As we reported in June of last year NJ TRANSIT made major changes to bike on rail access policies. While the policy did address the issue of low level platform stations and expanded weekend bike capacity on select lines it also created weekend time new restrictions and further defined (and muddled) some holiday restrictions. The access policy is so complicated that conductors and NJ TRANSIT supervisors have a hard time correctly enforcing the policies.
In response we created a calendar page that allows viewers to look at the bicycle policy for the day they wish to travel. We also added the restrictions for the Hudson Bergen Light Rail and the Newark Subway. Today we added bike on rail time restrictions for PATH and SEPTA Regional Rail (for Trenton and West Trenton Stations).
The published bike on rail rules are not always a catch all for exceptions. For example PATH's restrictions do not account for holidays, it seems unlikely that operators will be kicking off cyclists on Christmas. On the opposite end Hudson Bergen Light Rail does not have bike restrictions on state holidays. Most alarmingly NJ TRANSIT has posted on their printed timetable that bicycles are not allowed on the "Last Business Days Before Holidays". The language used to describe the holiday restrictions on the website and the printed timetables are different . Our calendar assumes the worst, that you cannot bring your bikes on those days. We will be asking NJ TRANSIT to clarify this.
Consider yourselves lucky South Jersey, there are no time or holiday restrictions on the PATCO High Speed Line, RiverLINE and the Atlantic City Line. All the buses have bike racks or luggage bays.
1 comment:
The PATH's two-bikes-per-car restriction will be hell on the morning of Bike NYC in May. I'll see if I can convince them to add one car for bikes only.
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