The Newark Light Rail is a light rail system under New Jersey Transit Bus Operations serving Newark, New Jersey. The service consists of two segments, the original Newark City Subway, and the Broad Street Line. The combined service was officially inaugurated on July 17, 2006.

Newark City Subway

The longer and older of the two segments is known as the Newark City Subway. The line is a "subway-surface" light rail line which runs underground downtown and above-ground in outlying areas. Before becoming a part of the Newark Light Rail service, it was also known as the #7-City Subway line, an NJT Bus Operations route number that still applies internally (during system closures, buses would also bear the number "7 City Subway").

The segment is long and runs between Newark Penn Station and Grove Street in Bloomfield.

History

The line opened in 1935 along the old Morris Canal right-of-way, from Broad Street (now known as Military Park), at the old Newark Public Service Terminal, north to Heller Parkway. WPA artists decorated the underground stations with art-deco scenes from life on the defunct Morris Canal. The southernmost part, south of Warren Street, was capped with a new road, known as Raymond Boulevard. Only one grade crossing was present on the original subway; the line crosses Orange Street at grade so it can pass over the below-grade Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (now NJT Morristown Line) immediately to the north.

In 1937, the subway was extended to a lower level of the new Newark Penn Station. Additionally, the Cedar Street Subway, which had been used to access the Newark Public Service Terminal from Washington Street, was pushed through to a junction with the subway between Broad Street and Penn Station. An extension to North 6th Street, subsequently re-named Franklin Avenue (now Branch Brook Park Station), opened in 1940.

The subway was originally operated by the Public Service Corporation as its #7 line. Other streetcar routes used parts of the subway, with ramps to the surface:

• Via Cedar Street Subway: #13 Broad, #17 Paterson, #27 Mount Prospect, #43 Jersey City
• Warren Street Ramp: #21 Orange—West Orange via Market Street
• Norfolk Street Ramp: #23 Central
• Orange Street Grade Crossing: #21 Orange—West Orange via Orange Street
• Bloomfield Avenue Ramp: #29 Bloomfield

Until June 5, 1952, the Roseville Car House, on the south side of Main Street (on the #21 line) near the east border of East Orange, was used for the #7 line. Since then, Newark Penn Station had been used for storage and maintenance, until a new shops and yard complex opened with the extension to Grove Street, beyond the end of passenger service at Grove Street.

New Jersey Transit took over operations in 1980. For many years, 30 PCC streetcars bought from Twin City Rapid Transit in the 1950s were running on the route. The cars had been built 1946–1949 by the St. Louis Car Company and were sold by TCRT when that system went through a conversion to buses. Four were scrapped over the years, and two were sold off to Shaker Heights Rapid Transit in 1978. In 2001, new light rail cars built by Kinki Sharyo in Japan in 1999 replaced the PCCs.

Some of the PCCs are currently stored in the Newark City Subway shop; current speculation is that they will likely end up in museums. Eleven have been sold to the San Francisco Municipal Railway for use on its F Market heritage streetcar line. One of the Shaker Heights cars has been restored by the Minnesota Transportation Museum, which operates it on a short stretch of track in western Minneapolis. Some people in Minneapolis have hoped that some of the remaining cars may also return to that city to run on a proposed streetcar line on the Midtown Greenway, but such a project is not likely to begin anytime soon as of 2006.

In 2005, eight PCCs were given to the City of Bayonne to be rehabilitated and operated along a proposed loop to serve the Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor, formerly Military Ocean Terminal at Bayonne (MOTBY). The proposed line will be connected to the 34th Street station of the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail.

Broad Street Station was renamed Military Park Station on September 4, 2004, to avoid confusion with the new segment to Newark Broad Street Station.

