A Nightmare for New Jersey Transit Riders

Published: Friday, May 29, 2026

by Elijah Weintraub

FAIRVIEW, N.J. - Just days before the World Cup kicks off, New Jersey Transit experienced a nightmare of delays and cancellations within two days.   
 
On Thursday, May 28, service was suspended on the Northeast Corridor and North Jersey Coast Line due to a trespasser strike near Elizabeth, N.J. When service resumed a few hours later, there were still 60-minute delays and skipped stops on Northeast Corridor trains, all affecting the commuters' evening commute.   
 
If you thought that was bad enough, think again. Overnight on Friday, May 29, an Amtrak work train caught fire in one of the Hudson River tunnels, leaving service suspended into and out of Penn Station, New York. Amtrak released a post on social media advising riders, “due to unforeseen track and signal maintenance resulting from the now extinguished fire, all service traveling south of New York Penn Station is temporarily suspended. The suspension is anticipated to be in place until noon at a minimum.” For New Jersey Transit riders there options are to take a bus or a PATH train, or take the train to Hoboken and figure out an alternative from there, like taking the ferry over.  
 
Riders are extremely frustrated and will be even more so when the World Cup arrives, as there will be no service four hours before and three hours after the World Cup to allow travel to the game from New York’s Penn Station. This could also affect Knicks fans, as if the series goes to 6 games, the 6th game would fall on a FIFA gameday at MetLife, meaning New Jersey Transit is out as an option to getting to the Knicks game.   

For further information contact Elijah Weintraub at elijah.weintraub@student.shu.edu 

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