Just what they said, it's the tunnels. I'm a frequent RVL rider, and the one-seat trips are currently scheduled only during off-peak times. Skipping that Newark Penn transfer is awesome...but alas, the tunnel limitations are what they are. And future-candidate Christy killed the chance of a new tunnel.

Great topic, but does it have anything to do with Jersey City?

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As posted above, it's not a Penn Station issue, never was, and likely never will be, even if that station is a shithole. It's the two nearly-100 year old tunnels under the Palisades and Hudson River that prevent any increase in peak-time traffic.

Unless it comes with another tunnel it doesn't help much. They might get a single seat ride, but the number of trains per hour doesn't go up without a new tunnel.

It's kind of like Yvonne's plan to add additional PATH stops.... Doesn't matter unless you have more capacity where the bottleneck is.

Could be nice to do in anticipation of another tunnel.

Here's some food for thought... The Raritan Valley Rail Coalition has been fighting for one stop service to Manhattan and has finally succeeded with some off-peak rides due to their new dual-fuel trains that can operate on diesel on the Raritan lines and electric in the tunnels.

The one big problem the Raritan Valley Line is facing is that Penn Station is at capacity. It simply can't fit anymore trains at peak periods, and this problem won't go away until they rebuild Penn Station in 20 years...

How about this. The new subway station at 11th/34th is converted so the Raritan Valley line terminates there. It will have a NJT to Subway transition the same way all of the path stations do. It appears there would be very minimal tunneling / connecting to make this a reality. And it would really put a boot in the ass of the floundering Hudson Yards project. If they want to suddenly give that project a boost, as well as the Raritan Valley a major economic boost, this seems like a brilliant way to do it.

Thoughts?