Bloomfield extension

On June 22, 2002, the Newark City Subway was extended to the suburbs of Belleville and Bloomfield along what had been the Erie Railroad's Orange Branch, now under Norfolk Southern ownership. New stations were opened at Silver Lake and Grove Street, and the Heller Parkway and Franklin Avenue stations were combined into a new Branch Brook Park station. The loop at Franklin Avenue was removed, since the new vehicles are bidirectional, unlike the old PCCs—a new loop, however, is in place at the Grove Street facility. All the street crossings on the extension are at-grade.

Shared-track operation

The original agreement gave sole operating privileges to Norfolk Southern between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. daily, but a new agreement allows passenger service to operate at all hours, with late-night service commencing on January 8, 2005. In exchange, Norfolk Southern can now operate during all off-peak hours, when passenger trains are infrequent.

Since January 2005, Norfolk Southern (NS) and NJ Transit’s Newark City Subway (NJT-NCS) have been sharing a section of track at the NJT-NCS outer terminus. The shared track portion is the Bloomfield Extension completed in 2002. Although NS retains ownership of track, NJT is responsible for all maintenance on the shared section. In 2002, time separation was put in place, with agreed “freight” period beginning at 11pm. Since then, the desire to return transit cars to the shop and growing ridership pressures on the shared-track segment have required NJT to extend subway service into the original freight period.

Special procedures are required for the passage of a freight train over the shared-track segment. Normal operation over the shared-track is set for exclusive NJT passenger operations. In passenger mode, the shared territory is protected from freight train encroachment by wayside signals and electric split-point derails at both freight entry-points. When the shared segment is aligned for freight, automatic train stops protect freight trains against NJT-NCS vehicle encroachment. Operations on the shared-track are continuously monitored by the NJT OCC through a track circuit block occupancy vehicle location system. The signal system is fully interlocked with switches at all turnouts to control all movements on and off of the shared-track.

Freight trains stop in advance of a low signal adjacent to the derail. The crews then contact the NJT OCC by radio or telephone to request permission to enter the shared-track interlocking. Upon receiving permission, the freight train conductor initiates a route request for the shared interlocking. Shortly thereafter, the derail is electrically lined and locked to allow the freight train to proceed. All three turnouts in the shared-track interlocking are lined and locked so that the NS train can traverse the shared segment and enter the freight-only track leading to the freight facility. A permissive signal aspect is then displayed to the freight train to govern the westward move onto and over the shared-track.

Upon completion of the shared-track move, the conductor release the route, to return the shared-track to passenger mode allowing normal passenger operations to resume. Once the freight crew is ready to return eastbound over the shared-track, the procedure for transferring between the passenger and freight use of the interlocking must be repeated.

The freight train crew communicates directly with the NJT dispatcher. If route requests are issued without NJT dispatcher permission, it is treated as a signal violation. Any operation (whether authorized or not) automatically sets the signals and automatic train-stops to prevent conflicting moves. The signalling interlocks prevent the route from being lined to allow freight movement if the interlocking is occupied by other traffic.

The NS freight train generally operates during the mid-day passenger off-peak hours. Under this arrangement, NJT and NS trains do not operate at pre-determined, separate and distinct portions of the day, but the signal and track appliances installed on the shared-track effectively eliminates the possibility that simultaneous movements could occur. The rolling-stock remains spatially and temporally separated. The mode changes rely on the route-request feature of the signal installation.

Broad Street Line

The Broad Street Line, initially known as MOS-1 of the Newark-Elizabeth Rail Link, and later called the Broad Street Extension, is the second segment of the Newark Light Rail. The line is one mile (1.6 km) long and connects Newark Penn Station to Broad Street Station. A section of the extension, from Newark Penn Station to Center Street, runs underground, using a junction that originally led to the still-abandoned Cedar Street Subway tunnel. The remaining section runs above-ground. One stop serves the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, while another serves the Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium. The extension opened on July 17, 2006, with the first revenue service train departing Newark Penn Station at 1 p.m. EDT.

