Bay Street is a
New Jersey Transit
New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit, and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey, along with portions of New York State and Pennsylvania. It operates bu ...
station on Pine Street between Bloomfield and Glenridge Avenues in
Montclair, New Jersey
Montclair () is a township in Essex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Situated on the cliffs of the Watchung Mountains, Montclair is a wealthy and diverse commuter town and suburb of New York City within the New York metropolitan area. As ...
, along the
Montclair-Boonton Line
The Montclair-Boonton Line is a commuter rail line of New Jersey Transit Rail Operations in the United States. It is part of the Hoboken Division. The line is a consolidation of three individual lines: the former Delaware, Lackawanna & Western R ...
. The station is served by all trains on the line, including all ten weekend trains. The first station of six in Montclair, Bay Street is the southernmost, servicing the downtown district. The station was built originally in 1981 to replace the
Lackawanna Terminal built near Grove Street in 1913 as a part of creating the
Montclair Connection
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 ...
. Upon its opening on February 27, 1981, Bay Street was a lone platform with a single shelter. In 2002, as part of the Montclair Connection, Bay Street was completely rebuilt to standards for ADA accessibility, including two high-level platforms and a new elevator for a bridge crossing the tracks. The station also received honors in July 2010 for the development around the station and as a result was a part of getting Montclair designated a Transit Village, by the
New Jersey Department of Transportation
The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) is the agency responsible for transportation issues and policy in New Jersey, including maintaining and operating the state's highway and public road system, planning and developing transportat ...
, under the Transit Village Initiative.
History
Opening
The station was built in 1981 to replace Montclair's previous station, Lackawanna Plaza, two blocks to the west of the current station. Lackawanna Plaza (also known as Lackawanna Terminal) was once the grand terminal opened in 1913 by the
Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad
The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (also known as the DL&W or Lackawanna Railroad) was a U.S. Class 1 railroad that connected Buffalo, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey (and by ferry with New York City), a distance of . Incorporated in ...
for its
Montclair Branch
The Montclair-Boonton Line is a commuter rail line of New Jersey Transit Rail Operations in the United States. It is part of the Hoboken Division. The line is a consolidation of three individual lines: the former Delaware, Lackawanna & Western R ...
.
The station's usage had been relegated from six tracks served by three platforms to one platform serving one track and the branch had gone from two tracks down to one. The station last served passenger trains on February 26, 1981, and the next day, trains,
then operated by
Conrail
Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busin ...
, were realigned to the east in Montclair, serving a new station, named Bay Street. At that time, Bay Street was originally a bare platform with only one track and a small shelter. The realignment was the first phase for the planned Montclair Connection to connect the Montclair Branch to the Boonton Line. This station now served as the terminus of the Montclair Branch, and as a result, the end of electrification.
Montclair Connection
![Montclair Connection South](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Montclair_Connection_South.png)
A long sought connection of train service between the Lackawanna Railroad's Montclair Branch and the
Erie Railroad
The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the northeastern United States, originally connecting New York City — more specifically Jersey City, New Jersey, where Erie's Pavonia Terminal, long demolished, used to stand — with Lake Erie ...
's New York and Greenwood Lake Railroad, which serviced five other stations in Montclair was first proposed in 1929 by the Regional Plan Association. However, the Great Depression shelved any plans to connect the lines. The plan continued to wane for several years until in 1963, when the old
Boonton Branch
The Boonton Branch refers to the railroad line in New Jersey that was completed in 1870 and ran 34 miles (54.8 km) from Hoboken to East Dover Junction as part of the Morris & Essex Railroad (M&E). Although the branch hosted commuter train ...
was reconfigured at Mountain View in
Wayne, New Jersey
Wayne is a Township (New Jersey), township in Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. Home to William Paterson University and located less than from Midtown Manhattan, the township is a bedroom suburb of New York ...
to the New York and Greenwood Lake, when revival plans returned. However, the connection continued to be a quiet subject until the late 1980s, when New Jersey Transit revived the proposal. A deal was struck with the township of Montclair in 1998, with a one track connection used for only diesel train sets. However, this proposal was changed into a double track connection with overhead electric catenary wires. Construction on the Montclair Connection began one year later and was completed on September 30, 2002.
As a result of the Montclair Connection, Bay Street station was reconstructed entirely. The lone single platform was removed, rebuilt with two high-level platforms and a large crossover bridge. The shelter was removed and service was expanded full-time in both directions. Rather than being a terminal for trains, trains continued northward to
Montclair Heights, where passengers could transfer to other trains.
Transit village
On July 11, 2010, it was announced by the
New Jersey Department of Transportation
The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) is the agency responsible for transportation issues and policy in New Jersey, including maintaining and operating the state's highway and public road system, planning and developing transportat ...
that Montclair, along with
Somerville
Somerville may refer to:
*Somerville College, Oxford, a constituent college of the University of Oxford
Places
*Somerville, Victoria, Australia
* Somerville, Western Australia, a suburb of Kalgoorlie, Australia
* Somerville, New Zealand, a subur ...
, had been designated as transit villages. These transit villages are designated to provide residents and people public transit with public services including new residences and stores. Montclair was given high regard for the work done at Bay Street station to make it possible, including a new parking deck, and a complex of seven residential units along Pine Street. These transit villages would also be given a chance to get $100,000 in funding to continue the station's development. Although Montclair's transit village is mostly built at Bay Street, the township also serves five other stations, all in walkable distance from residences.
Station layout and services
![Bay street station](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Bay_street_station.png)
Bay Street station is the first of six stations in the township of
Montclair, located on Pine Street between Bloomfield Avenue (
County Route 506) and Glenridge Avenue.
The station has two high-level
side platform
A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms ...
s to serve passengers on its two tracks. The platforms themselves are connected by a crossover bridge with elevators and have ticket vending machines. The station has a 248-space parking garage and a smaller lot a block away. Eight of those spots are handicapped accessible and maintained by the Montclair Parking Authority.
There are continuing maintenance issues regarding the station and parking deck, and neither NJ Transit nor the municipality admit responsibility for the station building.
Bay Street station is a major stop on the Montclair-Boonton Line as every train serving it stops here. This is the terminal for all weekend service except for several special holiday trains that go to Lake Hopatcong station.
References
External links
Station from Glenridge Avenue from Google Maps Street View
{{NJT stations navbox
NJ Transit Rail Operations stations
Railway stations in the United States opened in 1981
Montclair, New Jersey
Railway stations in Essex County, New Jersey
1981 establishments in New Jersey