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190-605: Like most coal-focused railroads in Northeastern Pennsylvania, including Lehigh Valley Railroad , New York, Ontario and Western Railroad , and the Lehigh & New England Railroad , the DL&;W was profitable during the first half of the 20th century, but its margins were gradually hurt by declining Pennsylvania coal traffic, especially following the 1959 Knox Mine Disaster and competition from trucks following

380-550: A New York charter for the Lehigh Valley Railway, a similar name to the LVRR, but with "railway" instead. LVRR subsidiary, Lehigh Valley Railway began constructing the main line's northern part from Buffalo to Lancaster, New York , in 1883, a total distance of ten miles. This was the second step toward establishment of a direct route from Sayre to Buffalo (thus avoiding the connecting spur to Waverly and on to Buffalo on

570-605: A ceremony at Bay Street station in Montclair. Great Notch was a small station on the south side of Long Hill Road (Passaic County Route 631) in Great Notch . The station dated back to 1905 as a transfer point between the New York & Greenwood Lake and its Caldwell Branch to Essex Fells, New Jersey . The station was important in its heyday, but after the opening of Montclair State University station in 2004, about

760-408: A ceremony led by executive director George Warrington and MSU president Susan Cole. The new station had a parking deck with 1500 spaces, reducing road congestion. This differed from the original proposal, which had called for 1,300 parking spaces. Electrified service was then extended from Montclair Heights station north a mile to Montclair State University, although catenary wires continue westward to

950-496: A division of the Livonia , Avon , and Lakeville Railroad). Shorter main line remnants are Groveland -Greigsville (Genesee & Wyoming) and Lancaster - Depew (Depew, Lancaster & Western). The Richfield Springs branch was scrapped in 1998 after being out of service for years; much of the right of way was purchased in 2009 by Utica, Chenango and Susquehanna Valley LLC of Richfield Springs, New York, which as of 2022 operates

1140-469: A few hundred acres of coal land, by 1868 the LVRR was feeling pressure from the Delaware and Hudson and the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad in the northern Wyoming Valley coal field, where the railroads mined and transported their own coal at a much reduced cost. The LVRR recognized that its own continued prosperity depended on obtaining what coal lands remained. In pursuit of that strategy,

1330-551: A fleet of ships on the Great Lakes with terminals in Chicago , Milwaukee , and Duluth . This company became an important factor in the movement of anthracite, grain and package freight between Buffalo, Chicago, Milwaukee, Duluth, Superior and other midwestern cities. Following Federal legislation which stopped the operation of such service, the lake line was sold to private interests in 1920. The port on Lake Erie at Buffalo

1520-590: A large deficit to start; the ticket agent at West Bloomfield was also the brakeman for the one-car train. On April 1, 1868, the Morris & Essex Railroad bought out the alignment of the Newark and Bloomfield Railroad. The Morris & Essex began running services on the line, which was renamed the "Montclair Branch" when West Bloomfield was similarly renamed to "Montclair" shortly after. The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad soon gained trackage rights, and by

1710-492: A large island platform and also has a 1530-space parking garage on campus. A short distance after Montclair State University, the tracks turn to the northwest, leave campus grounds and cross over Clove Road. The tracks loop around campus and pass Great Notch Yard and the site of the now-closed Great Notch station . Great Notch was a one platform station in the Great Notch district of Little Falls. The station consisted of

1900-479: A large passenger traffic for the Lackawanna. All of this helped justify the railroad's expansion of its double-track mainline to three and in a few places four tracks. Changes in the region's economy undercut the railroad, however. The post- World War II boom enjoyed by many U.S. cities bypassed Scranton, Wilkes-Barre and the rest of Lackawanna and Luzerne counties. Fuel oil and natural gas quickly became

2090-626: A merger agreement with the Erie Railroad , the DL&W's longtime rival (and closest geographical competitor), forming the Erie Lackawanna Railroad . The merger was formally consummated on October 17, 1960. Shoemaker drew much criticism for it, and would even second-guess himself after he had retired from railroading. He later claimed to have had a "gentlemen's agreement" with the EL board of directors to take over as president of

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2280-410: A mile away, ridership at the old station, which had only 69 parking spaces, began to dwindle. By January 2008, only one train inbound to Hoboken and two trains outbound towards Hackettstown/Dover stopped at Great Notch. In August 2008, New Jersey Transit approached the community of Great Notch, part of Little Falls, saying that the 103-year-old station would be closed by October. After a few days, there

2470-637: A narrow-gauge tourist railway Richfield Springs Scenic Railway on a portion of the line and a walking trail on another section. The Cortland- Cincinnatus Branch, abandoned by Erie Lackawanna in 1960, was partially-rebuilt for an industrial spur about 1999. As of 2018, the Reading Blue Mountain and Northern operates the former Keyser Valley branch from Scranton to Taylor, as well as the former Bloomsburg branch from Taylor to Coxton Yard in Duryea . The Luzerne and Susquehanna Railway operates

2660-475: A private residence. The building was constructed in 1889 by the New York & Greenwood Lake as an irregular shape, similar to Benson Street station on the former Boonton Line alignment east of Montclair. After Mountain Avenue the tracks continue northward through Upper Montclair, passing through Mountainside Park and crossing Mount Hebron Road. After Mount Hebron Road, the tracks pass a bird sanctuary and enter

2850-606: A project from Lake Hopatcong to Scranton, Pennsylvania , is to start off as the Andover Branch off Montclair-Boonton Line trains. The Lackawanna Cut-Off was the former Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad 's relocated mainline, which had passenger service from 1911 to 1970. As part of the Minimal Operable Segment (MOS), only a 7.3-mile (11.7 km) stretch to Andover, New Jersey is to be active. Passenger trains will use an upgraded alignment from

3040-587: A quarter of it was ballasted with stone or gravel. The line had a descending or level grade from Mauch Chunk to Easton and with the exception of the curve at Mauch Chunk had no curve of less than 700 feet radius. The 46-mile-long (74 km) LVRR connected at Mauch Chunk with the Beaver Meadow Railroad . The Beaver Meadow Railroad had been built in 1836, and it transported anthracite coal from Jeansville in Pennsylvania's Middle Coal Field to

3230-1033: A rebuilt Bay Street station and Walnut Street. Service began on September 30, 2002 and three stations on the former Boonton Line were closed: Benson Street in Glen Ridge, Rowe Street in Bloomfield, and Arlington station in Kearny . As of 2022, the surplus rail bed is being repurposed as a rail trail . Besides the Montclair Connection, service was extended in 1994 from Netcong station to Hackettstown via tracks owned by Conrail (now Norfolk Southern ). Stations at Roseville Avenue in Newark, Ampere in East Orange , and Great Notch in Little Falls were closed in 1984, 1991, and 2010 respectively. Two service expansions have been proposed using

3420-621: A shelter (which replaced a building built in 1905 and burned down in 1988 ) and benches. After ridership at the station became "anemic", Great Notch was shut down on January 17, 2010, with the last train departing two days prior. Great Notch and its Yard serve as the end of the electrified catenary wires above on the Montclair-Boonton Line. This station was also the site of the transfer to the Erie's Caldwell Branch to Essex Fells, New Jersey , torn up in 1979. After Great Notch,

3610-541: A short distance, the tracks enter the community of Glen Ridge and heads back below street level. At the overpass with Ridgewood Avenue (Essex County Route 653), the line enters the namesake Glen Ridge station . Glen Ridge contains two platforms, and its station building, built in 1912, is above track level, similar to Watsessing Avenue. After Glen Ridge station, the Montclair-Boonton Line continues west before crossing under Bloomfield Avenue (County Route 506) and entering Montclair . After crossing under Bloomfield Avenue

3800-570: A short segment of the Boonton Branch by Garret Mountain in Paterson, New Jersey , was sold off to the state of New Jersey to build Interstate 80 . Ultimately, the west end of the Boonton Branch was combined with the Erie's Greenwood Lake Branch, while the eastern end was combined with the Erie's main line, which was abandoned through Passaic, New Jersey . Sacrificed was the Boonton Branch, a high-speed freight line thought to be redundant with

3990-563: A terminus in Jersey City, New Jersey . Construction commenced in 1872 as soon the Easton and Amboy was formed; coal docks at Perth Amboy were soon constructed, and most of the line from Easton to Perth Amboy was graded and rails laid. However, the route required a 4,893-foot (1,491 m) tunnel through/under Musconetcong Mountain near Pattenburg, New Jersey (about twelve miles east of Phillipsburg), and that proved troublesome, delaying

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4180-519: A third rail within the Erie mainline tracks to enable the LV equipment to run through to Elmira and later to Buffalo. Further rounds of acquisitions took place in 1868. The acquisitions in 1868 were notable because they marked the beginning of the LVRR's strategy of acquiring coal lands to ensure production and traffic for its own lines. Although the 1864 acquisition of the Beaver Meadow had included

4370-511: A tremendous financial drain on the Lackawanna and other railroads that ran through the state: a situation that would not be remedied for another two decades. To save his company, Lackawanna president Perry Shoemaker sought a merger with the Nickel Plate Road , a deal that would have created a railroad stretching more than 1,100 miles (1,800 km) from St. Louis, Missouri and Chicago, Illinois to New York City and would have allowed

