El,
Yup, I've been through it once. Although that was back during the soft opening, when they were doing weekends only. I haven't been back since they opened it full time.
It's a very nice station and I'm sure that it will see considerable use. However, in typical NJT fashion it's also way overbuilt. This station is strictly a transfer point; you can't get to this station (with one exception) except via another train. This means that the average person will spend no more than 15 minutes max, and most will only spend around 5 minutes.
Therefore, why did we need expensive marble floors, a huge customer service area, way overbuilt capacity wise bathrooms, and other things like that. Better to have saved the money for other NJT projects like double tracking the Pascack Valley line, electrifying the Raritan line, or maybe getting started on the Lackawanna Cutoff project.
Additionally NJT apparently needs to work on building their consists better. I've got a friend who rides the Bergen line to work every day. He told me that the very first day of service on Monday, the conductor made an announcement that anyone wishing to disembark at Secaucus Junction needed to walk up to one of the two front cars.
Now considering that this was a seven-car train, my friend thought that it was rather odd that they would only platform two cars. After all the station was built to handle 12 car trains. Well while my friend was not disembarking there, he got his answer when the train pulled into the station.
Apparently NJT in their infinite wisdom had build a consist where the last 5 cars on the train were all Comet I cars. Comet I cars don't have traps and therefore one can't get off the train at a high level platform. If one walks down the steps of the car, one finds the platform chest high. So you would then have to pull yourself up onto the platform. Additionally the doors are not high enough for a high level plat, so one would have to crawl thought he gap between the plat and the top of the door frame.
A 7 car train full of rush hour commuters and only two cars, both at the head end no less, are capable of being used at the station. Go figure. :blink: You've got to wonder who thought that one up.
My friend said that it took close to 10 minutes to detrain everyone at that stop who wanted to get off.
As for that Acela, I guess that reporter can't tell the difference between an Amtrak train and a NJT train. :unsure:
