Meadowlands | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Meadowlands station platforms | |||||||||||
| General information | |||||||||||
| Other names | Meadowlands Sports Complex | ||||||||||
| Location | 50State Route 120 East Rutherford, New Jersey | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 40°48′46″N74°04′19″W / 40.81278°N 74.07194°W /40.81278; -74.07194 | ||||||||||
| Owned by | New Jersey Transit | ||||||||||
| Platforms | 1island platform, 1side platform | ||||||||||
| Tracks | 3 | ||||||||||
| Construction | |||||||||||
| Structure type | At-grade | ||||||||||
| Accessible | Yes | ||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||
| Opened | July 26, 2009 (2009-07-26) | ||||||||||
| Passengers | |||||||||||
| Q1 FY2013 | 195,711[1] | ||||||||||
| Services | |||||||||||
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Meadowlands station (also known asMeadowlands Sports Complex station) is aNew Jersey Transit train station that is the western terminus for theMeadowlands Rail Line located at theMeadowlands Sports Complex inEast Rutherford, New Jersey.[2]
The station is situated equidistant betweenMeadowlands Racetrack,Meadowlands Arena,American Dream andMetLife Stadium to which there is a direct aerial connection. There is oneisland platform and oneside platform each approximately 950 feet (290 m) in length and have an enclosed passenger overpass, which provides an accessible connection.[2]
NJ Transit operates the BetMGM Meadowlands Rail Line to the station for stadium events when 50,000 or more attendees are expected. Despite the opening ofAmerican Dream in 2019, the station is not yet operating daily.[3]NJ Transit says daily service may begin "once the rail system is resilient enough that doing so won’t adversely affect NJ Transit commuters".[4]
On September 14, 2022, NJ Transit entered into a naming rights agreement withBetMGM, a sports betting company owned byMGM Resorts International, to rename the rail line for $3 million over the next 3 years.[5]
The Meadowlands station opened on July 20, 2009, when a group of dignitaries including New Jersey GovernorJon Corzine, New York Giants ownerJohn Mara, New York Jets ownerWoody Johnson, and players from the Giants and Jets rode out on a special train from Hoboken for a ribbon-cutting ceremony.[6] The station officially opened to the public on July 26, 2009, for thechampionship game of theCONCACAF Gold Cup tournament between theUnited States andMexico. As many as 6,000 of the 80,000 attendees at the soccer game arrived at the complex using the station.[7]
In August 2009, New Jersey assemblymenFrederick Scalera andGary Schaer advocated using the train station as apark and ride facility with weekday rush-hour service to help alleviate traffic congestion on the roadways leading toNew York City, but theNew Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority indicated this could create conflicts on evenings when other events are scheduled, such as those at theIzod Center.[8]
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, 2009, when 20,000 attendees at aU2 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.[9][10]