4560-617: A while. After the Passaic, the tracks enter the town of Wayne . After crossing County Route 631 for yet a third time in Singac, the tracks cross over the Passaic River and enter Wayne, New Jersey. There, the tracks parallel Route 23 near Willowbrook Mall and through the interchange between Route 23, U.S. Route 46 , and Interstate 80 . After crossing under Interstate 80, the tracks parallel Route 23 and into Westbelt, where

4750-618: Is a commuter rail line of New Jersey Transit Rail Operations in the United States. It is part of the Hoboken Division. The line is a consolidation of three individual lines: the former Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad's Montclair Branch , which ran from Hoboken Terminal to Bay Street, Montclair . The Erie Railroad's Greenwood Lake Division, a segment from Montclair to Mountain View-Wayne, originally ran from

4940-442: Is a one low platform station, with the original building, constructed in 1915, standing on the single platform. The station has a 194-spot parking lot and the brick building is used as a waiting room. After the station, the tracks continue northwestward, approaching the Passaic River once again at the community of Singac . The community of Singac is the former site of the namesake Singac Station, which has been out of service for quite

5130-552: Is a small part of new public transport on the Route 57 corridor, an attempt to attract service past Hackettstown from the northern New Jersey and New York corridors. However, the candidate project has not yet been funded by New Jersey Transit. The third and final extension relates to the possibility of using the New York and Greenwood Lake trackage from Mountain View station northward to the old Pompton Junction station. The project, called

5320-629: Is located in Wayne, near the Westbelt Mall at the U.S. Route 46, Interstate 80, Route 23 interchange; this was also the site of the Singac station, which closed four decades before the new transit center opened. On September 13, 2006, construction of the $ 16.3 million project was announced; the general contractor was J.H. Reid of South Plainfield . The new station was built to reduce traffic on nearby highways, by diverting commuters to trains or buses. Construction on Mount Arlington Station, which

5510-648: Is still in study and not a candidate for funding. A location for a yard in Sparta could not be agreed on. Train service on the Montclair-Boonton Line begins at either Hoboken Terminal , which includes all weekend service, or New York Penn Station . From there, trains use the alignment of the Morristown Line west through the Bergen Tunnels from Hoboken, over the Lower Hack Lift bridge across

5700-476: Is the first of the five along the New York & Greenwood Lake portion of the Montclair-Boonton Line and has two low side platforms at grade. The lines parallel Erie Street, once again named after the predecessor railroad, continuing north through several parks in Montclair. After Woodman Field the line enters the Watchung Avenue station , the third of six stations in Montclair. Watchung Avenue Station

5890-603: Is the first station in active service after Secaucus Junction . Continuing through Newark, the station enters the Roseville district of Newark, where the former Roseville Avenue station was located. Roseville Avenue was constructed in 1905, in the track depression through Roseville along the Morris & Essex Lines. Roseville Avenue Station had two separate sets of platforms (one for the Montclair Branch and one for

Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad - Misplaced Pages Continue

6080-418: Is the newest station on the line. In 2002, after construction on the Montclair Connection was completed, there was no weekend service on the new Montclair-Boonton Line. Over the ensuing six years, officials from Montclair urged New Jersey Transit to offer weekend service on the Montclair-Boonton Line, which was the only NJT line without it. Montclair Township's proposal cited the benefits of weekend service to

6270-535: The Bangor and Portland Railway . By 1909, the company controlled the Bangor and Portland Railway . This line branched from the main line at Portland , southwest to Nazareth , with a branch to Martins Creek . The primary locomotive and car shops were located in Scranton . In 1910 they were enlarged and upgraded at a cost of $ 2 million, including a massive machine and erecting shop measuring 582 by 342 feet. To handle

6460-510: The Cayuga and Susquehanna Railroad to Ithaca on Cayuga Lake on April 21, 1855. The C&S was the reorganized and partially rebuilt Ithaca and Owego Railroad , which had opened on April 1, 1834, and was the oldest part of its system. The whole system was built to 6 ft ( 1,829 mm ) broad gauge , the same as the New York and Erie, although the original I&O was built to standard gauge and converted to wide gauge when rebuilt as

6650-654: The Central Railroad of New Jersey abandoned all its operations in Pennsylvania (which by that time were freight-only), causing additional through freights to be run daily between Elizabeth, NJ on the CNJ and Scranton on the EL. The trains, designated as the eastbound SE-98 and the westbound ES-99, travelled via the Lackawanna Cut-Off and were routed via the CNJ 's High Bridge Branch . This arrangement ended with

6840-804: The Delaware Division Canal or transported across the river to Phillipsburg, New Jersey , where the Morris Canal and the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ) could carry it to the New York City market. At Easton, the LVRR constructed a double-decked bridge across the Delaware River for connections to the CNJ and the Belvidere Delaware Railroad in Phillipsburg. Through a connection with

7030-657: The Hackensack River and the Meadowlands into Jersey City. It had two stations in the Arlington section of Kearny: Arlington and West Arlington; Forest Hill and North Newark in Newark; Belwood Park, Rowe Street, Orchard Street, and Walnut Street in Bloomfield, and Benson Street in Glen Ridge. At Forest Hill in Newark the Orange Branch split at OJ Tower, constructed in 1897. Orange Branch passenger service

7220-578: The Hackensack River . After crossing the Hackensack, the lines pass through Kearny and Harrison . Harrison was the site of a passenger station built in 1904 during the track-raising project by William Truesdale, which started in 1901. From Harrison, the lines cross over the Passaic River and along Bridge 7.48, a swing drawbridge built in 1901, where they enter the city of Newark and stop at Newark Broad Street Station . Broad Street Station

7410-794: The Hayts Corners, Ovid & Willard Railroad opened May 14, 1883 from the Geneva, Ithaca & Sayre to the Willard asylum, and continued in service until 1936. In Pennsylvania, the Lehigh scored a coup by obtaining the charter formerly held by the Schuykill Haven and Lehigh River Railroad in 1886. That charter had been held by the Reading Railroad since 1860, when it had blocked construction in order to maintain its monopoly in

7600-728: The Hudson River waterfront in Jersey City . The LVRR, which had built coal docks in Perth Amboy when it built the Easton and Amboy in the 1870s, desired a terminal on the Hudson River close to New York City . In 1891, the LVRR consolidated the Roselle and South Plainfield Railway into the Lehigh Valley Terminal Railway , along with the other companies which formed the route from South Plainfield to

7790-635: The Jersey City Terminal to Greenwood Lake, NY , and the former Lackawanna Boonton Line ran from Hoboken to Hackettstown, New Jersey . The Montclair-Boonton line was formed when the Montclair Connection opened on September 30, 2002. The line serves 28 active rail stations in New Jersey along with New York Pennsylvania Station . It crosses through six counties, serving six stations in the township of Montclair , two in

Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad - Misplaced Pages Continue

7980-553: The Kearny Connection to Secaucus Junction and New York Penn Station; the rest go to Hoboken Terminal. Trains to Hoboken run only at rush hour . Passengers can transfer at Secaucus Junction, Newark Broad Street Station , Montclair State University, or Dover to reach other destinations if necessary. Truncated weekend service on the Montclair-Boonton Line began on November 8, 2009, with service every two hours between Bay Street station in Montclair and Hoboken terminal, with

8170-527: The Kearny Connection , opened in 1996. This facilitates part of NJ Transit's popular Midtown Direct service. Formerly, the line ran solely to the DL&W's historic terminal in Hoboken and a transfer to underground rapid transit was required to pass under the Hudson river into Manhattan, or a ferry. This is the only section of former Lackawanna trackage that has more through tracks now than ever before. Since

8360-561: The Lehigh Canal at Mauch Chunk. For 25 years the Lehigh Canal had enjoyed a monopoly on downstream transportation and was charging independent producers high fees. When the LVRR opened, those producers eagerly sent their product by the railroad instead of canal, and within two years of its construction the LVRR was carrying over 400,000 tons of coal annually. By 1859 it had 600 coal cars and 19 engines. The LVRR immediately became

8550-583: The Lehigh River and break the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company 's monopoly on coal traffic from Wyoming Valley . The railroad was chartered on August 2, 1847, and elected James Madison Porter its president on October 21. Little occurred between 1847 and 1851, save some limited grading near Allentown, Pennsylvania . All this changed in October 1851, when Asa Packer took majority control of

8740-405: The Montclair Heights station . The final station in Montclair, Montclair Heights has a mini-high ADA ramp and low platforms. The original station building was constructed in 1905 under an Erie Type V design, until closure in 1959 by the Erie Railroad for economic reasons. The station is also signed as the "Home of Montclair State University". The station itself is at the south end of the campus and

8930-414: The Newark Light Rail , including Silver Lake Station, which was a station on the branch. The station, today known as Walnut Street, was then known as Montclair-Erie Plaza to differentiate it from the nearby Montclair Lackawanna Terminal. The line also had an extension to Sterling Forest and Ringwood near the state line with New York. The Boonton Branch of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad

9120-441: The North Jersey suburbs to Hoboken on the Boonton , Gladstone , Montclair and Morristown Lines. Early publicity for the passenger service featured a young woman, Phoebe Snow , who always wore white and kept her clothing clean while riding the "Road of Anthracite", powered by the clean-burning coal known as anthracite . The most profitable commodity shipped by the railroad was anthracite coal . In 1890 and during 1920–1940,

