Owned by New Jersey Transit Tracks 3 Passengers (Q1 FY2013) 195,711 | Line(s) Meadowlands Rail Line Disabled access Yes Opened 26 July 2009 | |
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Location 50 State Route 120
East Rutherford, New Jersey Address East Rutherford, NJ 07073, USA Owner NJ Transit Rail Operations Platforms in use 2 (1 island platform, 1 side platform) Similar Secaucus Junction, Port Jervis, Gladstone Station, Morristown station, Highland Avenue station | ||
Meadowlands Sports Complex, or Meadowlands, 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 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.
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.