NJ Transit will start offering direct service into New York City on the Raritan Valley Line in a pilot program beginning March 2.

The pilot program will be only for trains arriving at Penn Station New York between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. weekdays and leaving the station between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., Somerset County Freeholder Peter Palmer said at Monday’s meeting of the Raritan Valley Rail Coalition.

The off-peak service would then lead to NJ Transit looking at implementing direct service in the evening from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. in trains leaving Penn Station New York.

Making direct service possible is NJ Transit’s purchase of 36 dual-powered locomotives for $340 million that can operate both on the Raritan Valley Line and the electrified Northeast Corridor tracks. Commuters on the Raritan Valley Line, which is not electrified, have to change trains at Newark for the final leg of the ride into New York City.

Twenty-one of the 36 dual-powered locomotives were damaged during Hurricane Sandy, with only five repaired because of a lack of spare parts. All 36 are projected to be in service by July 2014.

The locomotives’ change from electric to diesel will take from 90 seconds to two minutes at Newark Penn Station.

NJ Transit is now working with Amtrak to finalize the March schedule changes.

The Raritan Valley Line, the only NJ Transit rail line without direct service to Penn Station, carrieds about 10 percent of NJ Transit’s train passengers.

Direct service will not be available on weekends, said Palmer, who also is chairman of the coalition, because one of the two tunnels under the Hudson River is closed on weekends for maintenance and upgrades, which limits the number of trains going to and from New York City.

Palmer said the coalition, which has been advocating direct service for more than a decade, learned of the starting date at a “very constructive and productive” Dec. 9 meeting with James Weinstein, executive director of NJ Transit.

NJ Transit will focus on the direct service program, Palmer said, once the “first mass transit” Super Bowl at Met Life Stadium is played on Feb. 2.