Denville commuters are one week away from getting their one-seat weekday ride to Manhattan back. NJ Transit says regular rail schedules are expected to resume on Sunday, Nov. 15, 2026, ending five weeks of temporary timetables tied to Amtrak’s work on the new Portal North Bridge. The agency notes the return is subject to the completion of safety testing.
Since Sunday, Oct. 11, every weekday Midtown Direct train on the Morris & Essex Lines, the Gladstone Branch and the Montclair-Boonton Line has been diverted to Hoboken instead of New York Penn Station. Denville station is served by both the Morristown Line and the Montclair-Boonton Line, so local riders have been changing in Hoboken all fall, as we reported when the diversion was announced. Weekend Midtown Direct trains have kept running to and from Penn Station.
Until the switch back, NJ Transit’s service advisory tells weekday riders to buy tickets and passes to Hoboken rather than New York. Those tickets are cross-honored on NY Waterway ferries between Hoboken Terminal and West 39th Street, on NJ Transit’s No. 126 bus to the Port Authority Bus Terminal, and on PATH between Hoboken and 33rd Street.
On weekends, Hoboken monthly or weekly passes and FlexPass holders can ride to Penn Station, but one-way tickets must be bought with a Penn Station destination.
The five-week schedule change, which affected every NJ Transit rail line except the Atlantic City Rail Line, was needed so Amtrak could move the second of the bridge’s two tracks into service over the Hackensack River.
Riders can check updated timetables at njtransit.com/portalcutover and sign up for My Transit Alerts for any change to the Nov. 15 date. For parking and permit details at the Denville lot, see our Denville train station guide.
Photo: Briar via Pexels
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