Elizabeth is a disused train station in

Elizabeth, New Jersey Elizabeth is a city and the county seat of Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.New J ...

Central Railroad of New Jersey The Central Railroad of New Jersey, also known as the Jersey Central or Jersey Central Lines , was a Class I railroad with origins in the 1830s. It was absorbed into Conrail in April 1976 along with several other prominent bankrupt railroads of ...

(CNJ) in 1893. It is adjacent to

NJ 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 ...

's Elizabeth station on the

Northeast Corridor The Northeast Corridor (NEC) is an electrified railroad line in the Northeast megalopolis of the United States. Owned primarily by Amtrak, it runs from Boston through Providence, New Haven, Stamford, New York City, Philadelphia, Wilmington, a ...

. That station was built and owned by the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

; in the era of private operation passengers could transfer between the two. The CNJ

right-of-way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...

in Elizabeth is unused, and

passenger train A passenger train is a train used to transport people along a railroad line. These trains may consist of unpowered passenger railroad cars (also known as coaches or carriages) hauled by one or more locomotives, or may be self-propelled; self pr ...

s which served the former CNJ mainline (NJT's

Raritan Valley Line The Raritan Valley Line is a commuter rail service operated by New Jersey Transit (NJT) which serves passengers in municipalities in Union, Somerset, and Hunterdon counties in the Raritan Valley region in central New Jersey, United States. Th ...

service) bypass Elizabeth via the

Aldene Connection The Aldene Connection is a connection between two railroad lines in the Aldene neighborhood of Roselle Park, New Jersey, United States, one formerly belonging to the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ), the other formerly of the Lehigh Valley R ...

on their way to

Newark Penn Station Pennsylvania Station (also known as Newark Penn Station) is an intermodal passenger station in Newark, New Jersey. One of the New York metropolitan area's major transportation hubs, Newark Penn Station is served by multiple rail and bus carriers, ...

. The station has been renovated and used as commercial space.

Major named trains

The station was on CNJ's main line and was also utilized by B&O and Reading Railway trains which terminated at CNJ's Jersey City terminal, where ferry service to New York was available. *

Baltimore and Ohio The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

(routes west beyond Washington, DC): **''

Capitol Limited The ''Capitol Limited'' is a daily Amtrak train between Washington, D.C., and Chicago, running via Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Service began in 1981 and was named after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's ''Capitol Limited'' which ended in 1971 u ...

,'' ''

Cincinnatian The ''Cincinnatian'' was a named passenger train operated by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O). The B&O inaugurated service on January 19, 1947, with service between Baltimore, Maryland and Cincinnati, Ohio, carrying the number 75 westbound ...

,'' ''

Columbian Columbian is the adjective form of Columbia (disambiguation), Columbia. It may refer to: Buildings * The Columbian Theatre, a music hall in northeastern Kansas * The Columbian (Chicago), a building in Illinois Published works * ''The Columbian' ...

,'' ''

Metropolitan Special The ''Metropolitan Special'' was the workhorse passenger train of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) during the 1920s–1960s between St. Louis, Missouri, and New York's Rockfeller Center station. In earlier years only the east-bound #12 c ...

,'' ''

National Limited The ''National Limited'' was the premier train of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) on its route between Jersey City, New Jersey and St. Louis, Missouri, with major station stops in Washington, D.C., and Cincinnati, Ohio. (Buses took passenge ...

'' and others *

Reading Railway The Reading Company ( ) was a Philadelphia-headquartered railroad that provided passenger and commercial rail transport in eastern Pennsylvania and neighboring states that operated from 1924 until its 1976 acquisition by Conrail. Commonly calle ...

(route to Bethlehem, Allentown, Reading and Harrisburg): **''Harrisburg Special'' and ''

Queen of the Valley The ''Queen of the Valley'' was a named train of the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ) that ran between Jersey City, New Jersey, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, via the Lehigh Valley and Reading. The train took about 4 hours to traverse the ...

'' *

(route to West Trenton and Philadelphia): **'' Crusader'' and ''Wall Street''

Status

The CNJ station suffered from a

freight train Rail freight transport is the use of railroads and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers. A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of freight cars (US) or goods wagons (International Union of Railways) haul ...

wreck on November 4, 1972, when a

boxcar A boxcar is the North American ( AAR) term for a railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry freight. The boxcar, while not the simplest freight car design, is considered one of the most versatile since it can carry most ...

derailed and pulled several other cars into the canopy. Although the buildings and

freight car A railroad car, railcar (American and Canadian English), railway wagon, railway carriage, railway truck, railwagon, railcarriage or railtruck (British English and UIC), also called a train car, train wagon, train carriage or train truck, is ...

s were damaged, there were no

injuries An injury is any physiological damage to living tissue caused by immediate physical stress. An injury can occur intentionally or unintentionally and may be caused by blunt trauma, penetrating trauma, burning, toxic exposure, asphyxiation, or ...

. The station has been listed in the

New Jersey Register of Historic Places The New Jersey Register of Historic Places is the official list of historic resources of local, state, and national interest in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The program is administered by the New Jersey's state historic preservation office within ...

and

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

since 1984 and is part of the Operating Passenger Railroad Stations Thematic Resource. There are plans to redesign the public space and create a transit plaza between the CNJ and NJT stations. Funding was approved in 2018. The proposed Union County Light Rail, which would have connected midtown Elizabeth with

Newark Airport Newark Liberty International Airport , originally Newark Metropolitan Airport and later Newark International Airport, is an international airport straddling the boundary between the cities of Newark in Essex County and Elizabeth in Union Count ...

, would have had its western terminus at this station. The station for this line would have been referred to as Midtown to distinguish from the other stations in Elizabeth on this line. The plan has been replaced by the Union ''go bus'' expressway, a proposed

bus rapid transit Bus rapid transit (BRT), also called a busway or transitway, is a bus-based public transport system designed to have much more capacity, reliability and other quality features than a conventional bus system. Typically, a BRT system includes ...

system between

Garwood Garwood can refer to: People * Doug Garwood, American golfer * Edmund Johnston Garwood, British geologist * Julie Garwood, author * Kelton Garwood, American actor * Richard Garwood, Air Marshall in the Royal Air Force * Robert R. Garwood, prison ...

and the airport.

References

{{NRHP in Union County, New Jersey Buildings and structures in Elizabeth, New Jersey Former Central Railroad of New Jersey stations Former Baltimore and Ohio Railroad stations Railway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in New Jersey Former railway stations in New Jersey Transportation in Elizabeth, New Jersey Romanesque Revival architecture in New Jersey Railway stations in the United States opened in 1839 National Register of Historic Places in Union County, New Jersey Repurposed railway stations in the United States 1839 establishments in New Jersey