Rockland commuters upset over temporary cancellation of Pascack Valley express train

SPRING VALLEY - It’s a typical Monday morning.

Judy Marc gets up and gets ready for work. She drops her daughter off at school. And then she heads to the Spring Valley train station.

But that routine is going to have to change for the Spring Valley resident when the NJ Transit cuts its later express train on the Pascack Valley line in June.

"There's no other express," Marc said while waiting for the morning express at the station. "They're all local. And they're only an hour and a half apart. So it doesn't really help."

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Marc, who commutes regularly on the 7:59 a.m. express train from Spring Valley, said she is looking at taking an earlier train and finding someone to drop her daughter off at school in the morning or switching to the bus.

The change in service, which will also eliminate one of the line's two evening express trains, will start June 4 and is expected to last until early 2019, officials said. The other train affected is the 7:20 p.m. from Hoboken, New Jersey.

The Rockland express trains stop at Spring Valley, Nanuet and Pearl River in Rockland then Secaucus Junction and Hoboken, skipping 13 local stations in New Jersey. The express takes about 56 minutes from Spring Valley to Hoboken — 20 minutes less than the local.

The agency is installing the federally mandated, life-saving train safety technology known as positive train control, which can stop or slow down a train to prevent crashes.

The deadline to install the technology is Dec. 31, and any railroad that misses the deadline will not be able to use the national railroad's rights-of-way, according to Amtrak officials. This includes the NJ Transit's Northeast Corridor line, which takes passengers from Secaucus Junction into Penn Station.

Nanuet resident Sandra McGloster said Monday morning that it was good that they were adding safety technology to the trains, but that the problems that have hindered her commute need to be addressed.

"It's an internal problem," she suggested. "They probably need to hire more staff. The train needs to be on time. They're constantly canceling the rides."

NJ Transit has been dealing with a range of issues, from financial problems to an engineer shortage to installing the safety technology.

McGloster said this change is just another hurdle in her commute.

"Now I would have to start taking the local all the way and it's outrageous," she said. "We pay the same amount of money and now there's no express."

Rockland County lies within the Metropolitan Transportation Authority territory and pays taxes to the agency, which then pays NJ Transit to provide train service. A 2012 study commissioned by Rockland found that the county pays $42 million more to the MTA than it gets back in service.

"We're paying for it and we're not even getting compensated for it," Marc said. She said the price should be reduced or a semi-express train should take the place of the express in order to help commuters get to work on time.

Rockland has five train stations on two lines, the Pascack Valley and the Port Jervis lines. Neither provides a direct train into Manhattan and requires a change in either Secaucus Junction or Hoboken.

"It's ridiculous," McGloster said. "This is a very important line for Rockland County. I think it's an outrage."

Twitter: @ReporterRox

Reporter Matt Coyne contributed to this story.