Montclair Connection
| Company type | Railway segment |
|---|---|
| Industry | Rail transport |
| Founded | September 30, 2002 |
| Headquarters | Montclair, New Jersey , United States |
Area served | New Jersey |
| Products | Passenger rail service connection |
The Montclair Connection is a dual-track railway segment within the NJ Transit Rail Operations network in New Jersey. It serves as a link between the former terminus of the Montclair Branch at Bay Street station and the old Boonton Line close to Walnut Street station.
Inaugurated on September 30, 2002, with an investment of $63 million, the initiative involved reconstructing Bay Street Station and establishing the Montclair State University station. The integration of the Montclair and Boonton lines formed the Montclair-Boonton Line, which discontinued passenger services east of this connection on the previous Boonton Line. That section was reduced to a single track for freight operations by Norfolk Southern Railway but has since been decommissioned, with portions falling into disrepair, particularly east of the Passaic River, where both the DB Draw and WR Draw bridges have been declared unsafe. At the same time, three stations along the Boonton Line—Benson Street, Rowe Street, and Arlington—were shut down.
The primary goal behind the Montclair Connection was to enable passengers on the Boonton Line to reach New York Penn Station directly, replacing the earlier arrangement that only provided service to Hoboken Terminal. This idea originated in 1929 when the Regional Plan Association suggested connecting the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad’s Montclair Branch with Erie Railroad’s Greenwood Lake Branch. However, financial difficulties during the Great Depression prevented further development.
After the 1960 merger between the Erie and Lackawanna Railroads, a reorganization finalized in 1963 linked the former Erie Main Line with Lackawanna’s Boonton Line just south of Paterson, creating what is now known as the Main Line. Meanwhile, west of Mountain View, the Boonton Line connected to Erie’s Greenwood Lake Branch to form today’s Boonton Line.
This realignment renewed interest in completing the Montclair Connection. Passenger service was truncated from Lackawanna Terminal to Bay Street by Conrail in 1981. Initially, New Jersey Transit proposed a single-track diesel link in the late 1980s but later expanded this plan to a dual-track connection featuring five miles of overhead catenary wires to accommodate electric trains and broaden service areas. After securing approval from Montclair Township in 1998, construction commenced in 1999.
External links
- Boonton Line, Montclair Branch Corridor Improvements: Environmental Impact Statement (1994), United States Federal Transit Administration via Northwestern University, May 16, 1994