9310-405: The Pequannock River into the U.S. Route 202 and Route 23 in the downtown portion. After paralleling Fayette Avenue, the tracks enter Mountain View station . Mountain View station has one low platform and serves as the station for downtown Wayne. The station building at Mountain View was built in 1910 as an Erie Type 4 station (according to the ICC reports), but by 1965 had been replaced by

9500-434: The Port of New York and New Jersey to serve consumer markets in the New York metropolitan area , eliminating the Phillipsburg connection with the CNJ that had previously been the only outlet to the New York tidewater; until it was built, the terminus of the LVRR had been at Phillipsburg on the Delaware River opposite Easton, Pennsylvania . The Easton and Amboy was used as a connection to the New York metropolitan area, with

9690-417: The Route of the Black Diamond ; black diamond is a slang word for anthracite , the high-end type of Pennsylvania coal that it initially transported by boat down the Lehigh River . The Lehigh Valley Railroad's original and primary route between Easton and Allentown was built in 1855. The line later expanded past Allentown to Lehigh Valley Terminal in Buffalo and past Easton to New York City , bringing

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9880-485: The Schuylkill Valley coal fields. The Vosburg Tunnel was completed and opened for service on July 25, 1886. The 16-mile mountain cut-off, a rail segment of the line that extended from Fairview, Pennsylvania , to the outskirts of Pittston, Pennsylvania , was completed in November 1888. This allowed the line's eastbound grade to be reduced and a shorter route for handling through traffic established. The LVRR had built coal docks in Perth Amboy, New Jersey , when it built

10070-436: The Syracuse, Binghamton and New York Railroad in 1869 and leased the Oswego and Syracuse Railroad on February 13, 1869. This gave it a branch from Binghamton north and northwest via Syracuse to Oswego , a port on Lake Ontario . The "Greene Railroad" was organized in 1869, opened in 1870, and was immediately leased to the company, providing a short branch off the Oswego line from Chenango Forks to Greene . Also in 1870,

10260-454: The Thomas Iron Company , the Lehigh Crane Iron Company , the Lehigh Valley Iron Works, the Carbon Iron Company, and others. At Bethlehem, Pennsylvania , the North Pennsylvania Railroad which was completed during the Summer of 1856, provided a rail connection to Philadelphia and thus brought the LVRR a direct line to Philadelphia. At Phillipsburg, New Jersey , the Belvidere Delaware Railroad connected to Trenton, New Jersey . To accommodate

10450-544: The Upper Montclair station . Upper Montclair is the fourth station in Montclair, also having two low platforms. The old Type V station building, built in 1898, suffered a fire on February 5, 2006. The station building is being rebuilt, although larger than the original. Although a planned re-opening was set for the weekend of February 14, 2010, the new Upper Montclair station was ceremoniously reopened by New Jersey Transit and state officials, along with Montclair mayor Jerry Fried on June 18, 2010. After Upper Montclair station

10640-407: The Warren Railroad was chartered on February 12, 1851, to continue from the bridge over the river southeast to Hampton , on the Central Railroad of New Jersey . That section got its name from Warren County , the county through which it would primarily run. The rest of the line, now known as the Southern Division, opened on May 27, 1856, including the Warren Railroad in New Jersey . A third rail

10830-488: The Washington Secondary as a rapid transit improvement to the New Jersey Route 57 corridor via Washington Borough to Phillipsburg . The Montclair Branch was chartered in 1852 as the Newark and Bloomfield Railroad, running through Bloomfield and nearby West Bloomfield (present-day Montclair). However, tracks were not constructed along the owned right-of-way until 1856; in June of that year trains began running between Newark, Bloomfield, and West Bloomfield. The railroad had

11020-434: The 1868 purchases of the Hazleton Railroad and the Lehigh Luzerne Railroad brought 1,800 acres (7.3 km ) of coal land to the LVRR, and additional lands were acquired along branches of the LVRR. Over the next dozen years the railroad acquired other large tracts of land: 13,000 acres (53 km ) in 1870, 5,800 acres (23 km ) in 1872, and acquisition of the Philadelphia Coal Company in 1873 with its large leases in

11210-434: The 1999 breakup of Conrail, the former DL&W main line from Scranton south-east to Slateford in Monroe County has been owned by the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority (PNRRA). The Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad and Steamtown National Historic Site operates freight trains and tourist trains on this stretch of track, dubbed the Pocono Mainline (or Pocono Main). Under a haulage agreement with Norfolk Southern,

11400-402: The 4 ft 10 in (1,473 mm) gauge of the Belvidere, the cars were furnished with wheels having wide treads that operated on both roads. The 1860s saw an expansion of the LVRR northward to the Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania , area and up the Susquehanna River to the New York state line. Asa Packer was elected President of the Lehigh Valley Railroad on January 13, 1862. In 1864,

11590-410: The Boonton Line access into Hoboken, the east end of the Erie's former Greenwood Lake Branch, between Bergen Junction at Croxton and Mountain View in Wayne, was joined to the west end of the DL&W's former Boonton Line between Wayne and Denville. The line was renamed the Greenwood Lake-Boonton Line in recognition of its two predecessors. The original DL&W Boonton Line east of Clifton was joined with

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11780-418: The Boonton Line and the Montclair Branch. The concept of the Montclair Connection had been originated in 1929 by the Regional Plan Association , to connect the New York & Greenwood Lake with the Montclair Branch. However, the Great Depression , which began in 1929, shelved plans for the connection. Three decades after the Erie's Main Line was realigned out of Passaic (in 1963), New Jersey Transit returned to

11970-434: The Bound Brook and Easton were merged to form a new railroad company called the Easton and Amboy Railroad (or Easton & Amboy Railroad Company). The Easton and Amboy Railroad was a railroad built across central New Jersey by the Lehigh Valley Railroad to run from Phillipsburg, New Jersey , to Bound Brook, New Jersey , and it was built to connect the Lehigh Valley Railroad coal-hauling operations in Pennsylvania and

12160-404: The C&S. The "Delaware and Cobb's Gap Railroad" was chartered December 4, 1850, to build a line from Scranton east to the Delaware River . Before it opened, the Delaware and Cobb's Gap and Lackawanna and Western were consolidated by the Lackawanna Steel Company into one company, the "Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad", on March 11, 1853. On the New Jersey side of the Delaware River,

12350-450: The CNJ. The M&E tunnel under Bergen Hill opened in 1876, relieving the Morris and Essex Railroad and its owners, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, from having to use the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railway 's tunnel to reach Jersey City. Along with the M&E lease came several branch lines in New Jersey, including the Boonton Line , which opened in 1870 and bypassed Newark for through freight. The railroad acquired

12540-419: The Central Railroad of New Jersey, LVRR passengers had a route to Newark, New Jersey , Jersey City, New Jersey , and other points in New Jersey . The LVRR's rolling stock was hired from the Central Railroad of New Jersey and a contract was made with the CNJ to run two passenger trains from Easton to Mauch Chunk connecting with the Philadelphia trains on the Belvidere Delaware Railroad. A daily freight train

12730-456: The D-L runs unit Canadian grain trains between Scranton and the Harvest States Grain Mill at Pocono Summit, Pennsylvania and wood deliveries to Bestway Enterprises in Cresco . Other commercial customers include Keystone Propane in Tobyhanna. Excursion trains, hauled by visiting Nickel Plate 765 and other locomotives, run from Steamtown to Moscow and Tobyhanna (with infrequent extensions to East Stroudsburg or Delaware Water Gap Station, both on

12920-409: The DL&W main line portion between Scranton and Binghamton (which includes the Nicholson Cutoff ) bought by the Delaware and Hudson Railway . The D&H was purchased by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1991. CPR continued to run this portion of the DL&W main line until 2014, when it sold it to the Norfolk Southern . The Syracuse and Utica branches north of Binghamton were sold by Conrail to

13110-403: The DL&W shipped upwards of 14% of the state of Pennsylvania's anthracite production. Other profitable freight included dairy products, cattle, lumber, cement, steel and grain. The Pocono Mountains region was one of the most popular vacation destinations in the country—especially among New Yorkers—and several large hotels sat along the line in Northeastern Pennsylvania , generating

13300-451: The DL&W, which owned a substantial block of Nickel Plate stock, to place one of its directors on the Nickel Plate board . (The Nickel Plate would later merge with the Norfolk and Western Railroad .) Shoemaker next turned, in 1956, to aggressive but unsuccessful efforts to obtain joint operating agreements and even potential mergers with the Lehigh Valley Railroad and the Delaware and Hudson Railway . Finally, Shoemaker sought and won

13490-458: The DLS&S. Packer brought additional financing to the railroad, installed Robert H. Sayre as chief engineer, and renamed the company the "Lehigh Valley Railroad." Construction began in earnest in 1853, and the line opened between Easton and Allentown on June 11, 1855. The section between Allentown and Mauch Chunk opened on September 12. At Easton, the LVRR interchanged coal at the Delaware River where coal could be shipped to Philadelphia on

