Montclair Connection

Montclair Connection
Legend
Boonton Line to Hackettstown Walnut Street Boonton Line Montclair Connection Bay Street Lackawanna Terminal (Montclair) Montclair Branch Glen Ridge│Benson Street Bloomfield Watsessing Avenue│Rowe Street Arlington Hoboken Terminal
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The Montclair Connection is a short section of double-track railroad on the NJ Transit Rail Operations system in New Jersey, United States, connecting the former end of the Montclair Branch at Bay Street station to the old Boonton Line southeast of Walnut Street station.

The connection opened on Monday, September 30, 2002,

The Montclair 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. The idea for the connection was first proposed in 1929 when the Regional Plan Association proposed linking the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad's Montclair Branch with the Erie Railroad's Greenwood Lake Branch, but the plan was abandoned due to the economic difficulties associated with the Great Depression.^[5]

The merger between the

The reconfiguration again spurred the Montclair Connection idea, and in preparation, service was cut back from Lackawanna Terminal to Bay Street by Conrail in 1981. But the proposal was introduced until the late 1980s, when New Jersey Transit proposed for a one-track connection that would have accommodated only diesel trains. Later, the plans were revised to include a two-track connection and five miles of overhead catenary wires, allowing for electric train service and increased travel destinations. After negotiations with the Township of Montclair, an agreement was reached in 1998, and construction began in 1999.^[5]