Valhalla station is a

commuter rail Commuter rail or suburban rail is a Passenger train, passenger rail service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting Commuting, commuters to a Central business district, central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter town ...

stop on the

Metro-North Railroad The Metro-North Commuter Railroad Company , also branded as MTA Metro-North Railroad and commonly called simply Metro-North, is a suburban commuter rail service operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a New York State publ ...

Harlem Line The Harlem Line is an commuter rail line owned and operated by the Metro-North Railroad in the U.S. state of New York. It runs north from New York City to Wassaic, in eastern Dutchess County. The lower from Grand Central Terminal to Southea ...

, located in

Mount Pleasant, New York Mount Pleasant is a town in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 44,436. The hamlets of Valhalla, Hawthorne, Pocantico Hills, and Thornwood, and the v ...

History

Valhalla Crossing - Former NYC Station -1

Rail service in Valhalla can be traced as far back as 1846, with the establishment of the

New York and Harlem Railroad The New York and Harlem Railroad (now the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem Line) was one of the first railroads in the United States, and was the world's first street railway. Designed by John Stephenson, it was opened in stages between 1832 and ...

, which installed a station named "Davis Brook," but by 1851 the name had been changed to " Kensico." The NY&H became part of the

New York Central and Hudson River Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mid ...

in 1864 and eventually taken over by the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected New York metropolitan area, gr ...

. By the late-1880s Kensico and the rail line that ran through it were relocated to make way for the

Kensico Reservoir The Kensico Reservoir is a reservoir in the New York City water supply system. Spanning the towns of North Castle and Mount Pleasant, New York, it was formed by the Kensico Dam in 1885, which impounded waters from the Bronx and Byram rivers. ...

despite protests from the community lasting for the rest of the century, and the community that replaced it was named "Valhalla." The current station house was built in 1890, and at some point was converted into a restaurant. As with most of the Harlem Line, the merger of New York Central with

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 ...

in 1968 transformed the station into a

Penn Central Railroad The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American Railroad classes, class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals, the Pennsylvania Railroad, ...

station. Penn Central's continuous financial despair throughout the 1970s forced them to turn over their commuter service to the

Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a New York state public benefit corporations, public benefit corporation in New York (state), New York State responsible for public transportation in the New York metropolitan area, New York Ci ...

which made it part of Metro-North in 1983. Prior to Metro-North Railroad's electrification of this section of the Harlem Line in 1984, service at the station had been greatly reduced compared to other similar stations. In the late 1970s, weekday service was about half that of most other stations north of North White Plains, and weekend service was limited to a flag stop for six trains. By 1990, service had been restored to fourteen trains a day on weekends, the equivalent of that at other similar stations.

2015 accident

On February 3, 2015, the

Valhalla train crash On the evening of February 3, 2015, a Commuter rail, commuter train on Metro-North Railroad's Harlem Line struck a passenger car at a grade crossing on Commerce Street near Valhalla, New York, United States. Six people were killed and 15 others ...

occurred north of the station, in which a Metro-North train crashed into a Mercedes-Benz SUV at Commerce Street near the

Taconic State Parkway The Taconic State Parkway (often called the Taconic or the TSP) is a limited-access parkway between Kensico Dam and Chatham, the longest in the U.S. state of New York. It follows a generally north–south route midway between the Hudson River ...

. The crash caused six deaths and at least 15 injuries, including seven serious injuries.

Station layout

The station has one six-car-long high-level

island platform An island platform (also center platform (American English) or centre platform (British English)) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway inte ...

serving trains in both directions.

References

External links

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Taconic State Parkway entrance from Google Maps Street View

View of a southbound M7A from south of the station (Panoramio)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Valhalla (Metro-North Station) Metro-North Railroad stations in New York (state) Railway stations in Westchester County, New York Former New York Central Railroad stations Railway stations in the United States opened in 1890