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The Chemical Coast is a section of Union and Middlesex counties in New Jersey located along the shores of the Arthur Kill, across from Staten Island, New York. The name is taken from the Conrail Chemical Coast Line, an important component in the ExpressRail system serving marine terminals in the Port of New York and New Jersey.
The name was first used by Conrail to designate a freight railway line that served several chemical plants in the area. The rail line was started by the Perth Amboy and Elizabethport Railroad in 1871. However, the company ran out of capital during the panic of 1873 and was purchased by the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ).
The CNJ operated both freight and passenger service along the line into the twentieth century, referring to it as the Perth Amboy and Elizabethport Branch. Passenger trains to Bay Head Junction, Atlantic Highlands, Freehold and Atlantic City (including the Blue Comet) utilized the line. There were passenger stations at Newark Airport, Elizabethport, Carteret, and Sewaren. At Elizabethport the CNJ also operated a car repair shop. Passenger service along the line ended in 1967 with the advent of the Aldene Plan when the Bay Head trains (the line's only remaining commuter service) were moved to Newark Penn Station. In 1976 Conrail took over ownership of the line and operation of the substantial freight business the line generated.
The CNJ constructed a two-track bridge over lower Newark Bay in 1864, and upgraded it to a dual pair of four-track lift bridges known collectively as the CRRNJ Newark Bay Bridge in 1926. This bridge offered a route and service through Bayonne and access to the Communipaw Terminal with ferry service to New York City. After the Conrail takeover the bridge between Bayonne and Elizabethport was demolished in the 1980s, but some of the stone piers were left standing along the shores of Newark Bay.
In 1872, the Singer Manufacturing Company of New York opened a factory in Elizabethport along Trumbull Street next to the intersection of the CNJ mainline with the Perth Amboy and Elizabethport Branch. [1] In 1873 Singer became a New Jersey corporation. [2]
The factory survived a major fire May 6–7, 1890. [3] During World War II much of the production capacity of the factory was shifted to war related work, with M1911 pistols being one of several items produced at Elizabethport. [4] The factory was shut down in the late 1960s. [5] The brick factory built by Singer served as an industrial park in 2009.
In 1907, John D. Rockefeller, the founder of the Standard Oil company, acquired several hundred acres of the former Morse family estate between Linden and Elizabeth for what would become the Bayway Refinery. Construction of the facility took place the following year and the first crude oil stills were fired up on January 2, 1909. [6] The facility underwent a series of ownership changes and capacity expansions throughout the twentieth century. By 2002 it was owned by ConocoPhillips. [7]
The Shell Oil Company opened a terminal facility on a 145-acre (59 ha) former Boynton farm property along Arbor Street in Sewaren in 1928. The terminal was transferred to the Motiva Enterprises Shell subsidiary during the 20th century and expanded to a 4.2 million barrels (670 Ml) storage capacity with connections to the Colonial pipeline and barge docks on the Arthur Kill in addition to the rail connections. [8] The facility now handles gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, ethanol, and fuel mixtures. [8]
Emissions from the area's chemical plants have been blamed for some serious health problems that have been observed among residents of neighborhoods on Staten Island situated directly across the Arthur Kill, specifically an elevated rate of cancer found to exist among long-time denizens of Travis. Strange—though not necessarily unpleasant—odors often waft across the Arthur Kill, and affect air quality not only on Staten Island's West Shore, where Travis is located, but parts of the island's South Shore and Mid-Island regions as well.