13680-685: The Delaware Otsego Corp., which operates them as the northern division of the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway . In 1997, Conrail accepted an offer of purchase from CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway . On June 1, 1999, Norfolk Southern took over many of the Conrail lines in New Jersey, including most of the former DL&W. It also purchased the remnants of the former Bangor & Portland branch in Pennsylvania. Norfolk Southern continues to operate local freights on

13870-623: The Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad (DL&W) and Erie Railroad merged to form the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad . In 1963, the old DL&W Boonton Branch was abandoned between Mountain View and Paterson and its right of way was sold to the NJ Department of Transportation for the new highways Interstate 80 and what's now known as New Jersey Route 19 (NJ 19 had originally been designated New Jersey Route 20 ;

14060-525: The EL's decline. By 1976, it was apparent that the EL was at the end of its tether, and it petitioned to join Conrail : a new regional railroad that was created on April 1, 1976, out of the remnants of seven bankrupt freight railroads in the northeastern U.S. The EL's rail property was legally conveyed into Conrail on April 1, 1976. Labor contracts limited immediate changes to the freight schedule, but in early 1979, Conrail suspended through freight service on

14250-625: The Easton and Amboy Railroad was opened for business on June 28, 1875, with hauling coal. The Easton and Amboy's operations were labeled the "New Jersey Division" of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. The Easton and Amboy had already completed large docks and facilities for shipping coal at Perth Amboy upon an extensive tract of land fronting the Arthur Kill. Approximately 350,000 tons of anthracite moved to Perth Amboy during that year for transshipment by water. Operations continued until

14440-481: The Easton and Amboy in the 1870s, but desired a terminal on the Hudson River close to New York City . In New Jersey, the LVRR embarked on a decade-long legal battle with the CNJ over terminal facilities in Jersey City . The land that Asa Packer had obtained in 1872 was situated on the southern side of the Morris Canal's South Basin, but the CNJ already had its own facilities adjacent to that property and disputed

14630-654: The Erie's Main Line as part of a project to remove tracks through Passaic . In 1983, the maintenance of the Montclair Branch and the Boonton Line were taken over entirely by New Jersey Transit . The Boonton Line at that point began out of Hoboken Terminal, heading westward through the Jersey Meadows and into Kearny, crossing the Passaic river at West Arlington and going through North Newark, Bloomfield, and Glen Ridge before entering Montclair and continuing on from

14820-466: The Erie's main line, was abandoned in favor of joint operations, while the Lackawanna Cut-Off in New Jersey was single-tracked in anticipation of the upcoming merger. On the other hand, the Erie's Buffalo, New York and Erie Railroad was dropped from Corning to Livonia in favor of the DL&W's main line. Most passenger service was routed onto the DL&W east of Binghamton, with the DL&W's Hoboken Terminal serving all EL passenger trains. In addition,

15010-477: The Erie's mainline. This would haunt EL management less than a decade later (and Conrail management a decade after that). Soon after the merger, the new EL management shifted most freight trains to the "Erie side", the former Erie Railroad lines, leaving only a couple of daily freight trains traveling over the Lackawanna side. Passenger train traffic would not be affected, at least not immediately. This traffic pattern would remain in effect for more than ten years—past

15200-647: The Erie), the first being the acquisition of the Geneva, Ithaca & Athens Railroad. In 1887, the Lehigh Valley Railroad obtained a lease on the Southern Central Railroad (the LVRR previously had trackage rights on the railroad starting in 1870), which had a route from Sayre northward into the Finger Lakes region. At the same time, the LVRR organized the Buffalo and Geneva Railroad to build

15390-597: The Jersey City terminal. Initially, the LVRR contracted with the CNJ for rights from Roselle to Jersey City, but the LVRR eventually finished construction to its terminal in Jersey City over the Newark and Roselle Railway , the Newark and Passaic Railway , the Jersey City, Newark, and Western Railway , and the Jersey City Terminal Railway . The LVRR's Newark and Roselle Railway in 1891 brought

15580-824: The LV to reach White Haven. In 1866, the LVRR purchased acquired the Lehigh and Mahanoy Railroad (originally the Quakake Railroad) and the North Branch Canal along the Susquehanna River, renaming it the Pennsylvania and New York Canal & Railroad Company (P&NY). The purchasing of the North Branch Canal saw an opportunity for a near monopoly in the region north of the Wyoming Valley . In 1866, two years after

15770-400: The LVRR acquired other large tracts of land starting at 13,000 acres (53 km ) in 1870, with an additional of 5,800 acres (23 km ) in 1872, and turned its eye toward expansion across New Jersey all the way to the New York City area. In 1870, the Lehigh Valley Railroad acquired trackage rights to Auburn, New York , on the Southern Central Railroad . The most important market in

15960-651: The LVRR began acquiring feeder railroads and merging them with its system. The first acquisitions were the Beaver Meadow Railroad and Coal Company, which included a few hundred acres of coal land, and the Penn Haven and White Haven Railroad. The purchase of the Penn Haven and White Haven was the first step in expanding to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania . To reach Wilkes-Barre, the LVRR began constructing an extension from White Haven, Pennsylvania , to Wilkes-Barre. The Penn Haven and White Haven Railroad allowed

16150-459: The LVRR began an extensive expansion into New York from Sayre, Pennsylvania (just southeast of Waverly) to Buffalo. Construction from Sayre to Buffalo was split into two projects, Sayre to Geneva, New York , and Geneva, which is located at the northern end of Seneca Lake ), to Buffalo. First, it purchased a large parcel of land in Buffalo, the Tifft farm, for use as terminal facilities, and obtained

16340-584: The LVRR purchased the National Docks Railway outright. The 1890s began with the completion of its terminals in Buffalo and Jersey City, and the establishment of a trunk line across New York state, the company soon became entangled in costly business dealings which ultimately led to the Packer family's loss of control. The coal trade was always the backbone of the business but was subject to boom and bust as competition and production increased and

16530-512: The LVRR purchased the Penn Haven & White Haven Railroad in 1864, and began constructing an extension from White Haven to Wilkes-Barre that was opened in 1867. By 1869, the LVRR owned a continuous track through Pennsylvania from Easton to Waverly. In the following year, the LVRR—a standard gauge railroad—completed arrangements with the Erie Railroad, at that time having a six-foot gauge, for

16720-572: The LVRR's bankruptcy in 1976. The marshalling yard is now the residential area known as Harbortown . Passenger traffic on the LVRR's Easton and Amboy connected with the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) at Metuchen, New Jersey , and continued to the PRR'S Exchange Place terminus in Jersey City; that connection was discontinued in 1891 after the LVRR established its own route to Jersey City from South Plainfield. The Easton and Amboy Railroad

16910-480: The LVRR's title, which partly overlapped land the CNJ had filled for its own terminal. Finally in 1887 the two railroads reached a settlement, and construction of the LVRR's Jersey City freight yard began. The LVRR obtained a 5-year agreement to use the CNJ line to access the terminal, which opened in 1889. It fronted the Morris Canal Basin with a series of 600-foot (180 m) piers angling out from

17100-538: The Lackawanna side. Indeed, as very little on-line freight originated on the Erie side (a route that was more than 20 miles longer than the DL&W route to Binghamton), once the Gateway was closed (eliminating the original justification for shifting traffic to the Erie side) virtually all the EL's freight trains were shifted back to the Lackawanna side. After the New England Gateway closed, EL's management

17290-600: The Lackawanna side. The railroad removed freight traffic from the Hoboken-Binghamton mainline and consolidated the service within its other operating routes. Railroad officials said the primary reasons were the EL's early-1960s severing of the Boonton Branch near Paterson, New Jersey , and the grades over the Pocono Mountains. The Morristown Line is the only piece of multi-track railroad on

17480-493: The Lackawanna to retain the 200 miles (320 km) of double-track mainline between Buffalo and Binghamton, New York . The idea had been studied as early as 1920, when William Z. Ripley , a professor of political economics at Harvard University , reported that a merger would have benefited both railroads. Forty years later, however, the Lackawanna was a shadow of its former financial self. Seeing no advantage in an end-to-end merger, Nickel Plate officials also rebuffed attempts by

17670-561: The Lackawanna, however, were dealt by Mother Nature . In August, 1955, flooding from Hurricane Diane devastated the Pocono Mountains region, killing 80 people. The floods cut the Lackawanna Railroad in 88 places, destroying 60 miles (97 km) of track, stranding several trains (with a number of passengers aboard) and shutting down the railroad for nearly a month (with temporary speed restrictions prevailing on

17860-454: The Lehigh Valley Railroad to these metropolitan areas. By December 31, 1925, the railroad controlled 1,363.7 miles of road and 3,533.3 miles of track. By 1970, this had dwindled to 927 miles of road and 1963 miles of track. The first small repair shops for locomotives and cars were located in Delano, Wilkes-Barre, Weatherly, Hazleton, and South Easton. In 1902 these were mostly consolidated into

18050-538: The Mahanoy basin. In 1875, the holdings were consolidated into the Lehigh Valley Coal Company, which was wholly owned by the LVRR. By 1893, the LVRR owned or controlled 53,000 acres (210 km ) of coal lands. With these acquisitions, the LVRR obtained the right to mine coal as well as transport it. The 1870s witnessed commencement of extension of the LVRR in a new direction. In the 1870s

