PHILLIPSBURG | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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![]() Phillipsburg station | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
General information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Location | 175 South Main Street, Phillipsburg, New Jersey 08865 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Coordinates | 40°41′18″N75°11′56″W / 40.688231°N 75.198826°W | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Platforms | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tracks | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
History | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Closed | December 30, 1983 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Key dates | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
June 20, 1943 | Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad discontinues passenger service [1] [2] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
December 30, 1983 | NJ Transit ends commuter service [3] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Former services | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Phillipsburg Union Station is an active railroad station museum, in Phillipsburg, New Jersey, United States, at 178 South Main Street. Opened in 1914, Union Station was built by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad (DL&W) and shared with the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ) and was situated where the lines merged before the bridge crossing the Delaware River. Designed by Frank J. Nies, the architect who produced many of DL&W stations now listed state and federal registers of historic places, the 2+1⁄2 story, 3 bay brick building is unusual example of a union station and a representation of early 20th century Prairie style architecture. [4] [5] The Phillipsburg Union Signal Tower, or PU Tower, is nearby, also restored to its original form, and available for tours.
Situated at the confluence of the Delaware River and the Lehigh River, Phillipsburg has historically been a major transportation hub. From the 1820s to 1920s, it was the western terminus of the Morris Canal, which connected it by water eastward to the Port of New York and New Jersey and westward via the Lehigh Canal across the Delaware River.
Five major railroads converged in Phillipsburg: the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ), which first ran in 1852, [6] the DL&W's Morris and Essex Railroad, the Lehigh and Hudson River Railway (L&HR), Lehigh Valley Railroad (LVRR), and the Pennsylvania Railroad's (PRR) Belvidere Delaware Railroad. [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]
The South Easton and Phillipsburg Railroad of New Jersey, and the South Easton and Phillipsburg Railroad of Pennsylvania was organized on July 25, 1889, to build a bridge over the Delaware River between Easton, Pennsylvania, and Phillipsburg. The former built 460' on the New Jersey side, while the latter built 850' on the Pennsylvania side. Bridge construction began on November 19, 1889, and concluded the following year on October 2. [12] Subsequently, the L&HR obtained trackage rights over 13 miles of the Pennsylvania Railroad's (PRR) Belvidere Delaware Railroad between Phillipsburg and Belvidere; once the bridge was completed, the L&HR had a continuous line from Maybrook, New York, to Easton. At Easton, an interchange could be made with the Central Railroad of New Jersey and Lehigh Valley Railroad, while interchange with the PRR was at Phillipsburg. In 1908, L&HR lost the trackage rights from Phillipsburg to Belvidere as PRR took them back.
After the 1911 opening of the Lackawanna Cut-Off, the DL&W ran services on the Phillipsburg Branch of what became known as the Lackawanna Old Road. In April 1970, its successor Erie Lackawanna Railway (EL) abandoned the line. CNJ passenger service ran until the 1960s, its final named train being the Harrisburg-Jersey City Queen of the Valley. Passenger service ended in 1970, only to resume in 1976 under Conrail as part of the Raritan Valley Line. NJ Transit, successor to Conrail as operator, discontinued service between Phillipsburg and High Bridge on December 30, 1983. [13] The physical connection of the Raritan Valley Line to Phillipsburg was severed in 1989. The CNJ line and bridge, owned by NJ Transit, became part of Norfolk Southern's Lehigh Line. [14] [ better source needed ]
Union Station received of certificate of eligibility for listing on state and national registers of historic places from the State Historic Preservation Office in November 2003 (ID#4228). [15] The New Jersey Transportation Heritage Center operated a mini museum and information center, performed some renovations, [4] [5] [16] and built a collection. [17] [18] [19]
The Phillipsburg Union Signal Tower, which controlled movement to the station and was taken out of service by New Jersey Transit in 1983, has also undergone restoration. [20]
An extension of New Jersey Transit Rail Operations Raritan Valley Line from High Bridge station through Glen Gardner, Hampton, Bloomsbury/Bethlehem, NJ and Phillipsburg, in connection with the Norfolk Southern Lehigh Line into Northampton County Pennsylvania, has been considered. [21] [22] [23] In 2010, Easton Mayor Sal Panto Jr. promoted the restoration of rail service to Easton or Phillipsburg and possibly Allentown or Bethlehem. [24]
Studies have also been conducted to connect the station to rail trails. [25] [26]
The freight line, the Washington Secondary, passes the station, but is limited in what traffic it can carry due to height restrictions presented by the bridge at the station. [27]
Phillipsburg is a town located along the Delaware River that is the most populous municipality in Warren County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ metropolitan statistical area. As of the 2020 United States census, the town's population was 15,249, an increase of 299 (+2.0%) from the 2010 census count of 14,950, which in turn reflected a decline of 216 (−1.4%) from the 15,166 counted in the 2000 census.
