Aldene Connection
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The Aldene Connection is a connection between two railroad lines in Roselle Park in central New Jersey, one formerly belonging to the Central Railroad of New Jersey, the other formerly of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, allowing trains on today's New Jersey Transit Raritan Valley Line to travel from Cranford through stations at Roselle Park and Union to the Hunter Connection outside Newark, which in turn allows access to the Northeast Corridor and Newark Penn Station.
On Sunday, April 30, 1967, opening day of the Aldene Plan, enthusiasts James T. Ryan and Al Holtz in their individual ventures, captured and recorded the first train operating over the Aldene Plan. In a full fledged dress rehearsal for the next day's rush hour commutes, CNJ FM Trainmaster #2411 powered a 15 car push-pull consist with cab car 1321, WABCO equipped and rebuilt from a 1300 series arched-roof coach, leading Eastbound. The operation is nearly identical today to how it was in the very beginning. Passengers bound for New York must disembark at Newark and change either to a Northeast Corridor or North Jersey Coast Line train operated by New Jersey Transit to New York Penn Station or PATH trains to the World Trade Center. This is due to an unfortunate combination of factors. First, the CNJ never electrified the line when it was still in business (although there is evidence that the idea was played with on paper), and its subsequent owners including Conrail and New Jersey Transit have never undertaken such a project. The second is a 1900s New York City ordinance allowing only electric-powered trains to operate into Manhattan below 96th Street. The end result is that a trip between New York and the Raritan Valley Line necessarily requires the use of two trains.
Prior to the building of the Aldene Connection, Reading Company trains (and prior to 1958, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad passenger trains) were able to travel from Philadelphia to Jersey City, via the Reading and Jersey Central tracks, with the trains terminating at Communipaw Terminal in Jersey City (at present-day Liberty State Park) and then connecting, via ferry, to New York City's Financial District.
Until its demise in 1992, it also connected to the now-defunct Rahway Valley Railroad.
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