Fate of late night Rockland train to be decided this week

Khurram Saeed, ksaeed@lohud.com12:28 p.m. EDT July 12, 2015

NJ Transit needs to close a $56 million budget gap.

Rockland residents will likely find out this week if they’ll still be able to take a late night Pascack Valley Line train on most days to get home from New York City.

On Wednesday, the New Jersey Transit board is expected to decide whether to eliminate the 12:45 a.m. train out of Hoboken, N.J. (1601), which runs Monday through Friday. That would leave those who work or stay late in the city scrambling to catch the 10:42 p.m. departure from Hoboken.

But people who like to spend Friday or Saturday nights in the city can take some consolation: Train 2101, which departs Hoboken at 12:45 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, is not part of the package of potential service cuts, meaning they can return to stations in Pearl River, Nanuet and Spring Valley.

If approved, NJ Transit spokeswoman Nancy Snyder said the service would end in September, while a nine percent fare increase would take effect in October. Most train riders in Rockland, except those who travel from Suffern, wouldn’t be impacted by the proposed increase since they pay their fares to Metro-North Railroad.

NJ Transit needs to close a $56 million budget gap. Eliminating Train 1601 — which serves about 40 daily riders — would save it $420,000 this fiscal year. Roughly half of those riders get off at one of three stations in Rockland, Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman Aaron Donovan said.

https://www.lohud.com/story/news/transit/2015/07/12/rockland-late-train-vote/30047985/