(rshsdepot) Harmon Cove, NJ

["Bernie Wagenblast" <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

From Wednesday's edition of The Record.

Bernie Wagenblast
Transportation Communications Newsletter
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/transport-communications/

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Secaucus Transfer's first customers;
Sneak peak is result of Harmon Cove station closure


SECAUCUS - Commuters who use the Harmon Cove train station will be the first
members of the riding public to set foot inside the new $450 million
Secaucus Transfer Station.As part of a track realignment, NJ Transit is
closing the Harmon Cove train station on Monday and launching a free bus
service to shuttle residents of the Harmon Cove Towers and Townhouses to the
regional rail hub, which is still under construction.

Free shuttle service also will be provided to commuters from the north end
of town who use the Harmon Cove station.

The station, a track-level platform with shelters that opened in 1989, will
be permanently closed.Beginning this weekend, NJ Transit will reroute trains
from its Bergen County Line over to the Main Line on new "connector" tracks
installed just north of Secaucus, said Ken Miller, a spokesman for the state
transit agency.

The 200 daily commuters from Secaucus will have access to a section of the
new station.

However, other areas remain blocked off, awaiting finishing touches, Miller
said Tuesday.

All trains on the Main, Bergen, Pascack Valley, and Port Jervis lines will
eventually be linked at the transfer station to those serving the Northeast
Corridor and North Jersey Coast lines.

For now, only the Bergen Line trains that passed through Harmon Cove will be
stopping at the new station, Miller said. The Bergen Line ends in Hoboken.

The transfer station's long-awaited opening is scheduled for the fall. NJ
Transit plans to announce at its board meeting Thursday when it will begin
weekend service.

Full service is expected by the end of the year, after a replacement PATH
station opens at the site of the destroyed World Trade Center.

Four NJ Transit buses have been provided to the Hoboken-based Academy Bus
Tours for the free shuttle service, which will run every 15 to 30 minutes
during rush hour, Miller said.

The buses will stop seven days a week in front of the towers, the town
houses, and at designated stops along Meadowlands Parkway and Seaview Drive.

During the midday and evenings, buses will run every 60 to 90 minutes, also
timed to the schedule of the Bergen Line trains, Miller said.

Another free NJ Transit bus, operated by the town, will take residents
between the North Ward and the transfer station between 5:45 a.m. and 8 p.m.
on weekdays.

Work on the transfer station, the most complicated project ever undertaken
by NJ Transit, began in March 1995 and was supposed to be completed by 2001.

The Sept. 11 attack and financial problems at Amtrak - a partner in the
venture - have been blamed for the delays.

The station is expected to serve 16,500 riders by 2010, and take 8,700
vehicles off the roads.

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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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