Construction began in 2002 with an estimated cost of $207.7 million, or about $40,000 per foot of track; it was completed within budget. It is expected to have 4,000 average weekday boardings after one year, growing to about 7,000 in 2010.

The art work at the new stations has a common theme, titled "Riding with Sarah and Wayne." It is intended as a tribute to Newark's native daughter Sarah Vaughan and includes the lyrics to her signature song, "Send in the Clowns," and colored bricks representing the music notes.

Another link connecting downtown Newark with Newark Liberty International Airport was announced as in the planning stages as part of the Newark Rail Link (formerly the Newark-Elizabeth Rail Link). However, NJ Transit has since removed this from its list of candidate projects.

Fares

The Newark Light Rail is equivalent to a one-zone bus ride, with the one-fare zone at $1.35 as of 2009, and is valid for one hour on the entire system from the time the ticket is validated. Through-ticketing is available for connecting bus routes. Passengers must purchase tickets before boarding and validate them before boarding the train (valid transfers from connecting New Jersey Transit or Coach USA ONE Bus bus routes or monthly passes also constitute proof of payment). Transit police will enter trains at certain times to make sure all passengers have validated tickets. The fine for not having a ticket is $74. On the PCC streetcars, cash fares were paid on board (except for a brief period prior to the introduction of LRVs, when proof-of-payment fare collection was instituted).

Stations

Newark City Subway

Station	Transfers	Notes
Newark Penn Station	NJ Transit buses: 1, 5, 11, 21, 25, 28, 29, 34, 40, 62, 67, 70, 71, 72, 73, 75, 76, 78, 79, 108, and 319 ONE Bus: 31, 44 NJ Transit rail: Northeast Corridor Line, North Jersey Coast Line, Raritan Valley Line Other: PATH trains to New York City, Amtrak to Philadelphia and points south, and New York City and points north.
Military Park	NJ Transit buses: 13, 27, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 59, 62, 65/66, 67, 70, 72, 73, 76, 78 and 108 ONE Bus: 24, 44	formerly Broad Street; served the Newark Public Service Terminal
Washington Street	NJ Transit buses: 11, 28, 29, 70, 72, 76, and 78; ONE Bus: 44 (inbound only)
Warren Street	NJ Transit buses: 71, 73, and 79 NOTE: These buses do not carry local passengers within Newark or East Orange.
Norfolk Street	NJ Transit buses: 99 ONE Bus: 24, 44 The 24 and 44 stop on Central Avenue.
Orange Street	NJ Transit buses: 71, 73, 75 NOTE: The 71 and 73 do not carry local passengers within Newark or East Orange.
Park Avenue	NJ Transit buses: 41
Bloomfield Avenue	NJ Transit buses: 11, 28, 29, 72
Davenport Avenue	none
Branch Brook Park	NJ Transit buses: 27, 74, 90, 92, 93
Silver Lake (Belleville)	NJ Transit buses: 27, 90
Grove Street (Bloomfield)	NJ Transit buses: 11, 28, 29, 72, 90 Buses stop on Bloomfield Avenue.

Heller Parkway and Franklin Avenue (formerly North 6th Street) were closed after the Bloomfield extension and service is providedby the Branch Brook Park station.

Broad Street Line

• Newark Penn Station
• NJPAC/Center Street
• Washington Park (southbound)
• Atlantic Street (northbound)
• Riverfront Stadium (northbound)
• Newark Broad Street Station

Rolling stock

Today the Newark Light Rail system uses a new-model vehicle built by Kinki Sharyo of Japan. This vehicle, the same one used by the HBLR system, is a double-articulated vehicle with three segments. Each of the two end segments has an operator's cab at the far end, thus eliminating the need for the vehicle to turn itself around physically in order to reverse direction. Each end segment also has seating for 16 passengers on an upper level, and seating for 13 passengers on the lower level, including one special fold-down seat next to an empty space that a wheelchair-bound passenger may use. With these two segments, and a middle segment that seats ten passengers (five on each side), the vehicle can comfortably accommodate 68 seated passengers and two wheelchairs. An additional 122 passengers could stand in the vehicle, if necessary.