A freight line connection from New Jersey to the Staten Island Railway, via the Chemical Coast line, has been restored as of late 2006, and is operated by the Morristown and Erie Railway under contract with the State of New Jersey. The railroad bridge over the Arthur Kill waterway has also been restored, and at least one freight train has made the crossing in 2006 from New Jersey to Staten Island. Plans are to reactivate the North Shore of the Staten Island Railway to allow freight shipments to and from the recently revamped Howland Hook Marine Terminal. [9] [10]
The current Chemical Coast connection to Staten Island is freight service only, although separate plans are also being studied to reactivate passenger service on the North Shore Branch on Staten Island. Some of these latter proposals would run passenger trains to Cranford Junction, while others call for a western terminus at either the former Arlington or Port Ivory stations on Staten Island. [11]
In August 2006, the Linden Terminal intermodal facility started operating on Point Tremley along the Arthur Kill in Linden. The facility transfers ethanol for fuel use between barges, rail cars, trucks, and temporary storage tanks. [12]
In May 2007, The Star-Ledger reported that New Jersey–based biodiesel producer Fuel Bio "is trying to plant a green footprint on New Jersey's notorious Chemical Coast." The company is a producer of biofuels located inside of New York Terminals, [13] whose production facility is located in Elizabeth, New Jersey, across the Arthur Kill from Staten Island.
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The Staten Island Railway (SIR) is a railroad line in the New York City borough of Staten Island. It is owned by the Staten Island Rapid Transit Operating Authority (SIRTOA), a subsidiary of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and operated by the New York City Transit Authority Department of Subways. SIR operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, providing local service between St. George and Tottenville, along the east side of the island. There is currently only one line on the island, and there is no direct rail link between the SIR and the New York City Subway system, but SIR riders do receive a free transfer to New York City Transit bus and subway lines, and the line is included on official New York City Subway maps. Commuters on the railway typically use the Staten Island Ferry to reach Manhattan. The line is accessible from within the Ferry Terminal, and most of its trains are timed to connect with the ferry. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 6,151,400, or about 18,400 per weekday as of the second quarter of 2024.
The Arthur Kill is a tidal strait in the New York–New Jersey Harbor Estuary between Staten Island, New York and Union and Middlesex counties, New Jersey. It is a major navigational channel of the Port of New York and New Jersey.
Newark Bay is a tidal bay at the confluence of the Passaic and Hackensack Rivers in northeastern New Jersey. It is home to the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal, the largest container shipping facility in Port of New York and New Jersey, the second busiest in the United States. An estuary, it is periodically dredged to accommodate seafaring ships.
The Lehigh Valley Railroad was a railroad in the Northeastern United States built predominantly to haul anthracite coal from the Coal Region in Northeastern Pennsylvania to major consumer markets in Philadelphia, New York City, and elsewhere.
The Central Railroad of New Jersey, also known as the Jersey Central, Jersey Central Lines or New Jersey Central, 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 the Northeastern United States.
Conrail Shared Assets Operations (CSAO) is the commonly used name for modern-day Conrail, an American railroad company. It operates three networks, the North Jersey, South Jersey/Philadelphia, and Detroit Shared Assets Areas, where it serves as a contract local carrier and switching company for its owners, CSX Transportation and the Norfolk Southern Railway. When most of the former Conrail's track was split between these two railroads, the three shared assets areas were kept separate to avoid giving one railroad an advantage in those areas. The company operates using its own employees and infrastructure but owns no equipment outside MOW equipment.
The New York and Long Branch Railroad was a railroad in central New Jersey, running from Bay Head Junction in Bay Head to Perth Amboy, where it connected to the Central Railroad of New Jersey's Perth Amboy and Elizabethport Railroad. The railroad was jointly owned and operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Central Railroad of New Jersey and became property of Conrail in 1976. It is now part of New Jersey Transit's North Jersey Coast Line.
Port Ivory is a coastal area in the northwestern corner of Staten Island, New York City, New York, United States. It is located on Newark Bay near the entrances the Kill van Kull in the east and Arthur Kill in the west. It is bordered by Arlington to the east, Old Place to the south, Newark Bay to the north, and the Arthur Kill to the west.
The Port Reading Railroad was a railway company in the United States. It was incorporated in 1890 and completed its main line in 1892. It was controlled throughout its corporate life by the Reading Company. The Port Reading Railroad's line was conveyed to Conrail in 1976, and is today the Port Reading Secondary.
The Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal, also known as Communipaw Terminal and Jersey City Terminal, was the Central Railroad of New Jersey's waterfront passenger terminal in Jersey City, New Jersey. The terminal was built in 1889, replacing an earlier one that had been in use since 1864. It operated until April 30, 1967.
The Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Railroad Bridge is a rail vertical-lift bridge connecting Elizabethport, New Jersey and the Howland Hook Marine Terminal on Staten Island, New York, United States. The bridge was built by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1959 to replace the Arthur Kill Bridge, a swing bridge opened in 1890. It contains a single track that is used mainly to carry garbage out of New York City, as well as to transport freight to destinations in western Staten Island. The bridge parallels the Goethals Bridge, which carries Interstate 278. It has the longest lift span of any vertical-lift bridge in the world, with two 215-foot (66 m) towers and a 558-foot (170 m) truss span that allows a 500-foot (152 m) channel. It clears mean high water by 31 feet (9.45 m) when closed and 135 feet (41 m) when lifted.
Linden Yard is the name of two separate railroad freight yards in Linden, New Jersey, United States. One is owned by the Staten Island Railway (SIR) and the other is managed by Conrail Shared Assets Operations along the Northeast Corridor (NEC) right of way.
The Perth Amboy and Elizabethport Railroad was a railroad operated by the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ). It was an independent company when it started construction in 1871, but was taken over by the CNJ in 1873. The railroad diverged from the CNJ main line at Elizabethport and ran to South Amboy, where the New York and Long Branch Railroad (NY&LB) would go on to Bay Head. South of a junction with the Perth Amboy and Woodbridge Railroad in Perth Amboy, the Pennsylvania Railroad had trackage rights to connect with the jointly-controlled NY&LB; this portion was electrified in 1935. When the CNJ terminal in Jersey City closed, CNJ trains would run to Newark where passengers transferred to Pennsylvania Railroad or PATH trains to New York City. Today it is a part of New Jersey Transit's North Jersey Coast Line and Conrail's Chemical Coast Secondary.
Arlington Yard is a freight yard located on the North Shore Branch right of way of the Staten Island Railway in Staten Island, New York, United States. It lies west of the former Arlington station, east of Western Avenue, and north of the Staten Island Expressway in the Port Ivory neighborhood. The yard leads into the Travis Branch of the railway, the Howland Hook Container Terminal, and the Arthur Kill Lift Bridge to Elizabeth, New Jersey and the Chemical Coast and is part of the ExpressRail network.
The Lehigh Line is a railroad line in Central New Jersey, Northeastern Pennsylvania, and the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. It is owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway. The line runs west from the vicinity of the Port of New York and New Jersey in Manville, New Jersey via Conrail's Lehigh Line to the southern end of Wyoming Valley's Coal Region in Lehigh Township, Pennsylvania.
ExpressRail is a network of on- or near-dock rail yards supporting intermodal freight transport at the major container terminals of the Port of New York and New Jersey. The development of dockside trackage and rail yards for transloading has been overseen by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which works in partnership with other public and private stakeholders. As of 2019, four ExpressRail facilities were in operation, with a total built capacity of 1.5 million lifts.
The North Shore Branch is a partially abandoned branch of the Staten Island Railway in New York City, which operated along Staten Island's North Shore from Saint George to Port Ivory. The line continues into New Jersey via the Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge to Aldene Junction in Cranford.
The Travis Branch is a branch of the Staten Island Railway in New York City, that operates from Arlington Yard to Fresh Kills, which is used for freight transportation along the West Shore, Staten Island.
The Baltimore and New York Railway was a railroad line built by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) from Cranford, New Jersey, to the western side of the Arthur Kill Bridge in New Jersey, connecting with the North Shore Branch of Staten Island Rapid Transit. The line was built to provide the B&O access to a terminal in New York City, in Staten Island. Today, the line is used by CSX Transportation for freight trains.
William C. Koehler, who rose from carrier to a directorship of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, died late yesterday at his home of a ...
