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The Newark City Subway (NCS) in Newark, New Jersey is operated by New Jersey Transit . Despite its name, the Newark City Subway is a "subway-surface" Light Rail line which runs underground downtown and above-ground in outlying areas. It is also known as the '''#7-City Subway line'''. DESCRIPTION The line is 4.3 miles long, running between Newark Penn Station and Grove Street in Bloomfield . The one-way fare is $1.25 and a discounted 60ยข "downtown fare" is applicable from Penn Station to the Warren Street during off-peak hours. Passengers must buy tickets before boarding (on the PCC cars, cash fares were paid on board). HISTORY The line opened in 1935 along the old Morris Canal right-of-way, from Broad Street , at the old Newark Public Service Terminal , north to Heller Parkway. WPA artists decorated the underground stations with art-deco scenes from life on the defunct Morris Canal. The southernmost part, south of Warren Street, was capped with a new road, known as Raymond Boulevard . Only one Grade Crossing was present on the original subway; the line crosses Orange Avenue at grade so it can pass over the depressed Delaware, Lackawanna And Western Railroad (now NJT Morristown Line ) just to the north. In 1937 , the subway was extended to a lower level of the new Newark Penn Station . Additionally, the Cedar Street Subway , which had been used to access the Newark Public Service Terminal from Washington Street, was pushed through to a junction with the subway between Broad Street and Penn Station. An extension to North 6th Street, now Franklin Avenue, opened in 1940 . The subway was originally operated by the Public Service Corporation as its #7 line. Other streetcar routes used parts of the subway, with ramps to the surface:
Until June 5 , 1952 , the Roseville Car House, on the south side of Main Street (on the #21 line) near the east border of East Orange , was used for the #7 line. Since then, Newark Penn Station has been used for storage and maintenance. A new shops and yard complex opened with the extension to Grove Street, beyond the end of passenger service at Grove Street. New Jersey Transit took over operations in 1980 . For many years, 30 PCC Streetcar s bought from Twin City Rapid Transit in the 1950s were running on the route. The cars had been built 1946 – 1949 by the St. Louis Car Company and were sold by TCRT when that system went through a conversion to Bus es. Four were scrapped over the years, and two were sold off to Shaker Heights Rapid Transit in 1978 . In 2001 , new Light Rail cars built by Kinki Sharyo in Japan in 1999 replaced the PCCs. Some of the PCCs are currently stored in the Newark City Subway shop, from which they will likely end up in museums. Fifteen have been sold to the San Francisco Municipal Railway for use on its F Market Heritage Streetcar Line . One of the Shaker Heights cars has been restored by the Minnesota Transportation Museum , which operates it on a short stretch of track in western Minneapolis . Some people in Minneapolis have hoped that some of the remaining cars may also return to that city to run on a proposed streetcar line on the Midtown Greenway , but such a project is not likely to begin anytime soon as of 2004 . Broad Street Station was renamed to Military Park Station on September 4 , 2004 , to avoid confusion when the new line to Newark Broad Street Station on the Morris And Essex Lines opens. Bloomfield Extension On June 22 , 2002 , the Newark City Subway was extended to the suburbs of Belleville and Bloomfield along what had been the Erie Railroad 's Orange Branch , and is now owned by Norfolk Southern . New stations were opened at Silver Lake and Grove Street, and the Heller Parkway and Franklin Avenue stations were combined into a new Branch Brook Park station. The loop at Franklin Avenue was removed, since the new vehicles can travel in either direction, unlike the old PCCs. All the street crossings on the extension are At-grade . The original agreement gave sole operating privileges to Norfolk Southern between 11 PM and 1 AM daily, but a new agreement allows passenger trains at all hours, with late-night service beginning on January 8 , 2005 . In exchange, Norfolk Southern can now operate during all off-peak hours, when passenger trains are infrequent. Broad Street Extension An additional rail link, called the Newark City Subway Extension , which will connect Newark Penn Station to Broad Street Station on the Morris And Essex Lines is under construction, using part of the old Cedar Street Subway . The first portion will be underground utlizing the abandoned Cedar Street Subway tunnel, with the rest running along surface streets. One stop will service the New Jersey Performing Arts Center , while another will be the Newark Bears baseball stadium. The Newark Broad Street Station link is expected to open in the Summer of 2006. Another link connecting downtown with Newark Liberty International Airport and (originally) Elizabeth is in the planning stages. This project was originally known as MOS-1 of the Newark-Elizabeth Rail Link and is now called the "Newark Rail Link" (the NERL has officially been divided between the NRL, which includes the extension to EWR, and the yet-unfunded Union County Light Rail project), and the Newark City Subway Extension will be incorporated into this larger light rail project. STATIONS Current Main Line
Former Main Line Stations Main line stations that have been closed. Both served by Branch Brook Park station now.
Broad Street Line/ Newark City Subway Extension This line is not open yet (scheduled to open in the first half of 2006); station names may change.
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SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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