Meadowlands (NJT station)

Meadowlands
Location	50 State Route 120 East Rutherford, New Jersey
Coordinates
Owned by	New Jersey Transit
Line(s)
Platforms	2 (1 island platform, 1 side platform)
Tracks	3
Construction
Disabled access	Yes
History
Opened	July 26, 2009
Traffic
Passengers (Q1 FY2013)	195,711
Services
Preceding station   NJ Transit Rail   Following station Terminus Meadowlands Rail Line Secaucus Junction toward Hoboken

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

The station is situated equidistant between Meadowlands Racetrack, American Dream Meadowlands (a commercial and entertainment complex currently under construction), 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.

NJ Transit operates the Meadowlands Rail Line to the Meadowlands Station for stadium events when 50,000 or more attendees are expected. The station is expected to operate daily once the American Dream Meadowlands complex is completed.

Station layout

1F	-	Crossover between platforms
G Ground/ Platform level	Side platform, doors will open on the right
	Eastbound	Meadowlands Rail Line toward Hoboken (Secaucus Junction) →
	Eastbound	Meadowlands Rail Line toward Hoboken (Secaucus Junction) →
	Island platform, doors will open on the left, right
	Eastbound	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. 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.

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.

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.

External links

• NJT rail station information page for Meadowlands