First weekday commute since holiday sends NJ Transit riders back to buses, ferries and PATH trains

Well, a big test today for NJ Transit as the cutover for the Portal North Bridge braces for its first full morning commute. Here we go. News 12 New Jersey's Tony Caputo back in Hoboken this morning. And Tony, commuters there are going to have to find a different way to get into the city. Yeah, there's a few options as we talked about yesterday and we talked about last spring and these riders had dealt with. But today will be that first real test for this go-round of the work on the Portal North Bridge that is taking place already. Yesterday was a holiday, so today you should get that full crowd trying to get into the city. And Lauren, you're right. There's a variety of ways that they can do it. They did it back in the spring. They can get here to Hoboken and then take the PATH train. They can take a ferry. They can take a bus. Whatever works best for them. sometimes they mix it up a little bit. Riders were telling us yesterday this critical work is transferring the final track as well as Amtrak-owned wires and electrical systems that will help to finally put to rest that 116-year-old portal swing bridge that was often the cause of delays for riders. I believe that bridge has finally had its last go-round and that has been put to pasture, if you will. Now again, today is the first true business day for this modified schedule so the PATH or bus or ferry is the way to go for the next five weeks now we were out here yesterday and we did get some insight from riders on dealing with this any major adjustments you have to make yeah i have to get up an extra train the PATH train get another half an hour on travel two hours commute yeah i mean when you're adding time to your morning nobody's ever in a good mood with that one gentleman told us it's at least 30 additional minutes every morning and he's not even leaving the city so he's staying in Jersey and still has to deal with it now there will be other work going on over the course of these next five weeks as well on several lines North Jersey Coast Line Port Jervis Line and the Raritan Valley Line will all be getting maintenance work done at different times during these next five weeks So a lot going on. They hope to have it all completed by November 15th. That's the latest from Hoboken. Tony Caputo, News 12, New Jersey.