Lines Shrinking at Local Gas Stations

Updated at 8:14 p.m.

Customers at local gas stations waited on lines for two or three hours to fill their cars and gas cans last week, but wait times were down to less than a half hour at most local pumps that were open Monday.

Most local business were open Monday, though many residents still did not have power. According to PSE&G, between 2,001 and 5,000 Westwood customers were still without power as of 8 p.m. Monday. Hillsdale and Washington Township each had between 501 and 2,000 customers without power.

Governor Chris Christie instituted a gas rationing in policy in Bergen County Saturday which allows drivers with odd- or even-numbered license plates to fill up on alternating days. 

At the Shell in Hillsdale Monday morning, customers said they had waited only 10 or 15 minutes to reach the pumps. At the Gulf station, where fights had almost broken out just days earlier, customers reported waiting 25 minutes. Drivers with gas caps on the right side of their cars even got to skip to the front of the line and had to wait as little as five minutes to fill up.

At the Express in Westwood, the line was slightly longer and customers were waiting for about an hour, they said. 

The Getty in Washington Township, which had been the first local gas station to institute a can-only policy last week before they ran out of fuel, had reopened and the line was just a four cars long early Wednesday afternoon.

Petro Two in Westwood and Lukoil in Washington Township, which had both had long lines stretching for blocks last week, were both still closed Monday because they had run out of gas.

Have a question or news tip? Contact editor Jim Leggate at Jim.Leggate@patch.com, or find us on Facebook and Twitter. For news straight to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter.