Northeast Corridor Line

This article is about the New Jersey Transit service. For the Amtrak line on which the service runs, see Northeast Corridor.

Northeast Corridor Line
Train #3945 enters New Brunswick.
Overview
Type	Commuter rail
System	New Jersey Transit
Locale	Central New Jersey
Termini	New York Penn Station Trenton Transit Center
Stations	17
Daily ridership	53,798[1]
Operation
Owner	Amtrak (tracks)
Operator(s)	New Jersey Transit
Rolling stock	ALP-44 locomotives ALP-46 locomotives Arrow III Comet Series Bombardier Transportation Multilevels
Technical
Track length	57.1 mi (91.9 km)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)
Route map Legend Amtrak Northeast Corridor/LIRR Sunnyside Yard East River Tunnels East River New York Penn Station Amtrak Hudson R., N.Y./N.J. border North River Tunnels Secaucus Junction Hackensack River Waterfront Connection Kearny Connection New Jersey Turnpike PATH Harrison PATH Passaic River Newark Penn Station Amtrak Newark South Street NJ 21 Raritan Valley Line diverges Lehigh Line Interstate 78/US 22 Newark Airport Amtrak AirTrain Newark North Elizabeth Broad St.-Elizabeth South Elizabeth Staten Island Railway Linden CSAO Linden Industrial Track North Rahway Rahway North Jersey Coast Line diverges Colonia Iselin Garden State Parkway Metropark Amtrak CSAO Port Reading Line Menlo Park Metuchen Perth Amboy Running Track Interstate 287 Edison Raritan River NJ 18 New Brunswick Amtrak NJ 27 M&NB Jersey Avenue US 1 Adams Deans Monmouth Junction Jamesburg Branch Plainsboro Princeton Branch diverges Princeton Junction Amtrak Princeton Lawrence Interstate 295 Hamilton Trenton River LINE to Camden NJ 33 US 206 NJ 29 Delaware R., N.J./Penn. border Amtrak Northeast Corridor Morrisville Yard Norfolk Southern This route map: view · talk · edit

The Northeast Corridor Line is a commuter rail operation run by New Jersey Transit along Amtrak's Northeast Corridor. It is the successor to commuter services provided by the Pennsylvania Railroad along the section between Trenton, New Jersey and New York Penn Station. After arrival at New York Penn Station, some trains load passengers and return to New Jersey, while others continue east to Sunnyside Yard for storage. Most servicing is done at the Morrisville Yard, at the western end of the line. The Northeast Corridor Line is colored red on the current New Jersey Transit system maps and its symbol is the State House in Trenton.

History

Commuter service on what was to become the Northeast Corridor Line began with the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1933, after the 11,000 volt AC overhead catenary was completed between Trenton and Pennsylvania Station. Penn Station had originally been intended for long distance passenger trains, with steam-hauled commuter traffic routed to the older Jersey City terminal. With the overhead electrification complete, the PRR could run trains of electric multiple units direct to Manhattan.^[2]

The weekday schedule from September 1951 featured six trains a day from New York to Trenton, seven a day from New York to New Brunswick, two a day from Jersey City to Trenton, and six a day from Jersey City to New Brunswick. That includes just the trains that terminated at Trenton or New Brunswick; many more trains from New York to Philadelphia and beyond also carried passengers to the major suburban stations.

By the 1960s the financial situation of the Pennsylvania Railroad had deteriorated. With the railroad unable to sustain the money losing commuter operation on its own, let alone invest in improved physical plant and rolling stock, the New Jersey Department of Transportation became involved with maintaining the service. In 1968 NJDoT funded construction of the new Metropark station and in 1969 they funded the purchase of 35 new stainless steel "Jersey Arrow" MU cars.^[3] After 1968 the service was taken over by the merged Penn Central railroad and following the Penn Central's bankruptcy the commuter service was taken over by Conrail in 1976, under a contract from NJDoT. The state continued to fund replacement of the aging pre-war MU equipment with the Arrow II and Arrow III orders. Finally in 1983 the State took over all of the Conrail operations under the aegis of a new statewide public transport agency, New Jersey Transit.

Clockers

Clocker trains were started by the Pennsylvania Railroad between Philadelphia and New York; until the 1950s weekday trains departed New York and Philadelphia on the hour throughout the day, which gave rise to the Clocker name. They were used mostly by businesspeople traveling between Philadelphia and New York. After the Amtrak takeover of the Northeast Corridor the no-longer-hourly "Clocker" service was targeted at commuters making local stops bypassed by the high speed Metroliner and individually named trains. During the 1990s New Jersey Transit contracted with Amtrak to accept monthly NJT passholders on the Clocker trains. Soon the Clockers were being primarily used by NJT commuters with only a handful of riders taking the trains to/from Philadelphia. The root cause was because the Clockers were much faster (and more comfortable) than a typical NJT train, but slower and more crowded than a typical Amtrak train causing the former's riders to prefer the trains and the latter's riders to avoid them.

The changing market conditions prompted New Jersey Transit and Amtrak to rethink their arrangement, first by New Jersey Transit supplying new ALP-46 locomotives to haul the trains' Amfleet coaches and later to discontinue the Clocker service altogether and sell the capacity slots to New Jersey Transit for use by new Trenton express trains. The Clocker last ran October 28, 2005 and on October 31 and thereafter New Jersey Transit began operating several extra Trenton-New York express trips. Connecting SEPTA Trenton Line service between Philadelphia and Trenton is listed in the timetable.

Service

The Northeast Corridor Line operates a zone service between the outlying stations and the terminal zone which begins at Newark International Airport Station. During the peak period North Jersey Coast Line trains stop at North Elizabeth through Rahway. Stations between Rahway are served by Jersey Avenue Locals, which originate and terminate at Jersey Avenue station. Finally Trenton Express trains make their first/last stop at Princeton Junction or New Brunswick. A few all stops locals operate sporadically on weekdays as well and all day on weekends. Jersey Ave locals make local stops between Rahway and Elizabeth outside peak periods. North Elizabeth station is skipped by most NEC Line trains and express trains cannot stop at Jersey Ave eastbound.^[4][5]

Ridership

With high levels of service and a route through one of the most densely populated areas of the United States, the Northeast Corridor Line is New Jersey Transit's busiest rail line. On an average weekday in 2007, the Northeast Corridor Line handled 53,798 boardings.^[1] The line also contains all of New Jersey Transit's busiest non-terminal stations: Metropark with 7,620 boardings; Princeton Junction with 7,355; Trenton with 6,045; and New Brunswick with 5,787 weekday boardings.^[1]

Rolling stock

All service on the Northeast Corridor Line is electric and uses either Budd/GE Arrow III electric cars built in 1978 or push-pull locomotive trains (ALP-44 or ALP-46). These trains are made up of Comet series cars or the new Bombardier Transportation Multilevels.

Line improvements

The modern era of commuter operations began in 1983 when New Jersey Transit Rail Operations took over the service from Conrail. Since that time, numerous changes to the line intended to improve New Jersey Transit service have been made. These include the following.

Morrisville Yard

In 2007 NJT opened a new 19-track layup yard on the site of the former Pennsylvania Railroad freight classification yard across the Delaware River in Morrisville, Pennsylvania. The new yard replaced the haphazard collection of storage tracks around the Trenton Station complex. This not only increased the absolute number of trains that could be stored at the end of the line, but also reduced the number of relay movements needed to position trains in at the correct platform at Trenton. Capacity was also increased by trains no longer having to cross all 4 mainline tracks to access their storage tracks as the new Morrisville yard was accessed by a flying junction.

Trenton Transit Center

Looking southward at the Trenton Transit Center from Track 4

Formerly called the Trenton Station, this station is the beginning of the New Jersey Transit portion of the Northeast Corridor line as well as the terminus of the SEPTA Trenton Line service. The Trenton station is also a stop for Amtrak trains with most Regional, Keystone and Long Distance trains stopping.

In 2004 the River Line light rail Trenton station opened across the street. In 2008 the station was formally renamed the Trenton Transit Center as the station was overhauled, including the complete replacement of the station headhouse and concourse structure which had last been rebuilt during the 1960s. The new station has more space for vendors and passengers.

Hamilton Station

Hamilton Station in Hamilton Township opened in 1999, costing $30 million (1992 USD).^[6] With almost direct access to Interstate 295 and Interstate 95, park and ride capacity was large with 1,556 spaces available at the station's opening. Due to the popularity of the station with commuters arriving via Interstate from points south in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, a parking deck was added in 2007 with 2,066 more spaces for a total of 3,622.^[7] The station has sculptures and designs from the Grounds for Sculpture, a sculpture park in Hamilton.^[8]

Hamilton Station did much to alleviate the increasingly desperate parking situations in Trenton and Princeton Junction. Trenton's downtown station is hard to reach and has little space for parking; Princeton Junction has no direct access to a major highway and its vast parking lot had long since reached capacity. The Hamilton Station was built for New York area commuters traveling increasing distances to work. Its direct freeway access and ample parking proved a hit with riders and it is one of the busiest stations on the New Jersey Transit system. The conversion of the nearby American Standard factory into transit oriented development led to further ridership gains.

Metropark

The Metropark rail station project was initiated by NJDoT in 1968 as part of a plan accommodate businesses and commuters that were fleeing the old urban cores. The station opened in 1971 next to the Garden State Parkway for easy access by automobile; nearby stations at Iselin and Colonia closed soon after. The new station was also designed with the new Metroliner Service in mind with high level platforms and a large business park to make the new station a destination in itself. To allow Metroliners and other express trains to stop at Metropark new crossovers were installed in the 1980s on either side of the station to allow trains on the inner express tracks to pull over and stop at the two side platforms.

Newark Airport Station

Built in conjunction with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the owner of Newark Liberty International Airport, this station allows passengers to connect with AirTrain Newark, the airport's monorail. The station opened in late 2001 and was part of a larger project to increase capacity south of Newark Penn Station. Along with the station's two island platforms, two tracks were added for a mile east and west of the station, bringing the number of tracks on this section of the corridor to 6. This allows some local trains to be passed by NJT express and Amtrak trains.

Kearny and Waterfront Connections

These track connections between the Corridor and the former-DL&W Morris and Essex Lines allow trains from NJ Transit's Hoboken Division to run to New York Penn Station, as well as allowing Newark Division trains access to Hoboken Terminal. No NEC trains serve Hoboken Terminal as of January 2010 (in the 1990s there was one Hoboken-Trenton train a day) but a few North Jersey Coast Line trains run across the connection during weekday peak hours, allowing NEC passengers to transfer. At other times, passengers must transfer using PATH.

Secaucus Junction

Opened in 2003, Secaucus Junction was built as a major transfer hub for the New Jersey Transit system. Built where the Corridor crosses over the Main Line, the station allows passengers on Hoboken-bound trains to switch to trains to New York Penn Station, and vice versa.

Station stops

The following station stops are made by Northeast Corridor Line trains; not all trains make all stops.

