More pain on the train: NJ Transit rail riders face new month of hell

Another NJ Transit month of hell is here for rail riders.

Beleaguered train commuters Sunday began what is expected to be five weeks of severe delays and adjustments as construction ramps up on a replacement to a century-old bridge — a project that has continually brought headaches to customers.

The latest pain is set to stretch until Nov. 15 as crews move the final piece of track onto the new Portal North Bridge over the Hackensack River between Kearny and Secaucus, officials said.

The $2.3 billion dollar project is expected to temporarily jam up the pivotal Northeast Corridor crossing and prompt cancellations and schedule changes on nearly every NJ Transit train line.

Riders on the Morris & Essex, Gladstone Branch and Montclair-Boonton lines will no longer see their weekday trains terminate in New York’s Penn Station and will instead be rerouted to Hoboken as part of the “major temporary service disruptions,” the transit agency warned.

The company is cross-honoring NJ Transit tickets on its buses and PATH and ferry stations in Hoboken, but officials advised commuters who can work from home to “consider doing so to the greatest extent possible during this time period.”

North Jersey Coast, Port Jervis and Raritan Valley line passengers also need to rely on buses because of unrelated track and bridge work, according to officials.

Amtrak riders will be affected as the railroad reduces the frequency of its trains headed to New York Penn Station from the south and west because of the construction, too.

Only NJ Transit customers on the Atlantic City Line, which does not serve Manhattan, are left unaffected by the project.

Officials say the new fixed span will eventually reduce the chance for delays because it will allow large ships to pass underneath without have to open for them like the old drawbridge, erected in 1910.

The bridge replacement is part of the politically contentious and behind schedule $17 billion Gateway Project, which aims to modernize infrastructure between Newark and the city.