haven't heard that the chess club is going to have a track coach come talk to them for 6 months for a cool $50,000
A 1:34 AM weekend return train?
Hold me.
YAY weekend train service. We've been waiting for you for SO long!
Amen indeed!
Let me see if I got this: a trip every two hours (and every 3 hours after 8pm) to/from Newark or Hoboken that requires a transfer to another line and extends no further than Bay St. Sounds to me like this is pretty much a set-up for failure.
All it will take is for a person to miss the train once, and a subsequent wait of two hours for the next train, and that will pretty much kill any attraction for this service. Unfortunately, DeCamp (as bad as it is), or driving to a more frequent train or bus line, is still the better option for most people.
I'm glad that NJ Transit is moving in the right direction, but I have serious doubts that there will be enough demand to support this very limited service.
Glad to see weekend service!
BOO! More noise in my yard, not just the blasting horns of the week, but now weekends too... can't wait.
Boooo Hisssss Boooo Late at Night (Weekdays) you May see 5 Or 6 People On a Nine car train What a wast of fuel and money..... Now one weekends you will see about the same I hope they Run One car and it should be electric. I hope they do not run those ecchhhkkk. diesel's belching black smoke... peace a quite weekends.... may be gone forever......
yay me love trains. but where baristaville be? Starbucks? when will train go from montclair? can you tell me?
Quit your whining. I've never seen so many adults act like little brats.
there's a 10 minute layover at newark. it seems they WANT to get people away from hoboken, like there's a crime to cover up.
The complainers clearly don't pay $154 a month for train passes that only give them five days of service. For years, I've had to drive to South Orange to catch the train, wasting plenty of time and gas.
Truth be told, if NJ Transit buses ran in Montclair, I'd be happy to use them. Basically, Montclair NJ Transit users have just been punished for reasons that are still unclear to me. We deserve the same trains and buses as everyone else.
This is a great move, and can't wait to start taking the train to the city every weekend instead of driving in.
Whenever I hear someone in Montclair complaining about losing their peace and quiet to trains on weekends I want to ask... "Did you somehow miss the six train stations during your loop through town with the realtor?"
I've already run up against the limitations of the weekend service. I was hosting a friend from out of town who, after dinner and a movie, needed to get into the city Sunday evening. The 9:05pm from Bay St. was too soon and with the next (and last)train not leaving until after midnight, I ended up having to drop him off at Newark Penn Station:(
I took the train yesterday with my daughter ( Sunday the 8th ) at about 1:00. It came right on time and was almost full... lots of kids. At Newark we got off the train and walked across the platform right on to the connecting train.It seemed too good to be true, and it was. Five minutes outside of Newark we stopped because the bridge was up. Fifteen minutes later we were still sitting there because it turns out the bridge is stuck in the open position. So we back up, go into Hoboken ( a mob scene ), transfer to the PATH and arrive at Penn Station at 2:40. An hour and a half. If I'm not mistaken you can go from London to Paris in an hour and a half.
Tip: Have a schedule with you so can make the connection in an expeditious manner coming back...
I was on the first train at 7:05 and had to board from the Hackettstown side as it was on the wrong track. Got to Newark Broad Street to switch. A group of us waited patiently when a worker let us know that we had missed our connection because our train got in too late.
Headed to the Newark Light Rail but it was not running due to construction, but a shuttle bus was there and quickly got the 2 of us that looked for it and found it to Newark Penn Station. There I felt like I had made a mistake getting on a PATH train as they were running every 30 minutes due to weekend work or something, without checking first for a NJT train on another line going to NYC, which may have been gotten there faster. The PATH seemed slow, with a crowded & long wait to switch at Journal Square.
So, instead of arriving early enough to grab a bite and chill, I had to run a few blocks to my destination near NY Penn Station and arrived late at 9:02, winded and hungry.
But all worked out as I was there to learn how to invent new possibilities for my life that may include not trusting non-direct, weekend service. I'm glad I didn't put my 12-year old on it alone like I have with direct, weekday service.
Bad start, NJT!
me check map. there am no such place as baristaville in new jersey. only at starbucks. you make mistake.