18240-555: The Montclair-Boonton Line almost immediately enters its next station (and its first past Newark Broad Street), the Watsessing Avenue station. The station is on an open cut, and is one of two stations that were built underground during the grade crossing elimination in 1912. After crossing under Watsessing Avenue (and Dodd Street), the lines continue northward, crossing under the Garden State Parkway between

18430-445: The Montclair-Boonton Line enters the namesake community of Montclair. It leaves the DL&W alignment and curves rightward into Bay Street station just after Bloomfield Avenue. Bay Street is the newest station on the Montclair Branch portion of the Montclair-Boonton Line, built in 1981 to replace the nearby Lackawanna Terminal , which was becoming a "white elephant". This station is the north end of service on weekends. After Bay Street

18620-623: The Montclair-Boonton/Morristown mainline at Port Morris Junction with several Montclair-Boonton trains taking the junction to Andover. The report also cited the study of extending service on the Montclair-Boonton from the current Hackettstown station, a single-sided platform in downtown Hackettstown along the current Washington Secondary, maintained by Norfolk Southern to Phillipsburg, New Jersey via Washington . One of two extensions proposed to Phillipsburg,

18810-497: The Morris & Essex Lines). Although the station was closed on September 16, 1984, the Roseville Tower remained until it was demolished in 2002 to make way for the Montclair Connection. At Roseville Avenue station, the Montclair-Boonton Line and Morris & Essex Lines diverge, with the Morris & Essex continuing west to Summit and points west, while the Montclair-Boonton turns to the north through Roseville and into

19000-592: The Newark Bay was bridged in 1892 by the Jersey City, Newark and Western Railway and connected to the National Docks Railway , which was partly owned by the LVRR and which reached the LVRR's terminal. In 1895, the LVRR constructed the Greenville and Hudson Railway parallel with the national docks in order to relieve congestion and have a wholly-owned route into Jersey City. Finally in 1900,

19190-535: The Northeastern New Jersey in order to reach its freight yards without using the CNJ main line. The LVRR began construction of a series of railroads to connect the Easton and Amboy line (Easton and Amboy Railroad) to Jersey City. The first leg of the construction to Jersey City was the Roselle and South Plainfield Railway in 1888 which connected with the CNJ at Roselle for access over the CNJ to

19380-595: The Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Rail Authority to accelerate the resumption of passenger train service between New York City and Scranton. Most of the main line west of Binghamton in New York State has been abandoned, in favor of the Erie's Buffalo line via Hornell . The longest remaining main line sector is Painted Post -Wayland, with shortline service provided by B&H Railroad ( Bath & Hammondsport ,

19570-760: The Pocono Mainline). The D-L also runs Lackawanna County 's tourist trolleys from the Electric City Trolley Museum , under overhead electrified wiring installed on original sections of the Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley Railroad that was also purchased by Lackawanna County. It also runs trains on a remnant of the DL&W Diamond branch in Scranton. In 2006, the Monroe County and Lackawanna County Railroad Authorities formed

19760-479: The Pompton Extension, is part of an effort to connect service from the Montclair-Boonton to the candidate rail service to Sparta, New Jersey on the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad . This service would connect the stations at Pequannock , Pompton Plains , Bloomingdale and connect at the site of the former Pompton Junction station . However, unlike the other projects, the Pompton Extension

19950-654: The Southern Coal Field. That southern field held the largest reserves of anthracite in Pennsylvania and accounted for a large percentage of the total production. Through neglect, the Reading allowed the charter to lapse, and it was acquired by the Lehigh Valley, which immediately constructed the Schuylkill and Lehigh Valley Railroad. The line gave the LVRR a route into Pottsville, Pennsylvania , and

20140-822: The Summit-Hallstead Cutoff (a.k.a. Pennsylvania Cutoff or Nicholson Cutoff ) was built to revamp a winding and hilly system between Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania , and Hallstead, Pennsylvania . This rerouting provided another quicker low-grade line between Scranton and Binghamton. The Summit Cutoff included the massive Tunkhannock Viaduct and Martins Creek Viaduct . The Lackawanna's cutoffs had no at-grade crossings with roads or highways, allowing high-speed service. The railroad ran trains from its Hoboken Terminal , its gateway to New York City , to its Scranton , Binghamton, Syracuse , Oswego, and Buffalo stations and to Utica Union Station . Noteworthy among these were: The railroad also ran commuter operations from

20330-524: The actions of the cartel , and since coal was critical to commerce, Congress intervened in 1887 with the Interstate Commerce Act that forbade the roads from joining into such pools. Although the roads effectively ignored the Act and their sales agents continued to meet and set prices, the agreements were never effective for long. Boonton Line The Montclair-Boonton Line

20520-428: The arches and dentils . Lackawanna Terminal had six tracks and three concrete platforms, with a large bridge which carried Grove Street in Montclair over the tracks. The Montclair Branch was the first fully electrified suburban railroad, wired in 1930. The inaugural train was driven by Thomas Edison , who had helped develop the line. On July 26, 1945, the Morris & Essex Railroad Company was officially dissolved, and

20710-560: The campus. Construction of the station was delayed by lawsuits from the township of Montclair because of residential displacement and parking issues. The station was proposed with a 1300-space parking deck and a cost of $ 36 million (2002 USD). The $ 36 million came entirely from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority in bonds to Montclair State University. On October 20, 2004, the new Montclair State University Station at Little Falls opened in

20900-406: The canal at Mauch Chunk to Wilkes-Barre. After the LVRR opened its line, the Lehigh & Susquehanna extended to Phillipsburg, New Jersey , and connected with the CNJ and the Morris and Essex Railroad in 1868. In 1871, the entire line from Phillipsburg to Wilkes-Barre was leased to the CNJ. For most of its length, it ran parallel to the LVRR. The LVRR found that the route of the Morris Canal

21090-710: The communities along the line, including reduced traffic congestion and carbon footprint . The agency repeatedly declined to expand the service because Montclair limited the use of train horns between 7 pm and 7 am. New Jersey Transit had received requests for weekend service since 2007, and denied them citing capacity issues and turning off electric power for bridge replacement. Advocates have dismissed these reasons as "excuses" and locals said it would improve their quality of life. On September 30, 2009, New Jersey Transit announced service every two hours between Bay Street station and Hoboken Terminal, an approximately 35-minute trip. The service started on November 8, 2009 with

21280-515: The community of East Orange , where it crosses through the Ampere district. Near the intersection of Springdale Avenue and Ampere Parkway, trains pass through the site of the former Ampere Station . Ampere was built around 1909 and remained in use during New Jersey Transit days until April 7, 1991, when along with Grove Street , the station was closed. From here, the lines continue into Bloomfield . After crossing from East Orange into Bloomfield,

21470-478: The company became part of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western. The lines were then maintained as the Morris & Essex Division. The New York & Greenwood Lake Railway originated as the New York and Montclair Railroad, granted a state charter in 1867 to construct a railroad from Jersey City to the New York state line at Greenwood Lake. The railroad caused the secession of West Bloomfield from Bloomfield, and West Bloomfield renamed itself Montclair. The railroad

21660-426: The company controlled the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Railroad , a branch from Scranton southwest to Northumberland with trackage rights over the Pennsylvania Railroad 's Northern Central Railway to Sunbury . On March 15, 1876, the whole system was re-gauged to standard gauge in one day. The New York, Lackawanna and Western Railroad was chartered on August 26, 1880, and opened on September 17, 1882, to continue

21850-482: The company leased the Utica, Chenango and Susquehanna Valley Railway , continuing this branch north to Utica , with a branch from Richfield Junction to Richfield Springs (fully opened in 1872). The "Valley Railroad" was organized March 3, 1869, to connect the end of the original line at Great Bend, Pennsylvania , to Binghamton, New York , avoiding reliance on the Erie. The new line opened on October 1, 1871. By 1873,

22040-509: The cost of new trainsets. A 7.3-mile section of the Cut-Off between Port Morris and Andover, New Jersey , which was under construction, was delayed until 2021 due to environmental issues on the Andover station site ; the Cut-Off between Port Morris and Andover is slated to re-open for rail passenger service no earlier than 2025. In 1979, Conrail sold most of the DL&W in Pennsylvania, with

22230-411: The creation of Conrail on April 1, 1976. During its time, the EL diversified its shipments from the growing Lehigh Valley and also procured a lucrative contract with Chrysler to ship auto components from Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania . The EL also aggressively sought other contracts with suppliers in the area, pioneering what came to be known as intermodal shipping. None of this could compensate for

22420-462: The current Walnut Street station to Netcong station. The Montclair Branch, designated part of the Morris & Essex Lines , which consisted of the Montclair Branch, Morristown Line , and Gladstone Branch , had six stations: Roseville Avenue in Newark, Ampere in East Orange, Watsessing Avenue in Bloomfield, Bloomfield station, Glen Ridge station, and Bay Street in Montclair. The Montclair Branch

22610-478: The damaged sections of railroad for months), causing a total of $ 8.1 million in damages (equal to $ 92,128,696 today) and lost revenue. One section, the Old River line (former Warren Railroad), was damaged beyond repair and had to be abandoned altogether. Until the mainline in Pennsylvania reopened, all trains were canceled or rerouted over other railroads. The Lackawanna would never fully recover. In January, 1959,

