After the Hoboken Weeks: What the New Portal Bridge Fixes for Summit Commuters, and What It Leaves to the Trains
October 29, 2026
October 29, 2026
"Have you seen the new stairs at the train station? They are finally complete," Mayor Elizabeth Fagan said at the Oct. 20 Common Council meeting, as TAPinto Summit reported. The renovated staircase at Summit station had reopened the week before, after more than a year and a half closed.
The stairs came back just as weekday Midtown Direct riders stopped using them to reach Penn Station. From Oct. 11 through Saturday, Nov. 14, every weekday Midtown Direct train on the Morris & Essex Lines runs to Hoboken instead. NJ Transit expects regular schedules to return on Sunday, Nov. 15, once safety testing is complete.
This is Summit's second Hoboken detour of the year, and it is meant to be the last one for the Portal Bridge. When it ends, the 1910 swing span over the Hackensack River stops carrying trains. That removes one well-known source of delay. The breakdowns Summit riders sat through in September came from somewhere else, and that fix runs on a much longer clock.
The Portal Bridge entered revenue service in November 1910. According to Amtrak's project page, it carries more than 450 Amtrak and NJ Transit trains and 200,000 passengers a day. The bridge swings open for boats on the river. Amtrak calls it "a major bottleneck and source of delay, particularly when the aging bridge malfunctions during opening and closing for maritime traffic."
The replacement is being finished in two steps. The first cutover started Feb. 15, 2026, with the same weekday diversion to Hoboken. NJ Transit had planned for regular schedules to return March 15, and the work wrapped up early in March, putting the first track on the new Portal North Bridge into service. The current cutover moves the second and final track. NJ Transit says that once the work is done, "all rail traffic to and from New York City will use the new bridge" and the original bridge "will be permanently removed from service." Amtrak expects the whole project to wrap up in 2027, after the old bridge is demolished.
The new bridge rises 50 feet over the river, twice the old clearance, so boats can pass under it without stopping trains. A span that never opens can never get stuck open, and that is the change a Summit commuter will feel.
The NJ Transit service advisory and its Portal cutover page set the ticket rules by day and by ticket type. Here is how they apply to a trip from Summit:
| Your trip | What NJ Transit says to buy | Getting to Midtown |
|---|---|---|
| Weekday, one-way | A ticket to Hoboken | PATH, ferry or 126 bus from Hoboken |
| Weekday, monthly or weekly pass | A Hoboken pass, via Newark Broad Street | PATH, ferry or 126 bus from Hoboken |
| Weekday, FLEXPASS | A Hoboken FLEXPASS | PATH, ferry or 126 bus from Hoboken |
| Weekend, one-way | A ticket to Penn Station; Hoboken one-ways are not accepted | Midtown Direct to Penn, on modified schedules |
| Weekend, Hoboken pass or FLEXPASS | Your existing Hoboken pass | Midtown Direct to Penn |
The cross-honoring is narrower than many riders assume. A Hoboken ticket or pass works on PATH only between Hoboken and 33rd Street, on NY Waterway only between Hoboken Terminal and West 39th Street, and on the No. 126 bus to the Port Authority Bus Terminal, including Academy buses running that route. If you board PATH at any other station, you pay the regular PATH fare. If you take an NJ Transit bus somewhere other than the destination printed on your ticket, you may owe an additional fare.
November passes have one useful wrinkle. NJ Transit says Hoboken monthly and weekly passes bought for the cutover are valid to and from Penn Station from Nov. 15 through Nov. 30. A November pass bought for the detour still works after regular service returns. NJ Transit also says that buying a Hoboken ticket and finishing by PATH or ferry can save riders up to 25% per trip, depending on the starting station.
These are NJ Transit's rules and they can change while the work is underway, so check the live cutover page before you buy a pass.
On Tuesday, Oct. 13, the first full workday after the Columbus Day holiday, NJ.com reported that most displaced riders chose PATH. Crowds spilled into the underground PATH station at Hoboken Terminal, and staff checked NJ Transit tickets at dedicated entrances to keep people moving. PATH ran trains every six minutes instead of the usual eight.
NJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri was at Hoboken that morning. "Today I think we're back to normal ridership," he told NJ.com. "The (126) buses are full and the trains are full to capacity." The agency had placed 100 customer assistance ambassadors across Hoboken, Penn Station and Secaucus Junction and added 60 bus trips to New York. Kolluri also said "people learned from the first cutover," which made this one feel "a little better."
NJ Transit Customer Advocate Franck Beaumin gave NJ.com the most practical advice of the day. Based on what he saw, the easiest times to travel are before 7:30 a.m. or after 9 a.m. The Port Authority's PATH plan matches that. It scheduled six-minute peak service between Hoboken and 33rd Street from 7 to 9:30 a.m. and warned of crowding at Hoboken.
Beaumin said riders keep asking whether the work could end early, and he noted that the first cutover finished early in March. NJ Transit's published date for regular schedules is still Nov. 15. Amtrak's own pages list slightly different outage dates, so the cutover page is the one to trust for your train. The squeeze is not only at Hoboken. NJ.com reported that this fall's work requires a 50% cut in NJ Transit trains between Newark and Secaucus and a 10% cut systemwide.
Before the diversion started, Summit was already frustrated with its commute for reasons that had nothing to do with the river crossing. TAPinto Summit's Oct. 6 report covered the Sept. 16 failure of Morris & Essex Train No. 6641. It had a mechanical problem in Kearny and needed a rescue engine to pull it to Newark Broad Street. Passengers described sitting without air conditioning, and NJ Transit apologized, saying the train was moving again in just over an hour.
Assemblyman Andrew Macurdy, whose 21st District includes Summit and who rides NJ Transit to work in New York himself, told TAPinto Summit that many recent problems "are mechanical and related to deferred maintenance of the train cars." He added that "last year, 4,450 trains were canceled -- the most in five years -- and in 2026 we are on pace for more." His priorities are getting replacement cars into service faster and keeping spare parts on hand.
NJ Transit's answer to TAPinto Summit spells out the gap. It has 374 new multilevel rail cars on order, with the first expected in passenger service "in the coming months," and it expects a fully modernized fleet by 2031. The agency projects the new cars will travel about 400,000 miles between mechanical failures. Its cars built in the 1970s manage 30,000 to 40,000 miles.
So the two fixes run on different timelines. All train traffic is scheduled to move onto the new bridge in November. The fleet is a five-year program. NJ Transit promises "improved reliability and fewer bridge-related delays" once Portal North carries all traffic, but it has published no figure for how much faster or more reliable a Morris & Essex trip will be. Macurdy welcomed the stairs reopening but said "the project should not have taken as long as it did," and that he is "committed to working with the agency to find systemic improvements." Fagan said in September that she was "hopeful that the upcoming NJ Transit maintenance will help to alleviate long-term delays and cancellations."
Some of the next few weeks happen on the platform and some happen downtown:
If testing finishes on schedule, Monday, Nov. 16 is the first weekday Midtown Direct trains from Summit are expected to run to Penn Station again, with every train crossing on the new bridge.
How a train ride fits into a household's week comes up in almost every move I help with. That includes which station works best, how much a detour like this one matters, and what's being built for the years ahead. If you're weighing those questions in Summit or any of the nearby commuter towns, Jillian Nolan is glad to go through them with you. Let's Connect.
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