Boonton Line

The Montclair-Boonton Line 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 (segment from Montclair to Mountain View-Wayne), which originally ran from the Erie's Jersey City Terminal to Greenwood Lake, NY; and the former Lackawanna Boonton Line, which 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 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 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 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 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 was abandoned and all trains took the new alignment via the Montclair Branch between a newly rebuilt Bay Street station and Walnut Street. Service began on September 30, 2002 and three stations on the old Boonton Line were closed, Benson Street in Glen Ridge, Rowe Street in Bloomfield, and Arlington station in Kearny. As of 2022, the derelict right-of-way is being converted to 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 the under-construction branch to Andover via the Lackawanna Cut-Off (NJ Transit) project, an extension on old New York and Greenwood Lake tracks to Pompton Junction, and the New York, Susquehanna and Western. There is also a proposal to extend service along the Washington Secondary as a rapid transit improvement to the New Jersey Route 57 corridor via Washington Borough to Phillipsburg.

History

Montclair Branch (Delaware, Lackawanna and Western)

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 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 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 was already depressed, 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 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 the company became part of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western. The lines were then maintained as the Morris & Essex Division.

New York and Greenwood Lake Railroad (Erie)

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 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 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 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 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.

Boonton Branch

The Boonton Branch of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad 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.

Erie Lackawanna Railroad

On October 1, 1960, 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; 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 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 the Erie's Main Line as part of a project to remove tracks through Passaic.

New Jersey Transit

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 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 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 was ceremonially extended along Norfolk Southern's Washington Secondary from Netcong Station with the creation of the stops in Mount Olive and Hackettstown. Trackage between those two stations and Netcong is still Norfolk Southern's, though anything east of Netcong remains New Jersey Transit's.

Montclair Connection

In 2002, New Jersey Transit finished construction of the Montclair Connection, a small set of tracks along Pine Street in Montclair that connected 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 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 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 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 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 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 the railway to be converted into a trail and greenway known as the "Essex-Hudson Greenway."

Montclair State University Station

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 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 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 the former Great Notch station.

Wayne–Route 23 and Mount Arlington stations

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 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