Northeast Corridor Line stations
Zone[4]	Miles from New York	Municipality	Station	Services[4]	Public transportation[4]	Notes
–	0.0	New York City	Penn Station	ADA-accessible, TVM	Amtrak, Long Island Rail Road, NJ Transit: North Jersey Coast Line, Gladstone Branch, Montclair-Boonton Line, Morristown Line NYC Subway: 1 2 3 A C E trains NYC Transit buses: M4, M7, M20, M34 / M34A Select Bus Service, Q32	Northern terminus of the line
	5.0	Secaucus	Secaucus Junction	ADA-accessible, TVM	NJ Transit buses: 2, 78, 129, 329	Transfer here for other New Jersey Transit lines (except the Raritan Valley and Gladstone Branch lines)
	10.0	Newark	Newark Penn Station	ADA-accessible, TVM	NJ Transit buses: 1,5, 11, 21, 25, 28, 29, 34, 39, 40, 43, 62, 67, 70, 71, 72, 73, 75, 76, 78, 79, 108, 308, 319, 361, 375, go25, go28	Transfer here for the Raritan Valley Line, PATH trains and the Newark Light Rail
	12.6		Newark Airport	ADA-accessible, TVM	–	Transfer here for the AirTrain Newark in Newark Airport.
5	14.4	Elizabeth	North Elizabeth	ADA-accessible, TVM	NJ Transit buses: 112	Limited weekend service (2 afternoon, 2 morning trains)
	15.4		Elizabeth	ADA-accessible, TVM	NJ Transit buses: 26, 52, 56, 57, 58, 59, 62, 112
7	18.6	Linden	Linden	ADA-accessible, TVM	NJ Transit buses: 56, 57, 94
8	20.7	Rahway	Rahway	ADA-accessible, TVM	NJ Transit buses: 62 Rahway Community Shuttle	North Jersey Coast Line trains diverge/merge south of Rahway
10	24.6	Woodbridge	Metropark	ADA-accessible, TVM	NJ Transit buses: 62, 801, 802, 803, 804, 805
11	27.1	Metuchen	Metuchen	ADA-accessible, TVM	NJ Transit buses: 810, 813, 819 Metuchen Community Shuttle
13	30.3	Edison	Edison	ADA-accessible, TVM	Edison Community Shuttle
14	32.7	New Brunswick	New Brunswick	ADA-accessible, TVM	NJ Transit buses: 810, 811, 814, 815, 818 New Brunswick Community Shuttle Coach USA: Line 100
	34.4		Jersey Avenue	TVM	–	No weekend service except for 2 night Trenton-bound trains. Main line platform is Trenton-bound only, while a separate platform on a yard spur serves New York-bound trains.
19	48.4	West Windsor	Princeton Junction	ADA-accessible, TVM	NJ Transit buses: 600, 612	Travelers destined for Princeton must transfer here for the shuttle on the Princeton Branch.
	51.1	Princeton	Princeton	ADA-accessible, TVM	NJ Transit buses: 609	Only accessible via the shuttle from Princeton Junction
20	54.4	Hamilton Township	Hamilton	ADA-accessible, TVM	NJ Transit buses: 606, 608
22	58.1	Trenton	Trenton	ADA-accessible, TVM	NJ Transit buses: 409, 418, 600, 601, 604, 606, 608, 609, 611, 613, 619 SEPTA bus: 127	Transfer here for SEPTA trains to 30th Street Station in Philadelphia and River Line trains to Camden
Stations closed since 1993
8	20.1	Rahway	North Rahway	–	–	Closed in 1993 due to maintenance issues

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} New Jersey Transit rail boarding numbers 2007-1999 Berkeley'.' Retrieved 2008-06-28.
2. ^ Pennsy Power II
3. ^ Triumph of the PRR, Vol 5
4. ^ ^{a b c d} "Northeast Corridor Timetable". Newark, New Jersey: New Jersey Transit. January 17, 2010. http://www.njtransit.com/pdf/rail/r0070.pdf. Retrieved 30 January 2010. 
5. ^ "North Jersey Coast Timetable". Newark, New Jersey: New Jersey Transit. January 17, 2010. http://www.njtransit.com/pdf/rail/r0080.pdf. Retrieved 30 January 2010. 
6. ^ Peterson, Iver (April 18, 1992). "Trenton Sees Proposed Train Station Stealing Its Business". The New York Times (New York, New York: TimeWarner). http://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/18/nyregion/trenton-sees-proposed-train-station-stealing-its-business.html. Retrieved 6 December 2009. 
7. ^ "Welcome to Hamilton Station". Hamilton, New Jersey: Nexus Parking Systems. 2009. https://www.nexusparkingsystems.com/hamilton-station-park-ride.cfm. Retrieved 6 December 2009. 
8. ^ Garbarine, Rachelle (August 22, 1998). "In the Region/New Jersey; Near Trenton, 'Village' and Sculpture Complex Blend". The New York Times (New York, New York: TimeWarner): pp. 2. http://www.nytimes.com/1999/08/22/realestate/in-the-region-new-jersey-near-trenton-village-and-sculpture-complex-blend.html?pagewanted=2. Retrieved 6 December 2009. 

External links

• New Jersey Transit - Northeast Corridor Line schedulePDF (554 KB)