Folks:
On Sunday, May 15,
weather permitting, I will lead a 9-mile bike ride from Newark Penn Station to the Tour de Montclair, starting at the transit-friendly time of 8:35 am from Peter Francisico Park and ending at Brookdale Park, which is the start point of the Tour de Montclair (registration at 9:00 am, ride at 10:oo am). Peter Francisco Park is the green triangle between Ferry Street, Edison Place and NJ Railroad Avenue, located immediately east of the railroad tracks, and just a few steps away from Newark Penn Station. Go to
maps.google.com and enter "Peter Francisco Park Newark NJ". The route I have chosen has relatively flat topography to avoid some nasty hills on nearby roads, and avoids high-speed traffic.
See
http://bikewalkmontclair.org/tour-de-montclair/ and
http://bikewalkmontclair.org/tour-de-montclair/2011-registration-process/ for more info on the Tour.
For those coming from out of town, an NJ Transit Northeast Corridor Train is scheduled to depart Trenton at 6:59 am and arrive at Newark Penn Station at 8:10 am; a North Jersey Coast Line Train is scheduled to depart Long Branch at 7:06 am and arrive at Newark Penn Station at 8:21 am; and a Raritan Valley Line Train is scheduled to depart Raritan at 7:18 am and arrive at Newark Penn Station at 8:15 am. These trains will make almost all of the local stops en route from Newark; consult a timetable or go to
http://www.njtransit.com/sf/sf_servlet.srv?hdnPageAction=TrainTo to find out departure times from your local station.
For those coming from NYC, NJ Transit trains depart New York Penn Station at 8:07 (train to Long Branch) and 8:14 (train to Trenton), arriving in Newark Penn Station at 8:25 and 8:32 respectively. PATH trains departing the World Trade Center at 7:30 & 8:05 am will arrive at Newark Penn Station at 7:52 & 8:27 am respectively. For other PATH schedules go to
http://www.panynj.gov/path/full-schedules.html.
Check out
http://www.njtransit.com/rg/rg_servlet.srv?hdnPageAction=BikeProgramTo for NJ Transit's bike policies for bikes aboard trains, buses and light rail vehicles, and
http://www.panynj.gov/path/bicycles.html for PATH's bike policies.
Leave the car at home and ride the train and bike to Montclair!
A Saturday evening (May 14) forecast of rain on Sunday morning (May 15) will cancel the bike ride from Penn Station to Montclair.
Gary Johnson