A few blocks before the Holland Tunnel Toll Plaza, a couple of police cars raced by the bus. And then a couple of more police cars raced by. They were all heading toward the tunnel...
After not moving for about 15 minutes, I started checking Twitter to see if anyone was reporting anything. I noticed a few tweets from drivers in the tunnel saying that all traffic had stopped. And then I noticed a tweet about gun shots being fired. And then there were a few tweets about the Holland Tunnel being shut down due to police activity. That's when I went up to the bis driver to ask him if he could let off the bus now since we were right by the Grove Street NJ Transit PATH station. He said he couldn't do that at that point. He then received the official word from his dispatcher that the Holland Tunnel was closed and that he was supposed to head up to the Lincoln Tunnel... On a Friday afternoon....
He made a few turns down some side streets trying to work his way up to the Lincoln Tunnel. Needless to say, due to the traffic at the Holland Tunnel, most of the traffic in Jersey City and Hoboken was backed up too. I noticed that we were now near another PATH station... "Can I get out here?" -And he did.
That was already at 6:45. The bus was supposed to get back to Penn Station at 5:45. -And with the Friday traffic into the Lincoln Tunnel, I'm guessing that would have added at least another hour to the trip. Frankly, I was surprised that no one else got off the bus with me.
I was back at Penn Station at 7:15.
The eastbound lanes of the Holland Tunnel were just reopened at midnight. -And not only was there delays of up to an hour going into the city via the Lincoln Tunnel, there was also a 4-car accident on the approach to the Lincoln Tunnel. -I really hope my fellow passengers made it back to Penn Station before 9:00.
