The Montclair Connection is a short section of double-track New Jersey Transit rail connecting the former end of the Montclair Branch at Bay Street Station to the old Boonton Line southeast of Walnut Street Station. When it opened on Monday, September 30, 2002, the Montclair and Boonton lines were combined into the Montclair-Boonton Line, and passenger service was ended on the old Boonton Line east of the connection; it is now only used by Norfolk Southern for freight. Stations that no longer see service because of the connection are:
Benson Street Station
Rowe Street Station
Arlington Station
The connection was built to give passengers on the Boonton Line direct access to New York Penn Station; prior to the change, Boonton Line trains could only go to Hoboken Terminal.
Problems with the Connection
Several problems accompanied the opening of the Connection. One obvious problem is that passengers at the three former Boonton Line stations had to go further to catch the train.
Another less-obvious problem is that the town of Montclair disapproved of diesel trains through Montclair, and the track is not electrified all the way to the west end. Thus passengers from west of Montclair must transfer to an electric train at Montclair University Station (originally at Montclair Heights Station).
It also takes more time to get to Hoboken Terminal than with the old service, both because the new route is longer, and because many trains on the line no longer go to Hoboken.
External links
NJ Transit - New Montclair Connection Rail Link Opens (http://www.njtransit.com/nn_press_release.jsp?PRESS_RELEASE_ID=540)
NJ Transit Major Capital Projects (http://www.nj.com/njtransit/agate.ssf?/njtransit/projects.html) (unofficial)
Neighborhoods 3, 4, 5 and 6 are structurally similar, but the new train connection clearly cut neighborhood 6 off from its surrounding neighborhoods, making it a cumbersome and unlikely occasion that residents of neighborhood 6 will encounter residents of 3, 4, or 5 in their informal encounters characteristic of community life.
At the time the Montclair Township and NJ Transit were discussing five optional ways for the connection to bisect the Pine Street Neighborhood (click here to view a map of proposed train routes, circa 1984).
In the 1940's Montclair's fl population was growing in pace with massive fl migrations to the north.
Mondays all-aboard sounding for the MontclairConnection was 73 years in the making for historians who date the effort back to 1929 when the Regional Plan Association first proposed to hook up the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroads Montclair branch.
That committee, which developed into the MontclairConnection Monitoring Committee, agreed to drop the suit in return for a compensation package to assist the relocated residents as well as $2 million in redevelopment funds from NJ Transit.
Yet, after the opening of the MontclairConnection had already been delayed from late last year to early spring, then from a June startup to Mondays finale that included speeches by McGreevey, Warrington and U.S. Reps. Donald Payne and William Pascrell, there was one more slight delay to be had.
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