Metuchen station is an active

commuter railroad Commuter rail services in the United States, Canada, Cuba, Mexico, Panama, and Costa Rica provide common carrier passenger transportation along railway tracks, with scheduled service on fixed routes on a non-reservation basis, primarily for sh ...

train station A train station, railroad station, or railway station is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight, or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track, and a station building providing suc ...

in the

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History ...

Metuchen Metuchen ( ) is a suburban borough in Middlesex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The borough is a commuter town of New York City, located in the heart of the Raritan Valley region within the New York Metropolitan area. The borough, alon ...

, Middlesex County, New Jersey in the United States. Trains at Metuchen station are serviced by

New Jersey Transit New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit or NJTransit and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey and portions of the states of New York and Pennsylvania. It ...

Northeast Corridor Line The Northeast Corridor Line is a commuter rail service operated by NJ Transit between the Trenton Transit Center and New York Penn Station on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor in the United States. The service is the successor to Pennsylvania Railroad ...

between

Trenton Transit Center Trenton Transit Center is the main passenger train station in Trenton, New Jersey. Located along the Northeast Corridor, it is served by Amtrak intercity trains plus NJ Transit and SEPTA Regional Rail trains. It is the southern terminus of th ...

or Jersey Avenue and

New York Penn Station Pennsylvania Station (also known as New York Penn Station or simply Penn Station) is the main intercity railroad station in New York City and the busiest transportation facility in the Western Hemisphere, serving more than 600,000 passengers ...

. The next station to the south is Edison while the next station to the north is Metropark.

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

services cross through the station without stopping. The station consists of two

side platforms A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a railway platform, platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or bus rapid transit, transitway. A st ...

with a wooden station depot on the northbound tracks. Metuchen's station depot and the New York-bound platform are accessible from Woodbridge Avenue ( County Route 660) while the Trenton-bound platform comes from Main Street ( County Route 531). There is no station agent at Metuchen station, however

ticket vending machines A ticket machine, also known as a ticket vending machine (TVM), is a vending machine that produces paper or electronic Ticket (admission), tickets, or recharges a stored-value card or smart card or the user's mobile wallet, typically on a smartp ...

are available.

History

Metuchen station opened on July 11, 1836 with the completion of the

New Jersey Railroad The New Jersey Rail Road and Transportation Company was an early railroad company in the state of New Jersey. It was incorporated in 1832 and opened its first line in 1834, making it one of the oldest railroads in North America. It was consolidat ...

to East Brunswick (location of modern-day Highland Park). The railroad built a station depot at Main Street by 1850. When the

Lehigh Valley Railroad The Lehigh Valley Railroad was a railroad in the Northeastern United States built predominantly to haul anthracite, anthracite coal from the Coal Region in Northeastern Pennsylvania to major consumer markets in Philadelphia, New York City, and ...

opened their line in the 1870s, the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad ( reporting mark PRR), legal name as the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, also known as the "Pennsy," was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At its ...

moved Metuchen station to the Lake Avenue crossing to provide connection to the new railroad. The railroad moved Metuchen station one last time, to the current location in 1888. A secondary station in Metuchen existed from 1879 to 1911 known as Robinvale. Robinvale station burned twice: once on February 28, 1915, and once on March 27, 1915.

serviced Metuchen station from its inception on May 1, 1971 until October 26, 1975. Following the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

, Metuchen built a small, permanent

memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects such as home ...

named Freedom Plaza at the corner of Main Street and Woodbridge Avenue, adjacent to the station's parking lot, consisting of a Verdin clock and the engraved names of all 701 victims from New Jersey.

Station layout

The station has two high-level

side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms, ...

s. Most of

Northeast Corridor The Northeast Corridor (NEC) is an electrified railroad line in the Northeast megalopolis of the United States. Owned primarily by Amtrak, it runs from Boston in the north to Washington, D.C., in the south, with major stops in Providence, Rhod ...

services bypass the station via the inner tracks.

References

External links

* {{Pennsylvania Railroad New York Division stations, state=collapsed Metuchen, New Jersey NJ Transit Rail Operations stations Stations on the Northeast Corridor Railway stations in the United States opened in 1836 Railway stations in Middlesex County, New Jersey Former Pennsylvania Railroad stations Former Amtrak stations in New Jersey 1836 establishments in New Jersey