Well, today was the big day. Weekend service started on the Montclair/Boonton Line to Bay Street in Montclair. I rode the 2nd westbound train of the day to Bay Street and back to Hoboken. NJ Transit seems to have goofed, whether by accident or design, because the eastbound trains from Montclair are all scheduled to arrive at Broad Street Newark within only a minute or two of the Mid-Town Direct connection to NY. The result was 30 + passengers headed for NY were told to take the train to Hoboken and take the PATH train, because our train missed the connection and passengers would have had to wait an hour at Broad Street, Newark for the next NY train. The crew of our Montclair train seemed to know after our second eastbound stop that the connection would be missed.
I'm not pointing any fingers or making acusations, but these people paid extra to buy a through ticket to NY, only to have to pay again to ride the PATH train. An easy fix would be to leave Montclar earlier (there is about a 20 minute dwell time between the westbound arrival and the same trainset heading back east.) All I know is that there were many upset passengers who deserved better on this first day of this highly publicized service. It was not good first impression. I don't know how the rest of the day went. I am just stating the facts for my particular train.
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