The century-old Portal Bridge is nearing retirement as Amtrak and NJ TRANSIT prepare to transfer the final track of rail service to the new Portal North Bridge over the Hackensack River.
TLDR
1. Amtrak and NJ TRANSIT will begin transferring the final track to the new Portal North Bridge on Oct. 9; regular schedules are expected to return Nov. 15, subject to safety testing.
2. Every NJ TRANSIT rail line except the Atlantic City Rail Line will have temporary schedule changes, including weekday Midtown Direct diversions to Hoboken.
3. The new fixed bridge will retire the 116-year-old swing bridge and eliminate a persistent source of Northeast Corridor delays; demolition of the old structure is scheduled for 2027.
Cutover work on the Portal North Bridge is scheduled to begin October 9 and will require approximately five weeks of temporary schedule changes across nearly the entire NJ TRANSIT rail system. If the work and safety testing remain on schedule, regular service is expected to resume November 15 with all trains traveling over the new bridge.
The transition will mark the end of passenger service on the 116-year-old Portal Bridge, a movable swing bridge that has long been a source of delays for trains traveling between New Jersey and New York. The replacement is one of the first major pieces of the broader Gateway Program to enter service.
Five weeks of schedule changes
Temporary NJ TRANSIT schedules will take effect Sunday, October 11. Every rail line except the Atlantic City Rail Line will experience some combination of changed departure times, altered stopping patterns, train consolidations or cancellations.
The largest changes will affect weekday Midtown Direct service. Trains on the Morris & Essex Lines, Gladstone Branch and Montclair-Boonton Line will be diverted to Hoboken rather than operating directly to New York Penn Station. Riders will be able to continue to Midtown using enhanced NY Waterway ferry service, the No. 126 bus or PATH; cross-honoring will be available under the temporary service plan.
Weekend Midtown Direct trains will continue operating to and from New York Penn Station. Raritan Valley Line one-seat rides to and from New York will end at Newark Penn Station throughout the cutover period.
NJ TRANSIT and Amtrak said the schedule was designed to maintain service on every rail line while providing enough access for crews to safely transfer the bridge’s rail, electrical and communications systems. Riders are being advised to review the temporary timetable for their line and allow additional travel time.
Additional work planned during service reductions
The agencies are using the reduced train traffic to complete other maintenance projects that would otherwise require separate disruptions.
On the North Jersey Coast Line, work on the movable bridge at Brielle will replace rail service with buses between Bay Head and Manasquan for two weeks beginning Oct. 11. On the Port Jervis Line, eight weekday midday trains will be replaced by buses between Suffern and Port Jervis from Oct. 11 through Nov. 14. Buses will also replace Raritan Valley Line trains between Cranford and Newark on Nov. 7 while Conrail replaces track.
Amtrak plans to complete eight additional maintenance projects across the Northeast Corridor in six states and Washington, D.C., during the same reduced-service period.
Replacing a persistent Northeast Corridor bottleneck
The original Portal Bridge opened in 1910 and must rotate open to allow boats to pass along the Hackensack River. Its age and movable design have made it a recurring point of failure on the Northeast Corridor; when the bridge does not properly lock back into position after an opening, trains cannot cross until crews resolve the problem.
The new Portal North Bridge is a two-track, high-level fixed span with 50 feet of clearance above the river, twice the clearance of the old bridge. Marine traffic will be able to pass beneath it without stopping trains.
One track on the new bridge entered passenger service March 16 following the first cutover earlier this year. The second cutover will move the remaining trains off the old bridge and place both tracks of the new structure into full operation.
The immediate benefit is reliability. Removing the movable bridge eliminates one of the corridor’s best-known mechanical failure points and reduces conflicts between rail and river traffic. The new structure is also designed for faster train speeds and greater operational resilience.
The Gateway Program’s longer-term plan calls for a future Portal South Bridge beside it; together, the two bridges would carry four tracks and match planned capacity improvements between Newark and New York.
A $1.56 billion construction contract
The Portal North Bridge project covers 2.44 miles of the Northeast Corridor and includes retaining walls, deep foundations, concrete piers, structural steel spans and new rail systems. NJ TRANSIT awarded the approximately $1.56 billion construction contract to the Skanska/Traylor Bros PNB Joint Venture in 2021, making it the largest construction award in the agency’s history at the time.
The project is funded primarily by the U.S. Department of Transportation, New Jersey and Amtrak. A federal Full Funding Grant Agreement provided $766.5 million toward construction.
The new bridge is built from approximately 23,000 tons of steel and 219,000 cubic yards of concrete. Construction also required more than 35 miles of pipe piles, over three miles of drilled shafts and nearly a mile of retaining walls.
After the final track enters service, work will continue around the corridor and on removal of the old structure. Dismantling of the original Portal Bridge is scheduled for 2027. For riders, the final cutover will mean several weeks of inconvenience before one of the Northeast Corridor’s oldest and least reliable structures leaves service permanently.
Sources:
Amtrak. (2026, March 12). NJ TRANSIT and Amtrak prepare to open first track on new Portal North Bridge. https://media.amtrak.com/2026/03/nj-transit-and-amtrak-prepare-to-open-first-track-on-new-portal-north-bridge/
Amtrak. (2026, September 17). Portal North Bridge enters final phase of construction as work begins to put final track into service. https://media.amtrak.com/2026/09/portal-north-bridge-enters-final-phase-of-construction-as-work-begins-to-put-final-track-into-service/
Gateway Development Commission. (n.d.). The Gateway Program. https://www.gatewayprogram.org/aboutgateway.html
NJ TRANSIT. (2026, September 17). Portal North Bridge enters final phase of construction as work begins to put final track into service. https://www.njtransit.com/press-releases/portal-north-bridge-enters-final-phase-construction-work-begins-put-final-track