Easton is a city in, and the county seat of, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city's population was 28,127 as of the 2020 census. Easton is located at the confluence of the Lehigh River, a 109-mile-long (175 km) river that joins the Delaware River in Easton and serves as the city's eastern geographic boundary with Phillipsburg, New Jersey.
New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit or NJTransit and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey and portions of the states of New York and Pennsylvania. It operates buses, light rail, and commuter rail services throughout the state, connecting to major commercial and employment centers both within the state and in its two adjacent major cities, New York City and Philadelphia. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 209,259,800.
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.
For the purposes of this article, the Jersey City area extends North to Edgewater, South to Bayonne and includes Kearny Junction and Harrison but not Newark. Many routes east of Newark are listed here.
The Raritan Valley Line is a commuter rail service operated by New Jersey Transit (NJT) which serves passengers in municipalities in Union, Somerset, Middlesex, Essex, and Hunterdon counties in the Raritan Valley region, primarily in central New Jersey and a smaller portion of northern New Jersey, in the United States. The line's most frequent western terminus is Raritan station in Raritan. Some weekday trains continue farther west and terminate at the High Bridge station, located in High Bridge. Most eastbound trains terminate in Newark; passengers are able to transfer to NJ Transit using a combined ticket or PATH and Amtrak to New York City. A limited number of weekday trains continue directly to New York.
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 Railroad. The connections allow trains on the New Jersey Transit Raritan Valley Line to travel from Cranford and points west through stations in Roselle Park and Union to the Hunter Connection in Newark, which in turn allows access to the Northeast Corridor and Newark Penn Station.
The Lehigh and Hudson River Railway (L&HR) was the smallest of the six railroads that were merged into Conrail in 1976. It was a bridge line running northeast–southwest across northwestern New Jersey, connecting the line to the Poughkeepsie Bridge at Maybrook, New York, with Easton, Pennsylvania, where it interchanged with various other companies.
The Warren Railroad was a railroad in Warren County, New Jersey, that served as part of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad's mainline from 1856 to 1911.
The Belvidere-Delaware Railroad was a railroad running along the eastern shore of the Delaware River from Trenton, New Jersey north via Phillipsburg, New Jersey to Manunka Chunk, New Jersey. It became an important feeder line for the Lehigh Valley Railroad's join to the Central Railroad of New Jersey, which was constructed into Phillipsburg, New Jersey, at about the same time. This connected Philadelphia and Trenton, New Jersey at one end of the shortline railroad to the rapidly growing lower Wyoming Valley region, and via the Morris Canal or the CNJ, a slow or fast connection to New York City ferries crossing New York Harbor from Jersey City, New Jersey.
The High Bridge Branch is a branch line that was operated by the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ). As built, the branch started in High Bridge, New Jersey at a connection with the CNJ main line and continued north to iron-ore mines in Morris County. The High Bridge Branch line followed the South Branch of the Raritan River for much of its duration.
The Lackawanna Old Road was part of the original mainline of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad (DL&W). Opened in 1856, it was, for a half-century, a part of the line connecting the states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
The Black River and Western Railroad is a freight and heritage railroad operating in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, between Flemington, Lambertville and Ringoes. The railroad operates vintage steam and diesel powered locomotives.
Allentown station is a defunct train station in Allentown, Pennsylvania. It was constructed by the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ) and Reading Railroad in 1888 and 1889. For most of the late 19th and early 20th century, it provided passenger train service between Allentown and various U.S. Coast locations.
The Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad is a defunct railroad that operated in eastern Pennsylvania during the 19th and 20th centuries. The company was a subsidiary of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company (LC&N). For much of its lifetime, however, it was leased by the Central Railroad of New Jersey.
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.
The Lehigh Valley Railroad, Delaware River Bridge is an abandoned railway bridge originally built by the Lehigh Valley Railroad over the Delaware River between Easton, Pennsylvania and Phillipsburg, New Jersey. It was constructed by the American Bridge Company in 1901 and 1902 on piers built in 1866.
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 1⁄2 hours to traverse the 179.5-mile (288.9 km) route, the longest in the CNJ system, exceeding the Atlantic City-bound Blue Comet. First operated in 1911, it was the longest-running train of the CNJ when discontinued in 1967.
The first important growth began with the building of the New Jersey Central railroad, which was completed on July 1st, 1852. On July 2nd the first passenger train of eight cars arrived amid great rejoicing.