Port Morris Junction is the former railroad connection between NJ Transit's Montclair-Boonton Line and the Lackawanna Cut-Off. Built by the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western (Lackawanna) railroad, it sits in the Port Morris section of Roxbury Township, New Jersey, south of Lake Hopatcong.
Soon after rail service arrived in the 1850s, the Lackawanna Railroad built a rail yard on the eastern side of the Morris Canal, and used it to shift coal from railcars to barges. After the canal was abandoned and filled in 1924, the yard was used primarily to store freight cars awaiting movement to their destinations. As Lackawanna officials cast about for a way to shorten travel time from New York City to Buffalo, New York, the yard was one reason they picked Port Morris to be the eastern end of the Lackawanna Cut-Off.
Opened on December 24, 1911, the junction served the Lackawanna until October 17, 1960; the Erie Lackawanna Railroad until April 1, 1976; and Conrail until January 1979. Conrail abandoned the Cut-Off in 1983 and pulled up key tracks at the junction in October 1984.
In the early 1980s, NJ Transit took over the operation of commuter trains through the old junction area, and later that decade, began operating a rail yard there. Commuter trainsets begin their weekday morning eastbound runs at Hackettstown, Mount Olive, Netcong or Lake Hopatcong and proceed to Denville where they travel to Hoboken via the Morristown Line or the Montclair-Boonton Line. Connections along the way allow travel to New York City. Westbound travel runs this pattern essentially in reverse. (As of 2011, there is no weekend service west of Dover.)
As of 2011, the junction is to be rebuilt, with tracks to be relaid on the Cut-Off to support commuter service to Andover, New Jersey, 7.3 miles (11.8 km) northwest of Port Morris Junction. Further reconstruction is slated to extend service to Scranton, Pennsylvania, 88 miles (142 km) from Port Morris.