Montclair-Boonton Line

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The Montclair-Boonton Line is a commuter rail line on New Jersey Transit Rail's Hoboken Division. It is a consolidiation of the Montclair Branch and the Boonton Line, formed when the Montclair Connection opened on September 30, 2002. Out of 33 inbound and 37 outbound daily weekday trains, 19 inbound and 20 outbound Midtown Direct trains (about 55%) use the Kearny Connection (opened June 10, 1996) to Secaucus Junction and New York Penn Station; the rest go to Hoboken Terminal. Passengers can transfer at Newark Broad Street Station, Montclair State University or Dover to reach the other destination if necessary. This line operates weekday service only. There are also plans for electrification from Dover to Lake Hopatcong due to capacity issues at the yard in Dover.

When the Montclair Connection was built, the Boonton Line, which had previously featured all-diesel operation, was electrified from the Connection to Great Notch Yard (west of the Montclair State University Station). The town of Montclair wanted diesels removed from the line, but electrification could only extend as far west as Great Notch Yard due to cost concerns (building eletrification to Denville would also require an additional substation; Great Notch Yard represents the extent of the existing substation), so passengers to/from west of Montclair State University must transfer at that station. Passengers had originally transferred at Montclair Heights and a station listed as Transfer Platform on the schedules (the MSU Station platform, in fact) before the Montclair State University Station officially opened on October 20, 2004.

[edit] History

Following the 1960 merger of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad and Erie Railroad into the Erie-Lackawanna Railway, the new entity formed its Boonton Line in 1963 from the east end of the Erie's Greenwood Lake Branch between Hoboken and Wayne and the west end of the DL&W's Boonton Line from Wayne to Denville, orignally calling it the Greenwood Lake-Boonton Line from the consolidation of the two lines. When New Jersey Transit assumed operation of commuter rail operations in 1980, it used the name Boonton Line (service to Greenwood Lake having been long since abandoned), and following the opening of the Montclair Connection and permanent consolidation of the Boonton Line with the former DL&W Montclair Branch, renamed the new artery as the Montclair-Boonton Line.

Three passenger stations, all of which were on the former Erie Railroad's Greenwood Lake Branch east of Montclair, were abandoned when the Montclair Connection opened in 2002 and the "Lower Boonton" reverted to Norfolk Southern control:

• Arlington, in Kearny
• Rowe Street, in Bloomfield
• Benson Street, in Glen Ridge

[edit] Station listing

Milepost	City	Station	Oper	Connections
0	Hoboken	Hoboken Terminal	NJT	PATH and New York Waterways to New York City, Hudson-Bergen Light Rail to local points, NJT 22, 23, 64, 68, 85, 87, 89, 126 buses
		Meadows Maintenance Complex	NJT	Main Overhaul and Maintenance Shop, employee stop
Midtown Direct trains join
5	Kearny	Kearny Junction		Midtown Direct trains from New York Penn Station and Secaucus Junction join the line via the Kearny Connection
	Newark	Newark Broad Street Station	NJT	Newark Light Rail service, NJT 11, 13, 27, 28, 29, 39, 41, 43, 72, 76, 78, 108 buses
		Roseville Avenue		NJT Morristown Line and Gladstone Branch splits, abandoned station
	East Orange	Ampere	NJT	abandoned
	Bloomfield	Watsessing Avenue	NJT	NJT 94 bus
		Bloomfield	NJT	NJT 11, 28, 29, 34, 92, 93, 709 buses
	Glen Ridge	Glen Ridge	NJT	NJT 11, 28, 29 buses, Community Shuttle
	Montclair	Bay Street	NJT	NJT 11, 28, 29, 34 buses, Community Shuttle
12		Walnut Street	NJT
13		Watchung Avenue	NJT	NJT 28 bus
14		Upper Montclair	NJT	NJT 28 bus
14.5		Mountain Avenue	NJT	NJT 28 bus
15		Montclair Heights	NJT	NJT 28, 191, 705 buses
	Little Falls	Montclair State University	NJT	Montclair State University
16.5		Great Notch	NJT	electric storage yard; only diesel trains permitted beyond this point, all trains go to Hoboken Terminal or Montclair State University as its western terminal NJT 191, 195, 705 buses
18.5		Little Falls	NJT	NJT 11, 191, 704, 705 buses
	Wayne	Wayne-Route 23	NJT	Proposed Station
21.5		Mountain View	NJT	NJT 75, 194, 197, 748 buses, MCM1
	Lincoln Park	Lincoln Park	NJT	MCM1
	Montville	Towaco	NJT	MCM1
		Montville	NJT	abandoned
	Boonton	Boonton	NJT	MCM1
	Mountain Lakes	Mountain Lakes	NJT
	Denville	Denville	NJT	NJT Morristown Line joins MCM10
	Dover	Dover	NJT	Morristown Line electric train storage yard MCM 2, 10 buses
	Mount Arlington	Mount Arlington, under construction	NJT
	Roxbury	Lake Hopatcong	NJT
		Port Morris	NJT	Diesel Train Storage Yard and future Lackawanna Cutoff split
	Netcong	Netcong	NJT
	Mount Olive	Mount Olive	NJT	International Trade Center
	Hackettstown	Hackettstown	NJT	NJT 973 bus, WHEELS Shuttle
Midtown Direct service
0	New York City	New York Penn Station	NJT	Long Island Rail Road, Amtrak, New York City Subway, New York City Bus, MTA Bus
	Secaucus	Secaucus Junction	NJT	All NJT Rail lines except the Atlantic City Line and Raritan Valley Line, NJT 2, 129, 172 buses

[edit] External links

• Notice of Exemption for Norfolk Southern on the old Boonton Line

	This box: view • talk • edit New Jersey Transit Rail (system map) (website)
Hoboken Division	Erie Lines: Bergen County Line – Main Line – Pascack Valley Line – Port Jervis Line Morris & Essex Lines: Gladstone Branch– Morristown Line Montclair-Boonton Line
Newark Division	North Jersey Coast Line – Northeast Corridor Line – Princeton Branch – Raritan Valley Line
South NJ and light rail	Atlantic City Line – Hudson-Bergen Light Rail – Newark Light Rail – River Line
Connections	Aldene Connection – Hunter Connection – Kearny Connection – Montclair Connection – Secaucus Junction – Waterfront Connection
Other	List of New Jersey Transit stations – Retired New Jersey Transit rail fleet

This box: view • talk • edit New Jersey Transit Corporation
Bus	Bus operations – Bus fleet
Commuter rail	Atlantic City Line
	Main and Bergen County Lines, including the Port Jervis Line – Pascack Valley Line Montclair-Boonton Line – Morris and Essex Lines (Morristown Line and Gladstone Branch)
	North Jersey Coast Line – Northeast Corridor Line and Princeton Branch – Raritan Valley Line
	System map – Stations – Retired fleet
Light rail	Hudson-Bergen Light Rail – Newark Light Rail – River Line