Niantic (also known as East Lyme or East Lyme and Niantic) was a train station on the Northeast Corridor located in the

Niantic Niantic may refer to: * Niantic people, tribe of American Indians * Niantic, Inc., mobile app developer known for the mobile games ''Ingress'' and ''Pokémon Go'' Ships * ''Niantic'' (whaling vessel), relic of San Francisco Gold Rush *USS ''Ni ...

village of

East Lyme, Connecticut East Lyme is a town in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 18,693 at the 2020 census. The villages of Niantic and Flanders are located in the town. Geography East Lyme is located in southern New London County, west ...

. Opened in the 1850s, it was rebuilt in 1899 and again in 1954 by the

New Haven Railroad The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad , commonly known as The Consolidated, or simply as the New Haven, was a railroad that operated in the New England region of the United States from 1872 to December 31, 1968. Founded by the merger of ...

. It closed in 1972, then reopened from 1978 to 1981 for use by the

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

'' Beacon Hill''. A new station has since been proposed to be built in Niantic to serve the

Shore Line East Shore Line East (SLE) is a commuter rail service which operates along the Northeast Corridor through southern Connecticut, United States. The rail service is a fully owned subsidiary of the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) and i ...

commuter rail service.

History

Former stations

The New Haven & New London Railroad was charted in 1848, began construction in 1850, and opened for service in July 1852. East Lyme station, located at the foot of Pennsylvania Avenue, may have opened slightly later than other stations on the line. The line was owned by the

New York, Providence and Boston Railroad The New York, Providence and Boston Railroad, normally called the Stonington Line, was a major part of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad between New London, Connecticut and Providence, Rhode Island. It is now part of Amtrak's high-sp ...

(the "Stonington Road") from 1858 to 1862, and by the Shore Line Railway from 1864 until it was acquired by the

in 1870. As Niantic grew to exceed East Lyme proper in population - particularly after Camp Niantic opened in 1873 - the station was renamed East Lyme and Niantic. Niantic station 1915 postcard

The original station burned on September 23, 1898. It was replaced in early 1899 by a

saltbox A saltbox house is a gable-roofed residential structure that is typically two stories in the front and one in the rear. It is a traditional New England style of home, originally timber framed, which takes its name from its resemblance to a woode ...

style station similar to others that the New Haven built that decade. The station was heavily used by soldiers traveling to Camp Niantic for maneuvers, as well as by spectators. The station was little-used by mid-century; it was divided into retail stores in 1954, and a by wooden shelter was constructed nearby. The 1899-built station building was destroyed by fire on August 22, 1970, and demolished in early September. Most commuter service east of New Haven ceased on January 1, 1969, after the New Haven merged into

Penn Central The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania, New York Central and the ...

, though the '' Clamdigger'' continued operation under Penn Central and later

until January 28, 1972. In 1975, the

Connecticut Department of Transportation The Connecticut Department of Transportation (often referred to as CTDOT and occasionally ConnDOT, or CDOT) is responsible for the development and operation of highways, railroads, mass transit systems, ports and waterways in Connecticut. ...

(CDOT) made plans to restore commuter rail service between New Haven and New London, with a twice-daily ''Clamdigger'' making the same stops as the pre-1972 train, including to the former Niantic station (now to be named simply East Lyme); although negotiations with Penn Central were successful, budgetary constraints prevented these plans from coming to fruition. A second version of the ''Clamdigger'' operated from September 9, 1976 to October 30, 1977, but it did not stop at Niantic. The ''Clamdigger'' was reinstated on January 8, 1978, with commuter-based flag stops added at Groton, Clinton, Madison, Stony Creek, and Branford - but still not Niantic. The ''Clamdigger'' was replaced by the Boston-New Haven '' Beacon Hill'' effective April 30, 1978. The decaying wooden shelter had been torn down by the local Jaycees on February 18 of that year as a civic improvement project, so the Niantic 'station' consisted of "a strip of gravel dumped between two yellow two-by-fours". Ridership west of Providence on the ''Beacon Hill'' was light; the first passenger to use the Niantic

flag stop In public transport, a request stop, flag stop, or whistle stop is a stop or station at which buses or trains, respectively, stop only on request; that is, only if there are passengers or freight to be picked up or dropped off. In this way, s ...

was a New London Day reporter on the service's third day. The ''Beacon Hill'' was discontinued on October 1, 1981, ending service to Niantic a second time.

Shore Line East

commuter service began between

New Haven New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,023 ...

and

Old Saybrook Old Saybrook is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 10,481 at the 2020 census. It contains the incorporated borough of Fenwick, as well as the census-designated places of Old Saybrook Center and Saybroo ...

on May 29, 1990. Beginning in 1996, some Shore Line East trips were extended eastward to

New London New London may refer to: Places United States *New London, Alabama *New London, Connecticut *New London, Indiana *New London, Iowa *New London, Maryland *New London, Minnesota *New London, Missouri *New London, New Hampshire, a New England town ** ...

; however, they did not make any stops between Old Saybrook and New London. In April 2012, a state report was released detailing four possible sites for an

infill station An infill station (sometimes in-fill station) is a train station built on an existing passenger rail, rapid transit, or light rail line to address demand in a location between existing stations. Such stations take advantage of existing train serv ...

in East Lyme. Two of the sites were near downtown Niantic (one at the Niantic River Bridge to the east, and the other at Hole in the Wall Beach to the west), while the other two were in

Rocky Neck State Park Rocky Neck State Park is a public recreation area on Long Island Sound in the town of East Lyme, Connecticut, United States. The state park's include a tidal river, a broad salt marsh, white sand beaches, rocky shores, and a large stone pavili ...

. A 2015 bonding proposal from Connecticut governor

Dannel Malloy Dannel Patrick Malloy (; born July 21, 1955) is an American politician, who served as the 88th governor of Connecticut from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he chaired the Democratic Governors Association from 2016 to 2017. On Jul ...

allocated $750,000 to the planning and construction of a new station and parking lot in Niantic (out of an estimated $30,000,000 required to bring the new station fully into service).

References

External links

{{commons category inline Shore Line East stations East Lyme, Connecticut Demolished railway stations in the United States Railway stations closed in 1981 Railway stations in the United States opened in 1978 Railway stations closed in 1972 Former New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad stations Stations on the Northeast Corridor