22800-461: The decline in coal shipments, however, and, as labor costs and taxes rose, the railroad's financial position became increasingly precarious although it was stronger than some railroads in the eastern U.S. The opening of Interstates I-80 , I-380 , and I-81 during the early 1970s, which in effect paralleled much of the former Lackawanna mainline east of Binghamton, New York , caused more traffic to be diverted to trucks. This only helped to accelerate

22990-633: The discontinuation of passenger service on January 6, 1970—and was completely dependent on the lucrative interchange with the New Haven Railroad at Maybrook, New York . The January 1, 1969 merger of the New Haven Railroad into the Penn Central Railroad changed all this: the New England Gateway was downgraded, and closed on May 8, 1974 by fire damage to the New Haven's Poughkeepsie Bridge, causing dramatic traffic changes for

23180-524: The east was New York City, but the LVRR was dependent on the CNJ and the Morris Canal for transport to the New York tidewater. In 1871, the LVRR leased the Morris Canal, which had a valuable outlet in Jersey City on the Hudson River opposite Manhattan . Asa Packer purchased additional land at the canal basin in support of the New Jersey West Line Railroad , which he hoped to use as the LVRR's terminal. That project failed, but

23370-436: The economy cycled. The coal railroads had begun in 1873 to form pools to regulate production and set quotas for each railroad. By controlling supply, the coal combination attempted to keep prices and profits high. Several combinations occurred, but each fell apart as one road or another abrogated its agreement. The first such combination occurred in 1873, followed by others in 1878, 1884, and 1886. Customers naturally resented

23560-449: The entire 900-mile Lackawanna system that has not been reduced to fewer tracks over the years. It was triple-tracked nearly a century prior, and remains so today. The Lackawanna Cut-Off was abandoned in 1979 and its rails were removed in 1984. The line between Slateford Junction and Scranton remained in legal limbo for nearly a decade, but was eventually purchased, with a single track left in place. The Lackawanna Cut-Off's right-of-way, on

23750-488: The expansion of the Interstate Highway System in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1960, the DL&W merged with rival Erie Railroad to form the Erie Lackawanna Railroad that would be taken over by Conrail in 1976. Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad was first incorporated as Leggett's Gap Railroad on April 7, 1832, though it was dormant for several years following its incorporation. The company

23940-569: The final nail was driven in the Lackawanna's coffin by the Knox Mine Disaster , which flooded the mines along the Susquehanna River and all but obliterated what was left of the region's anthracite industry. The Lackawanna Railroad's financial problems were not unique. Rail traffic in the U.S. in general declined after World War II as trucks and automobiles took freight and passenger traffic. Declining freight traffic put

24130-576: The former Morris & Essex Railroad to Gladstone and Hackettstown. In 2002, the transit agency consolidated the Montclair Branch and Boonton Line to create the Montclair-Boonton Line . NJ Transit also operates on the remaining portion (south of Paterson) of the original Boonton Line known as the Main Line . NJ Transit's hub is at Hoboken Terminal. Trains on the Morristown Line run directly into New York's Pennsylvania Station via

24320-790: The former Bloomsburg branch from Duryea to Kingston . The North Shore Railroad (Pennsylvania) operates the former Bloomsburg branch from Northumberland to Hicks Ferry. Lehigh Valley Railroad The Lehigh Valley Railroad ( reporting mark LV ) was a railroad in the Northeastern United States built predominantly to haul anthracite coal from the Coal Region in Northeastern Pennsylvania to major consumer markets in Philadelphia , New York City , and elsewhere. On April 21, 1846,

24510-658: The former Great Notch station. Prior to 2008, the only station in Wayne was the downtown Mountain View station . The only station in the area around Lake Hopatcong was Lake Hopatcong station in Landing (this station has been referred to on timetables as Lake Hopatcong-Mount Arlington). In 2008, both the Wayne-Route 23 Transit Center and Mount Arlington Intermodal Train Station and Park & Ride opened. Wayne-Route 23

24700-596: The hands of the LVRR in September 1876, which extended from the New York state line near Sayre, Pennsylvania , to Geneva, New York , a distance of 75 miles. On May 17, 1879, Asa Packer, the company's founder and leader, died at the age of 73. At the time of his death, the railroad was shipping 4.4 million tons of coal annually over 657 miles (1,057 km) of track, using 235 engines, 24,461 coal cars, and over 2,000 freight cars of various kinds. The company controlled 30,000 acres (120 km ) of coal-producing lands and

24890-525: The increasing roster of coal and other freight cars, new car shops were built outside Scranton at Keyser Valley in 1904. A passenger car shop was added in Kingsland, New Jersey, nine miles from New York City, in 1906. The company built a Beaux-Arts terminal in Hoboken, New Jersey , in 1907, and another Beaux-Arts passenger station (now a Radisson hotel ) in Scranton the following year. A new terminal

25080-470: The labeling the new whole "the Montclair-Boonton Line." Although no stations along the Montclair Branch (Watsessing, Bloomfield, Glen Ridge, and Bay Street) were closed, three stations along the old Greenwood Lake alignment had service end on September 20, 2002: Arlington station , in Kearny , Rowe Street , in Bloomfield, and Benson Street , in Glen Ridge. This alignment was turned over to Norfolk Southern for maintenance. The station building at Benson Street

25270-414: The lands were later used for the LVRR's own terminal in 1889. The CNJ, anticipating that the LVRR intended to create its own line across New Jersey, protected itself by leasing the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad (L&S) to ensure a continuing supply of coal traffic. The L&S had been chartered in 1837 by the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company (the Lehigh Canal company) to connect the upper end of

25460-483: The line from Roselle into Newark, where passengers connected to the Pennsylvania Railroad. Bridging Newark Bay proved difficult. The LVRR first attempted to obtain a right of way at Greenville , but the Pennsylvania Railroad checkmated them by purchasing most of the properties needed. Then the CNJ opposed the LVRR's attempt to cross its line at Caven Point . Finally after settling the legal issues,

25650-468: The line included a revamping of Great Notch Yard for state-of-the-art service. However, no weekend service was implemented on the line. 11 miles of rail line from Montclair to Jersey City were shut down following the completion of the Montclair Connection and the DB and WR drawbridges were abandoned in the open position. Shortly thereafter a coalition of walking, biking and trails group began to advocate for

25840-415: The line parallels Pine Street on new track to join the Erie (NY&GL) alignment. After the merge near the intersection of Pine Street and Grant Street the line continues north and enters Walnut Street station near Erie Park (named after the Erie Railroad that once used the rails). The current Walnut Street station was built in 1952 as Montclair station after the larger structure was demolished. This station

26030-416: The line would follow New Jersey Route 57 through Port Murray , Rockport , Washington, Stewartsville , and into Phillipsburg, where it would meet an extended Raritan Valley Line . Locals have expressed support for the extensions on the active Class I freight line, and would use automobiles to get to the stations' newly designed park and rides. The expansion of passenger service on the Washington Secondary

26220-457: The line; trains previously went only to Hoboken Terminal . The new services included diesel service and express trains to Montclair Heights, making stops from Great Notch to Hackettstown, and new Midtown Direct service trains from Montclair Heights to New York, with transfers between them at Great Notch. There was also additional Morristown line Midtown Direct service to New York, available only at Denville and Dover stations. Other upgrades along

26410-407: The lines. In 2014, it purchased the former DL&W main from Taylor, PA to Binghamton, NY from the Canadian Pacific Railway, which it continues to operate to this day. NJ Transit Rail Operations took over passenger operations in 1983. The State of New Jersey had subsidized the routes operated by the Erie Lackawanna, and later Conrail . NJ Transit operates over former DL&W trackage on much of

26600-438: The nearby New York, Ontario and Western Railroad and Lehigh & New England Railroad out of business in 1957 and 1961, respectively. Over the next three decades, nearly every major railroad in the Northeastern US would go bankrupt . In the wake of Hurricane Diane in 1955, all signs pointed to continued financial decline and eventual bankruptcy for the DL&W. Among other factors, property taxes in New Jersey were

26790-424: The new Bay Street station on the alignment that eventually would extend to the connection. In 1991, studies were conducted by New Jersey Transit regarding the creation of the Montclair Connection, and in 2002, after construction was completed, the Boonton Line from east of Walnut Street station to Arlington served as a freight-only line. All passenger trains took the new alignment via the Montclair Branch between

26980-463: The new railroad. After he was pushed aside in favor of Erie managers, however, he left in disillusionment and became the president of the Central Railroad of New Jersey in 1962. Even before the formal merger, growing ties between the Erie and Lackawanna led to the partial abandonment of the Lackawanna's mainline trackage between Binghamton and Buffalo. In 1958, the main line of the DL&W from Binghamton west to near Corning , which closely paralleled

27170-442: The northbound and southbound toll plazas of Exit 148. After traversing Watsessing Park , the tracks return to being above-ground and enter Bloomfield Station . The current Bloomfield station was constructed in 1912 during grade crossing elimination, when tracks were raised above street-level. From here, the station continues northwestward, paralleling Toney's Brook through Bloomfield (to the southeast of Bloomfield Avenue ). After

