Meadowlands station

Meadowlands Sports Complex, or Meadowlands, is a New Jersey Transit train station that is the western terminus for the Meadowlands Rail Line located at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey.[2]

Meadowlands
Location50 State Route 120
East Rutherford, New Jersey
Coordinates40°48′46″N 74°04′19″W
Owned byNew Jersey Transit
Platforms2 (1 island platform, 1 side platform)
Tracks3
Construction
Disabled accessYes
History
OpenedJuly 26, 2009
Passengers
Q1 FY2013195,711[1]
Services
Preceding station NJ Transit Following station
Terminus Meadowlands Rail Line Secaucus Junction
toward Hoboken

The station is situated equidistant between Meadowlands Racetrack, Meadowlands Arena, American Dream and MetLife Stadium to which there is a direct aerial connection. There is one island platform and one side platform each approximately 950 feet (290 m) in length and have an enclosed passenger overpass, which provides an accessible connection.[2]

NJ Transit operates the Meadowlands Rail Line to the station for stadium events when 50,000 or more attendees are expected. Despite the opening of American Dream in 2019, the station is not yet operating daily.[3] NJ Transit says daily service may begin "once the rail system is resilient enough that doing so won’t adversely affect NJ Transit commuters".[4]

Station layout
M Mezzanine Crossover between platforms
G Street level Exit/entrance
Side platform
Track 1      Meadowlands Rail Line toward Hoboken (Secaucus Junction) →
Track 2      Meadowlands Rail Line toward Hoboken (Secaucus Junction) →
Island platform
Track 3      Meadowlands Rail Line toward Hoboken (Secaucus Junction) →

Opening

The Meadowlands station opened on July 20, 2009 when a group of dignitaries including New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, New York Giants owner John Mara, New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, and players from the Giants and Jets rode out on a special train from Hoboken for a ribbon-cutting ceremony.[5] The station officially opened to the public on July 26, 2009 for the championship game of the CONCACAF Gold Cup tournament between the United States and Mexico. As many as 6,000 of the 80,000 attendees at the soccer game arrived at the complex using the station.[6]

In August 2009, New Jersey assemblymen Frederick Scalera and Gary Schaer advocated using the train station as a park and ride facility with weekday rush-hour service to help alleviate traffic congestion on the roadways leading to New York City, but the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority indicated this could create conflicts on evenings when other events are scheduled, such as those at the Izod Center.[7]

Although the new train service worked well for the first two regular season NFL games—when approximately 6,000-7,000 football fans arrived by rail—the first problems occurred on September 23, 2011, when 20,000 attendees at a U2 concert crammed onto trains. Some concertgoers had to wait up to two hours to board trains after the show, as the rail line can only accommodate a maximum capacity of 10,000 people per hour.[8][9]

References
  1. "QUARTERLY RIDERSHIP TRENDS ANALYSIS" (PDF). New Jersey Transit. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 27, 2012. Retrieved January 4, 2013.
  2. "Meadowlands Rail Station". New Jersey Transit. January 2008. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
  3. "American Dream mall will open Oct. 25, officials say". 2019-07-03. Archived from the original on 2019-07-03. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  4. Alex, Dan; er. "NJ Transit bus service to American Dream mega mall at Meadowlands". New Jersey 101.5. Retrieved 2019-09-09.
  5. Brennan, John (July 20, 2009). "Meadowlands rail service rolls out". The Record. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
  6. Clunn, Nick (July 26, 2009). "Thousands hop on board new Meadowlands rail service". The Record. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
  7. Dela Cruz, Christopher (August 19, 2009). "Lawmakers advocate using Meadowlands train service for park-and-ride". The Star-Ledger. Retrieved 2010-01-09.
  8. Mascarenhas, Rohan (September 24, 2009). "20K fans throng Meadowlands trains for U2 concert". The Star-Ledger. Retrieved 2009-09-25.
  9. "Meadowlands rails prove all the rage". The Star-Ledger. September 25, 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-25.
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