Summit (NJT station)

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Coordinates: 40°42′59.6″N 74°21′27.9″W / 40.716556, -74.35775

Summit

Gladstone train waits on Track 1 in view from east end.

Station statistics

Lines

Gladstone Branch

Morristown Line

Connections

NJT Bus: 70, 986
Lakeland: 78

Platforms

1 side platform and 1 island platform

Tracks

Other information

Accessible

Owned by

New Jersey Transit

Fare zone

Traffic

Passengers (2007)

954,200 ▲ 3%

Services

Preceding station		New Jersey Transit		Following station
New Providence toward Gladstone		Gladstone Branch		Short Hills toward Hoboken or New York Penn
Chatham toward Hackettstown		Morristown Line

Summit is a station served by New Jersey Transit's Gladstone Branch and Morristown Line, located in downtown Summit, New Jersey. It serves as a transfer station for those coming from Gladstone and wishing to go to New York, since most trains from Gladstone only go to Hoboken Terminal. It also serves as the originating point for numerous trains to both Hoboken and Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan.

There are three tracks and two platforms in the station. Trains on the Gladstone Branch, in both directions, typically use Track 3, a siding on the south side of the station, while faster Morristown Line trains come in peak direction on the other side of the island platform and non-peak on Track 1. Track 1 is not used on weekends and holidays, however, so that passengers transferring can remain on the platform instead of having to cross the overpass, which they may not have time to do.

The station is notable for being one of the few on NJ Transit located below street level. It also is the westernmost one on either line that leaves it to have an high-level platform. It has a small but very popular coffee and newspaper shop that is open at morning commute time.

The station was cosmetically renovated at some expense for the 2005 PGA Championship at the Baltusrol Golf Club in nearby Springfield. Status screens were installed on the platforms to show the next train and the platforms and fittings were painted. Structural rust has since shown through the paint in many places and the screens have frequently exhibited Windows system errors in the time since. As of 1Q2008 some screens display train times at an inappropriate resolution.

Due to the availability of trains and potential destinations, it draws commuters from not just Summit but many surrounding communities. The station thus boasts not only a small adjacent parking lot on its own property that slopes down from Union Place but a large lot just across Summit Avenue, accessible from Broad Street. In the 1990s, a multistory parking garage was built on part of the Broad Street lot. In the days after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the city made chalk marks on the tires of the many unclaimed vehicles in it for every day they remained there, in order to help identify those missing.