27360-429: The opening of the line until May 1875, when a coal train first passed over the line. To support the expected increase in traffic, the wooden bridge over the Delaware River at Easton was also replaced by a double-tracked, 1,191-foot (363 m) iron bridge. At Perth Amboy, a tidewater terminal was built on the Arthur Kill comprising a large coal dock used to transport coal into New York City. These tracks were laid and

27550-402: The other hand, was purchased by the state of New Jersey in 2001 from funds approved within a $ 40 million bond issue in 1989. (A court later set the final price at $ 21 million, paid to owners Jerry Turco of Kearny, New Jersey and Burton Goldmeier of Hopatcong, New Jersey.) NJ Transit has estimated that it would cost $ 551 million to restore service to Scranton over the Cut-Off: a price which includes

27740-450: The plan for the Montclair Connection. The original plan was for a one-track diesel connection, but this grew into a two-track electric connection with extension of catenary wires. After negotiations with the township of Montclair, detailed plans and design began in 1998, and construction began just a year later. When the Montclair Connection was completed in 2002, the names of the Montclair Branch and Boonton Line were eliminated in favor of

27930-416: The preferred energy sources. Silk and other textile industries shrank as jobs moved to the southern U.S. or overseas. The advent of mechanical refrigeration squeezed the business from ice ponds on top of the Poconos . Even the dairy industry changed. The Lackawanna had long enjoyed revenues from milk shipments; many stations had a creamery next to the tracks. Perhaps the most catastrophic blows to

28120-405: The purchase of the Penn Haven and White Haven, the extension from White Haven to Wilkes-Barre opened. Construction of a rail line to the New York state line started immediately and, in 1867, the line was complete from Wilkes-Barre to Waverly, New York , where coal was transferred to the broad gauge Erie Railroad and shipped to western markets through Buffalo, New York . To reach Wilkes-Barre,

28310-405: The railroad acquired land in northeast Pennsylvania and formed a subsidiary called The Glen Summit Hotel and Land Company. It opened a hotel in Glen Summit, Pennsylvania , called the Glen Summit Hotel to serve lunch to passengers traveling on the line. The hotel remained with the company until 1909, when it was bought by residents of the surrounding cottages. In New York State, s branch line,

28500-410: The railroad ended operations and merged into Conrail along with several northeastern railroads that same year. The Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad (DLS&S) was authorized by the Pennsylvania General Assembly on April 21, 1846, to construct a railroad from Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania , now Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, to Easton, Pennsylvania . The railroad would run parallel to

28690-426: The railroad from Binghamton west and northwest to Buffalo. The main line ran to the International Bridge to Ontario , and a branch served downtown Buffalo. A spur from Wayland served Hornellsville (Hornell). On December 1, 1903, the company began operating the Erie and Central New York Railroad , a branch of the Oswego line from Cortland Junction east to Cincinnatus . That same year, it also began to control

28880-401: The railroad was authorized to provide freight transportation of passengers, goods, wares, merchandise, and minerals in Pennsylvania . On September 20, 1847, the railroad was incorporated and established, initially called the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad Company . On January 7, 1853, the railroad's name was changed to Lehigh Valley Railroad. It was sometimes known as

29070-537: The railway to be converted into a trail and greenway known as the "Essex-Hudson Greenway." On June 10, 2002, Governor of New Jersey James E. McGreevey announced a partnership with Montclair State University (MSU) as part of the Midtown Direct service. On July 18, 2002, partnership announced plans for a new train station and parking facility for commuters in Little Falls. Before the Construction of Montclair State University Station, students at Montclair State University could only use Montclair Heights station to access

29260-412: The rest of the 97-mile Geneva to Buffalo trackage, from Geneva to Lancaster. Finally, in 1889, the LVRR gained control of the Geneva, Ithaca, and Sayre Railroad and completed its line of rail through New York. As a result of its leases and acquisitions, the Lehigh Valley gained a near-monopoly on traffic in the Finger Lakes region. It also continued to grow and develop its routes in Pennsylvania. In 1883

29450-469: The route in New York state to Buffalo, considerably shortening the line. The majority of the Lehigh Line is now owned by the Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) and retains much of its original route in eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey , although it no longer goes into New York City. The former Lehigh Valley tracks between Manville, New Jersey , and Newark are operated separately by Conrail Shared Assets Operations as their own Lehigh Line . In 1976,

29640-465: The shops at Sayre, Pennsylvania on the New York State border, which featured a 750 by 336-foot machine shop with 48 erecting pits. The shops in Packerton, Pennsylvania , located in the Coal Region north of Allentown, served as the primary freight car shops. Conrail maintained the line as a main line into the New York metropolitan area , and the line became known as the Lehigh Line during Conrail's ownership of it. In 1976, Conrail abandoned most of

29830-451: The shoreline but was too narrow for a yard, so the LVRR built a separate yard at Oak Island in Newark to sort and prepare trains. The South Basin terminal was used solely for freight, having docks and car float facilities. Passengers were routed to the Pennsylvania Railroad's terminal and ferry. The LVRR strove throughout the 1880s to acquire its own route to Jersey City and to the Jersey City waterfront. The LVRR decided to expand more to

30020-546: The test was canceled when Little Falls was informed by New Jersey Transit that the Great Notch Station would be closed on January 17, 2010 due to the anemic ridership at the station. New Jersey Transit cited in a press release that the station only was receiving an average of nine boardings daily. The remaining passengers were directed to use either Montclair State University station or Little Falls station. The Montclair-Boonton Line received serious damage from Hurricane Sandy on October 29–30, 2012, due to fallen trees blocking

30210-537: The town of Bloomfield , and one in the city of Newark . Trains along the Montclair-Boonton Line heading eastward usually originate at Hackettstown , Mount Olive , Lake Hopatcong , Dover , or Montclair State University , bound for either Hoboken Terminal or New York Penn Station . On system maps the line is colored maroon and its symbol is a bird, after the state bird, the eastern goldfinch . For 2010, of 31 inbound and 34 outbound daily weekday trains, 21 inbound and 22 outbound Midtown Direct trains (about 66%) use

30400-448: The tracks and bringing down catenary and signal wires. The line was completely shut down until November 14, when limited electric Midtown Direct and Hackettstown-Hoboken diesel service was restored. According to the 2020 Transit: Possibilities For The Future report produced by New Jersey Transit in October 2000, the Montclair-Boonton Line is a candidate for further rail expansion beyond the Montclair Connection. The Lackawanna Cut-Off ,

30590-456: The tracks continued southwestward through Little Falls, crossing under Long Hill Road (CR 631) and Francisco Road (CR 612) before making a curve back to the northwest at a siding on Cedar Grove Road. The tracks then go over a curved bridge over the Peckman River. The northwestern-bound tracks enter downtown Little Falls, paralleling New Jersey Route 23 into the namesake Little Falls station at Union Boulevard (CR 646). Little Falls

30780-445: The tracks enter the second-newest station on the line, the Wayne-Route 23 Inter-modal Transit Center . Wayne-Route 23 opened on January 12, 2008 with a single high platform and the nearby bus terminal. Wayne-Route 23 Transit Center also contains 1,000 parking spaces for use by travelers. After leaving Wayne-Route 23, the tracks continue to parallel Route 23 and enter downtown Wayne. The tracks cross Fayette Avenue Park and parallel

30970-400: The tracks turn northeast, crossing under Lorraine Avenue, and paralleling Valley Road. The line continues northward paralleling Upper Mountain Avenue through the Upper Montclair district. A short distance later, the tracks enter Mountain Avenue , the next to last station in Montclair. Mountain Avenue has two low platforms, and the nearby station building, which is rented by New Jersey Transit as

31160-502: The train making all local stops. This was an extension of existing Hoboken-to-Newark service, previously listed on the Morris & Essex timetables. Plans for connecting the two lines (the New York & Greenwood Lake Railroad, later the Boonton Line and the Montclair Branch, dated back to 1929, when a rail connection through Montclair was proposed. Despite years of debate over the connection, nothing came to fruition until 1991. Lackawanna Terminal in Montclair closed in 1981, replaced by

31350-478: The trunk line down the Lehigh Valley, with numerous feeder railroads connecting and contributing to its traffic. The production of the entire Middle Coal Field came to the LVRR over feeders to the Beaver Meadow: the Quakake Railroad , the Catawissa, Williamsport and Erie Railroad , the Hazleton Railroad , the Lehigh Luzerne Railroad and other smaller lines. At Catasauqua, the Catasauqua and Fogelsville Railroad transported coal, ore, limestone and iron for furnaces of

31540-445: The turn of the 20th century, the railroad had begun constructing track depressions and raises to eliminate grade-level crossings on city streets. In 1912, the Montclair Branch was depressed, elevated, and double tracked, and grade crossings were eliminated. The stations at Watsessing Avenue and Glen Ridge were constructed below street level, while Ampere and Bloomfield stations were constructed above street level. Roseville Avenue station

31730-420: The under-construction branch to Andover via the Lackawanna Cut-Off Restoration Project , an extension on old New York and Greenwood Lake tracks to Pompton Junction , and the New York, Susquehanna and Western . The latter of these two proposals has not gone through as the Greenwood Lake Tracks from Wayne to Riverdale Borough have been removed for a Rail Trail. There is also a proposal to extend service along

