PC1100 wrote:Melrose actually WAS abandoned for a short time back in 1988. However, by 1989 it was back in the timetables. Morrisania and 183rd Street were closed in 1973 shortly before the high level platforms were built in the Bronx. If you look at old NYC timetables going back to at least the 1950s, service to those two stops was very limited, especially 183rd Street. The NYC tried to close it around 1952 when they closed Claremont Parkway, but they were unsuccessful. Many of the Bronx local trains, which did stop at Melrose and Tremont, skipped Morrisania and 183rd. There must have been some ridership at Melrose, even in the early '70s, to justify building high levels.
When I was working for Metro-North between 1983 and the fall of 1987, I worked a few Harlem trains that stopped at Melrose. Seems that at the
time there was commuting from Melrose to stations in Westchester
County for domestic workers and probably others too.
In the New York Central days, they had to fight for permission before
they could close any stations and permission was often hard to come by.
Noel Weaver