The capacity of any particular "run" along the system can double by coupling two of these vehicles together and running them as a train.

Timeline

• December 22, 1910: The Public Service Corporation first announces plans to build the subway, initially including a line under Broad Street from Bridge Street to Clinton Avenue.
• May 26, 1935: The subway opens from Broad Street to Heller Parkway. The #21 line is routed onto the subway via the Warren Street Ramp and level junction at the Orange Street grade crossing. The #23 line is routed via the Norfolk Street Ramp. The #29 line starts using the Bloomfield Avenue Ramp.
• June 20, 1937: The extension to Newark Penn Station opens. This is the same day that the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad (present-day PATH) withdraws service from its Park Place terminal and first operates into its new alignment at Newark Penn Station. The #13, #27 and #43 lines are rerouted to Penn Station via the Cedar Street Subway; the #27 and #43 had used the lower level of the Newark Public Service Terminal.
• June 21, 1937: The #17 line is rerouted via the Cedar Street Subway.
• July 18, 1937: The #13 and #17 lines stop using the Cedar Street Subway.
• December 29, 1937: The #27 line stops using the Cedar Street Subway.
• May 1, 1938: The #43 line stops using the Cedar Street Subway, ending all service on that connection.
• November 22, 1940: The extension to North 6th Street (later Franklin Avenue) opens.
• December 14, 1947: The #23 line stops using the Norfolk Street Ramp.
• March 1, 1951: The #21 line stops using the Warren Street Ramp.
• March 29, 1952: The #21 line stops using the level junction at the Orange Street grade crossing.
• March 30, 1952: The #29 line stops using the Bloomfield Avenue ramps.
• January 8, 1954: The first PCC car uses the subway.
• October 1980: NJ Transit takes over operations.
• August 21, 1999: The subway is closed for two weeks for an overhaul.
• September 7, 1999: The subway reopens.
• August 24, 2001: The PCC cars are officially retired from service.
• August 27, 2001: The new light rail vehicles begin operation.
• June 21, 2002: Heller Parkway closes.
• June 22, 2002: Silver Lake and Grove Street open.
• September 4, 2004: Broad Street is renamed Military Park.
• January 8, 2005: Additional late-night service is provided to Grove Street.
• July 17, 2006: The Newark City Subway extension opens, with service between Newark Penn Station and Newark Broad Street. Service is officially rebranded as the Newark Light Rail.

References

*Edward Hamm, Jr., The Public Service Trolley Lines in New Jersey.

*DOT Docket FRA-2000-7335-7 and -8.

1. Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor development plan, page 17, accessed July 25, 2006
2. Newark LRT Expands July 17
3. NJ Transit press release announcing the opening of the Broad Street Extension
4. New Jersey Transit Travel Alert announcing the opening of Newark Light Rail Extended service
5. New Jersey Transit
6. http://www.njtransit.com/nn_press_release.jsp?PRESS_RELEASE_ID=2246
7. http://www.njtransit.com/nn_press_release.jsp?PRESS_RELEASE_ID=323
8. http://www.njtransit.com/nn_press_release.jsp?PRESS_RELEASE_ID=326
9. http://www.njtransit.com/nn_press_release.jsp?PRESS_RELEASE_ID=510
10. http://www.njtransit.com/sa_notice.jsp?ID=1227
11. http://www.njtransit.com/nn_press_release.jsp?PRESS_RELEASE_ID=1588

See also

• List of light rail transit systems
• List of rapid transit systems

External links

• Newark Light Rail official website
• Newark Light Rail & Proposals on Google Maps
• NLR schedules
• Railroad.net forum - NJT light rail
• NYCSubway.org - Newark City Subway
• Abandoned Stations - Newark City Subway platforms