KEARNY, N.J. — The Northeast Corridor’s new Portal North Bridge was pressed into revenue service ahead of schedule today (Friday, March 13), as trains were rerouted onto the new structure because of problems with catenary poles on the 116-year-old Portal Bridge.
An Amtrak spokesman told NJ.com that trains were rerouted onto the new bridge beginning about 5:45 a.m. because catenary poles on the old bridge were found to be leaning. Amtrak said on its NEC Alerts social media feed that delays between New York and Philadelphia were expected for the remainder of the day, but that normal service was expected to resume by Saturday.
NJ Transit service between Newark and New York Penn Station was suspended at about 5 a.m. because of the issue, resuming about two hours later with limited service and delays of up to an hour, according to NJ Transit’s social media feed. Other transit agencies cross-honored NJ Transit tickets for much of the day; cross-honoring on PATH ended shortly after 7 p.m. ET. As of 9 p.m. ET, NJ Transit service remains limited and is subject to 30-minute delays.
State, federal, and local officials were the first to ride across the bridge on a ceremonial train on Thursday [see “Ceremonial train is first to cross …,” Trains.com, March 12, 2026. Regular operations across the bridge had been scheduled to begin on Sunday.
Service across the Portal Bridge has been limited since Feb. 15 to accommodate the cutover of the first of two tracks on the new, $2.3 billion bridge. The second track is scheduled to be placed in service this fall.
— To report news or errors, contact trainsnewswire@firecrown.com.
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Leaning? Looks bent to me, and what are those cables tugging at it?
“Began Friday” Huh? Big news says today (3/16). Or was it Thursday? Or is it “pick a date”?
The ceremonial inaugural train was not “regular service,” it was a “special,” photo opportunity expedition with bigwigs on board to mark the opening of the first track on the new bridge. Regular services was planned to begin today but, as the story relates, began Friday.
Once again, are BOTH tracks now in service on the new bridge? If not then how was it “pressed into service” when it already was in service, albeit on one track only?
The infrastructure of passenger railroading costs money. Not only to build but to keep in repair or replacement.
Way back in the 1960’s, advocates claimed that the railroads were faking their big losses on passenger trains. After 5/1/1971 with the onset of Amtrak came the realization that yes, these losses were real. And were destined to get bigger, not smaller.
I’m glad that they pressed it in the service immediately. If you have a cat tower down and problems with the electrical system in the track, you have to put the new section into service immediately. The new bridge is supposed to replace the old one which has problems with its lift mechanism and also problems with the catenary system. Hopefully soon this will be permanent as they demolish the old bridge.
Very confusing. One track opened for limited service on Feb. 15, or it didn’t. Thursday’s inaugural trip was the first, or it wasn’t. Regular service was to begin this Sunday (3/15), or not.
Trying to make sense of this, I’m assumng that yes, limited service (one track only) on the new bridge did begin on 2/15, while the old bridge continued to be used for the “other” traack.. However, a catenary problem on Friday forced Amtrak to run trains in both directions over the one track on the new bridge until repairs were made. Now, did I get that right?