31920-471: The university campus. From there, the road begins a parallel along Clove Road and soon enters the final active electrified station along the Montclair-Boonton Line until Denville, Montclair State University station (officially known as the Montclair State University Station at Little Falls). The station is the set transfer between electric and diesel service, as people heading westward to Dover or Hackettstown need to transfer for further service. The station has

32110-403: The westernmost segment of NJ 20 connected eastward via Paterson Plank Road with what is now New Jersey Route 120 , replicating Paterson Plank Road from Jersey City through the Meadowlands, Rutherford, and Clifton to Paterson) The railroad could have paid for a single track to be laid along the new highways, but the Erie-Lackawanna demurred as it was strapped for cash. To allow the western end of

32300-456: Was absorbed into the parent Lehigh Valley Railroad. In 1875, the LVRR financed the addition of a third rail to the Erie Railroad main line so that cars could roll directly from colliery to the port at Buffalo. While the third rail on the Erie Railroad main line between Waverly and Buffalo gave the LVRR an unbroken connection to Buffalo, the road's management desired its own line into Buffalo. The Geneva, Ithaca & Athens Railroad passed into

32490-484: Was added to the standard gauge Central Railroad of New Jersey east of Hampton to allow the railroad to run east to Elizabeth via trackage rights (the CNJ was extended in 1864 to Jersey City ). On December 10, 1868, the company acquired the Morris and Essex Railroad unit 1945 it was fully merged into the DL&W. This line ran east–west across northern New Jersey, crossing the Warren Railroad at Washington and providing access to Jersey City without depending on

32680-562: Was already a parking lot with 228 spaces for Lakeland Bus , began on April 12, 2006. The new train station was built to relieve traffic on Interstate 80, and 57 new parking spaces were added to the lot. The project was slated to cost $ 12.1 million, and the contract was given to Terminal Construction Corporation of Wood-Ridge . Both stations were completed within nine days of each other: the Wayne-Route 23 Transit Center opened on January 12, 2008, with train service beginning two days later; Mount Arlington Station opened on January 21, 2008, and

32870-437: Was already depressed, 22 feet (6.7 m) below street level, in 1903. In June 1913, the new Lackawanna Terminal (named after the Delaware, Lackawanna , and Western) opened in Montclair. William H. Botsford designed it, but did not live to see it open as he died in the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. The brick station building followed a Grecian-Doric style of architecture, which included creative uses of concrete for

33060-548: Was an electrified service; however, the Boonton Line was a diesel line. Over the next decade, New Jersey Transit closed several stations over the length of the Montclair Branch. The Harrison and Roseville Avenue stations were closed on September 16, 1984; the Ampere station in East Orange was closed less than seven years later, on April 7, 1991. Plans to extend the Morristown Line and Boonton Line westward from Netcong station to Hackettstown were proposed in June 1992 as part of proposed service extension. On November 6, 1994, service

33250-492: Was built in 1901 as an Erie Railroad Type V station (according to the 1920 Interstate Commerce Report for the Erie), separated by less than a mile from the nearby stations. Watchung Avenue station has two low platforms on embankments and sits next to a bridge over the namesake Watchung Avenue. The tracks continue northward across the bridge and Valley Road where they enter the Upper Montclair district . The tracks parallel Anderson Park before crossing Bellevue Avenue and entering

33440-442: Was ceremonially extended along Conrail's Washington Secondary from Netcong station with the creation of the stops in Mount Olive and Hackettstown . NJ Transit leased that portion of the line from Conrail (and later the Norfolk Southern Railway ) from 1994 until purchasing it in 2023. In 2002, New Jersey Transit finished construction of the Montclair Connection, a small set of tracks along Pine Street in Montclair that connected

33630-468: Was chartered on March 14, 1849, and organized on January 2, 1850. On April 14, 1851, its name was changed to Lackawanna and Western Railroad . The line opened on December 20, 1851, and ran north from Scranton, Pennsylvania , to Great Bend, Pennsylvania , just south of Pennsylvania 's border with New York state . From Great Bend, the railroad obtained trackage rights north and west over the New York and Erie Rail Road to Owego, New York , where it leased

33820-497: Was completed in 1872 with four stations in Montclair: Montclair, Watchung Avenue, Upper Montclair, and Montclair Heights. The New York & Greenwood Lake Railway became a subsidiary of the Erie Railroad by 1884 and the remains of what was once its track is now the Walnut Street – Mountain View stretch of the Montclair-Boonton Line. The original railroad extended farther, via the former alignment through Montclair, Glen Ridge, Bloomfield, Newark and reaching into Kearny, where it crossed

34010-526: Was constructed on the waterfront in Buffalo in 1917. The "Lackawanna Railroad of New Jersey", chartered on February 7, 1908, to build the Lackawanna Cut-Off (a.k.a. New Jersey Cutoff or Hopatcong-Slateford Cutoff), opened on December 24, 1911. This provided a low-grade cutoff in northwestern New Jersey. The cutoff included the Delaware River Viaduct and the Paulinskill Viaduct , as well as three concrete towers at Port Morris and Greendell in New Jersey and Slateford Junction in Pennsylvania. From 1912 to 1915,

34200-420: Was critical to the LVRR's shipments of coal to western markets and for receipt of grain sent by the West to eastern markets. Although in 1870 the LVRR had invested in the 2-mile (3.2 km) Buffalo Creek Railroad, which connected the Erie to the lakefront, and had constructed the Lehigh Docks on Buffalo Creek , it depended on the Erie Railroad for the connection from Waverly to Buffalo, New York . In 1882,

34390-412: Was damaged by a fire in the 1980s and had fallen into disrepair; in May 2009, it was sold to a private developer and entirely rebuilt. During the Montclair Connection's construction, Bay Street station, which was a single platform with only one track, was rebuilt entirely, with two high-level platforms and new tracks. The new connection also introduced service to New York Penn Station for commuters along

34580-407: Was discontinued on May 20, 1955, but freight service lingered until 1994 when the track was removed from White Street in West Orange to the Watsessing section of Bloomfield. A portion of track was used until 2010 by Norfolk Southern to serve the Hartz Mountain plant, which was shuttered that year. At one time the Orange Branch served many industries along its right of way. Some track remains today for

34770-432: Was elected president, a position he held for 13 years. The 1880s continued to be a period of growth, and the LVRR made important acquisitions in New York, expanded its reach into the southern coal field of Pennsylvania which had hitherto been the monopoly of the Reading, and successfully battled the CNJ over terminal facilities in Jersey City . In 1880, the LVRR established the Lehigh Valley Transportation Line to operate

34960-469: Was expanding rapidly into New York and New Jersey. The railroad had survived the economic depression of 1873 and was seeing its business recover. Leadership of the company transferred smoothly to Charles Hartshorne, who had been vice president under Packer. In 1883, Hartshorne retired to allow Harry E. Packer, Asa's 32-year-old youngest son, to assume the Presidency. A year later, Harry Packer died of illness, and Asa's 51-year-old nephew Elisha Packer Wilbur

35150-441: Was first constructed as a freight bypass of the Morris & Essex Railroad in 1868. This was constructed due to the unsuitability of its passenger lines to carry freight (and a lack of freight customers along the line) and stretched from the Denville station to Hoboken Terminal via Boonton and Paterson . Freight service began on September 12, 1870, while passenger service began on December 14, 1870. On October 1, 1960,

35340-404: Was forced to downgrade the Erie side, and even considered its abandonment west of Port Jervis. In the meantime, the EL was forced to run its long freights over the reconfigured Boonton Line, which east of Mountain View in Wayne, NJ meant running over the Erie's Greenwood Lake Branch, a line that was never intended to carry the level of freight traffic to which the EL would subject it. In 1972,

35530-423: Was impractical for use as a railroad line, so in 1872 the LVRR purchased the dormant charter of the Perth Amboy and Bound Brook Railroad which had access to the Perth Amboy, New Jersey , harbor, and added to it a new charter, the Bound Brook and Easton Railroad. The State of New Jersey passed legislation that allowed the LVRR to consolidate its New Jersey railroads into one company; the Perth Amboy and Bound Brook and

35720-451: Was public protest against the possible closure, and on September 3, a public meeting was held to strike a deal with residents. On April 1, 2009, after negotiations with Michael DeFrancisci, the mayor of Little Falls, the station and town were given a "one-year test" to attract ridership at the small station. The quota to keep the station open was 67 people using the station by December 31, 2009 and 100+ by April 1, 2010. On December 18, 2009,

35910-486: Was put into operation leaving Easton in the morning and returning in the evening. In the early part of October 1855, a contract was made with Howard & Co. of Philadelphia to do the freighting business of the railroad (except coal, iron, and iron ore). The length of the line from Mauch Chunk to Easton was 46 miles of single track. The line was laid with a rail weighing 56 pounds per yard supported upon cross ties 6 x 7 inches and 7-1/2 feet long placed 2 feet apart and about

36100-461: Was the transfer station until the namesake station for the college opened in 2004. After Montclair Heights, the trains cross town lines, leaving Montclair in favor of Little Falls, New Jersey . Along the southern end of Montclair State University, the Montclair-Boonton Line crosses out of Montclair north of Montclair Heights station and into the town Little Falls. The tracks head northward, paralleling Long Hill Road (Passaic County Route 631) through

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