CNJ's abandonment of Jersey City terminal

Had my kids at Liberty Science center last Thursday. Unreal that there is no evidence of the roundhouses or huge coaling tower. I remember seeing it once from the Turnpike as a kid. Drove past the CNJ Terminal. Time & the elements are not being kind to the train sheds. Good to see the HBLT running on the old CNJ main though.
Jim H

I was down at Liberty State Park this past weekend for the City of Water Festival. Liberty Historis Railway had a tent there where I got to meet and talk with Bill McKelvey. He told me that the New Jersey DEP - Parks will support the LHRy 2012 Transportation Enhancement Grant Application for $1,000,000 to stabilize the perimeter of the CRR of NJ, Jersey City Terminal, Train Shed. He is very worried about the condition of the shed which has started to colllapse in certain places. He even showed me a stalagmite that grew down from the ceiling of the shed as the minerals leech out of the deteriorating cement. There is one stalagmite that hangs down from the ceiling about three feet. He thinks that if nothing is done to shore up the shed it will collapse in ten years.

oldrow51 wrote:I was down at Liberty State Park this past weekend for the City of Water Festival. Liberty Historis Railway had a tent there where I got to meet and talk with Bill McKelvey. He told me that the New Jersey DEP - Parks will support the LHRy 2012 Transportation Enhancement Grant Application for $1,000,000 to stabilize the perimeter of the CRR of NJ, Jersey City Terminal, Train Shed. He is very worried about the condition of the shed which has started to colllapse in certain places. He even showed me a stalagmite that grew down from the ceiling of the shed as the minerals leech out of the deteriorating cement. There is one stalagmite that hangs down from the ceiling about three feet. He thinks that if nothing is done to shore up the shed it will collapse in ten years.

I have a copy of the grant application Bill submitted. He did an excellent job! Let's hope the grant is approved!

The trainshed was built in 1913 and has been sitting out there for 45 years - almost half its life. Collapse in a decade from all that growth? Sound like the Titanic, but LHRY better hurry soon.

Here is a link to the scene in Funny Girl that was filmed at the station in the fall of 1967.

You'll see the upper level of the ferry head house and the ramp the led to the train sheds.

The ferry head house was deemed too expensive to restore and was removed as part of the station restoration.

Enjoy !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_g3kkGH8Mo


Ken

Maybe somebody here can answere a questions that's been bugging me for a while.

After the implementation of the Aldene Plan, I heard that the CNJ was required to run a daily train to and from Allentown, PA. I also heard that they scheduled the run for something like 3 A.M. in order to fulfill their requirement, yet create low ridership in order to justify dropping service west of the Delaware River.

I haven’t been able to locate any CNJ schedules for the first few weeks when service moved from the Jersey City Terminal to Newark Penn Station. I’ve only been able to find schedules that showed Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton runs to Jersey City Terminal prior to the switch.

Has anyone else heard this story or was it a figment of some railroad-government complex conspiracy theorist.

BuddCarToBethlehem wrote:Maybe somebody here can answere a questions that's been bugging me for a while.

After the implementation of the Aldene Plan, I heard that the CNJ was required to run a daily train to and from Allentown, PA. I also heard that they scheduled the run for something like 3 A.M. in order to fulfill their requirement, yet create low ridership in order to justify dropping service west of the Delaware River.

I haven’t been able to locate any CNJ schedules for the first few weeks when service moved from the Jersey City Terminal to Newark Penn Station. I’ve only been able to find schedules that showed Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton runs to Jersey City Terminal prior to the switch.

Has anyone else heard this story or was it a figment of some railroad-government complex conspiracy theorist.

I believe it....they killed off the Seashore Branch so it wouldn't have to be included in the Aldene Plan (it was supposed to be originally). They seemed to cut the most heavily traveled trains, which were during rush hours, and made schedule changes which made traveling and connections not as convenient as they once were.

There are a few stories from various railroads in that timeframe of similar things happening, and I believe the NYSW actually offered people a one time sum of money to not ride their commuter trains anymore so they could cancel them and stop running them.

My recollection is that all passenger service ceased not later than the start of the Aldene Plan. Also, I seem to recall that the 3 a.m. train was a mail train consisting of several mail cars, and one coach.

Thought I had an empl TT for 30 Apr 67, but apparently not. The 29 Oct 67 empl TT shows no trains betw Hampton and Allentown.

Jtgshu wrote:I believe it....they killed off the Seashore Branch so it wouldn't have to be included in the Aldene Plan (it was supposed to be originally). They seemed to cut the most heavily traveled trains, which were during rush hours, and made schedule changes which made traveling and connections not as convenient as they once were.

I can't blame CNJ if they were pressured by New Jersey state officials to cease the service. My Dad, in '64, worked in Manhattan, and for about 6 months he commuted daily from Bethlehem to Manhattan via Jersey City Terminal and the ferry service. He said he paid $90 for a monthly pass. If I remember anything from my finance class in college that should be around $650 to $700 in today's dollar. Now keep in mind that CNJ's service wasn't subsidized by the state yet. Fast forward to April, 1967, now I don't know if New Jersey had begun to subsidize service like SEPTA was doing for the Reading and Penn Central, but the Lehigh Line connector was certainly a subsidy, so I can see how they wouldn't want CNJ to waste their resources in Pennsylvania.

Just to answer a few questions that have come up here.

Effective with the Aldene Plan, all passenger services WEST of Hampton station ended.
There were (2) weekday, rush hour trips between Hampton and Newark, with the rest of the mainline trips between Newark, Plainfield and Raritan.
The Cranford to Bayonne shuttles were coordinated to meet mainline trains at Cranford, and at the start of the new service the shuttles were well patronized.
At that point there was still much industry around E-Port, and lower Bayonne to drive ridership.

The other CNJ Passenger service that ended on 4/29/67 were the (3) round trips that ran to Kearny station in South Kearny.
(2) of these round trips ran to and from Broad Street, and (1) from and to Plainfield.

The last of the CNJ trains to Harrisburg and Allentown ended with the Aldene Plan, and those services were doomed after they lost mail handling contracts late in 1965.

The State of NJ started to provide direct subsidies to the railroads providing commuter service in 1966.
This is why the Bayshore service ended in 1966, as well as a number of Erie-Lackawanna branch lines.
The railroads had to determine which services had the highest potential ridership, and that's where the subsidy focus was to be directed.

The state's entry into providing subsidies was a reaction to the New York Central's dropping it's West Shore Line commuter service, and the NYSW dropping it's remaining services as well.

At that point in time the future of commuter rail was still a huge question, but the subsidies were designed to keep the most heavily used services running until a
long range plan could be developed.

The votes passed a transportation bond act in 1968, the funds from which slowly started a turn around for the commuter rail lines.


Ken

Thanks for that post Peconicstation.....it was a very interesting time here in NJ, and while we look back now at what "could have and should have" been, you are right, the entire railroad was in doubt, and in a larger instance, the entire concept of railroadING in the Northeast was in doubt as well.

However, what was done was done for a reason, and looking back now, it worked. Imagine if they just let the whole thing crumble.......

With regard to the Seashore, its important to note that the expansion of Route 36 from Highlands to Keyport (paralleling the Seashore from Altantic Highlands to Keyport) was finished up in late 1965/early 1966, and cost the state a lot of money to make it 2 lane in each direction divided highway. It almost seemed like it was going to be one or the other, the expansion of the highway which would benefit many more folks or the keeping of passenger service on the Seashore, but not both.

Living off Route 36, while I would LOVE for the train to have kept running, the expansion of the highway was needed and would and did benefit many more folks than the railroad ever could.

peconicstation wrote:At that point in time the future of commuter rail was still a huge question, but the subsidies were designed to keep the most heavily used services running until a long range plan could be developed.

Check out this link:

http://www.multimodalways.org/docs/rail ... 5-1959.pdf

It's interesting reading. I knew the Aldene Plan took a while to get done, but I didn't realize tht it dated back to the '50's.