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Robert J. Emery

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Rail line borrows from the past:
Old tunnel will connect Newark's two train station

Monday, March 31, 2003

BY JOE MALINCONICO
Star-Ledger Staff

Abandoned for decades, a sloping tunnel veers from Newark's main subway line, winding its way 25 feet below Raymond Boulevard.

Halfway through the dank passage rests a discarded railroad snowplow, its wheels rusted to the tracks. A concrete wall marks the tunnel's end.

Sometime in the coming months, construction crews will dig their way down from Mulberry Street and bust through the tunnel walls, building a crucial segment for the city's new one-mile subway extension.

The $225 million extension when completed will connect Newark Penn Station, which serves NJ Transit's Raritan Valley, Northeast Corridor and North Jersey Coast lines, with the Broad Street Station, which handles commuter trains on the Morris and Essex and Montclair-Boonton lines. Officials expect more than 6,500 people a day to make the 10-minute trip.

But for the next two years, the construction will worsen traffic problems in downtown Newark. For one year, the project will close a one-block section of Mulberry Street from Raymond Boulevard to Park Street.

"Nobody wants to see a street closed, but we're working with the city to come up with a traffic diversion plan," said state Transportation Commissioner Jack Lettiere. "These temporary inconveniences are really going to produce major benefits in the long run."

Beyond the new 850-foot tunnel, most of the rail link will be built above ground and will require additional street closings as the project progresses. In tandem with the new railroad tracks, transportation officials are widening McCarter Highway between Raymond Boulevard and Route 280 and moving the road 100 feet closer to the Passaic River, partly to make room for the trains.

The first closures are expected by the end of spring, officials said.

Currently, NJ Transit provides buses between Penn and Broad Street stations. But during rush-hour, when the area is choked with traffic, the bus ride can take more than 20 minutes.

Officials said they the link will prompt several thousand commuters to stop driving into Newark and start taking mass transit.

For example, right now, mass transit is inconvenient for someone who lives in Chatham and works at the Gateway complex near Penn Station, officials said. The train from Chatham only runs to the Broad Street Station.

Once the extension is build, that person will be able to take the Morris and Essex line to Broad Street and then the subway over to Penn Station. The subway connection also will provide a better link to Newark Liberty International Airport trains and Amtrak trains, which only run from Penn Station.

Officials said the tunnel would be the first section of underground railroad built in New Jersey in more than six decades. Engineers estimate construction crews will dig up as much as 40,000 tons of soil, enough to fill 4,000 dump trucks.

Instead of carving the passage from below ground through the existing tunnel stub, officials determined the project would be $20 million cheaper if a 45-foot-deep trench was dug from street-level along Mulberry Street.

From the bottom of the trench, workers plan to make a concrete box with walls two-feet thick for the train passageway, said NJ Transit's deputy chief engineer, Glenn Ridsdale. Then, they will dump the soil back on top of the concrete box and rebuild the street above it.

Officials said the abandoned tunnel, which was last used decades ago, provides a convenient connection between the new project and the existing city subway line.

"If we had to do this from scratch, it would have been inordinately expensive," project manager Kurt Kauffman said.

The one-mile rail link will include a stop at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Trains also will stop at Newark Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium when baseball games and other events are held there.

Joe Malinconico covers transportation. He may be reached at jmalinconico@starledger.com or at (973) 392-4230.

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George Matthews

I don't think you can see much from Newark's Penn Station. Trains arrive on Level 2. It is completely walled in, with just a few small windows. The "center" track is the PATH line *to* New York City via Jersey City. The PATH track *from* New York City comes in on the third level. First level is the concourse for travelers, shops and buses. Basement level is the Newark Subway.

As you leave the station on NJ Transit/Amtrak, you will cross the Passaic River on a multiple level drawbridge. You will at first have the Morris & Essex Hoboken lines (Lackawana) and PATH parallel the Amtrak tracks, then those will continue east as the NEC swings to the northeast. Further along, you will cross the Hackensack River via a swing bridge in Secaucus. The Meadowlands, rich in wildlife, will be on all sides of you.

Next you will go through the new Allied Junction station. The NEC crosses over the old Erie RR tracks which terminate in Hoboken. Passengers on those trains can switch to the NEC at Allied Junction. Further along, within a few minutes, you will enter the tunnels that will take you under the Hudson River and into Manhattan.

Newark has a lot to offer a visitor like yourself. I only wish you had time to take a walking tour, ride the Newark Subway and ride the PATH. In particular, I would like you to see the artwork, murals in tile mosaic, that is in many of the stations of the Newark subway.

Newark's "Ironbound" section is so named because it is bordered completely by railroad tracks and yards. And I wish you had a second day to tour some of the railroading hot spots in the Garden State, although this part of the state is its industrial heartland.

Oh, well. Perhaps that will be something you can look forward to on your next visit. Enjoy the Big Apple, and safe journey!

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Robert J. Emery

Quote

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George,

I don't think you can see much from Newark's Penn Station. Trains arrive on Level 2. It is completely walled in, with just a few small windows. The "center" track is the PATH line *to* New York City via Jersey City. The PATH track *from* New York City comes in on the third level. First level is the concourse for travelers, shops and buses. Basement level is the Newark Subway.

As you leave the station on NJ Transit/Amtrak, you will cross the Passaic River on a multiple level drawbridge. You will at first have the Morris & Essex Hoboken lines (Lackawana) and PATH parallel the Amtrak tracks, then those will continue east as the NEC swings to the northeast. Further along, you will cross the Hackensack River via a swing bridge in Secaucus. The Meadowlands, rich in wildlife, will be on all sides of you.

Next you will go through the new Allied Junction station. The NEC crosses over the old Erie RR tracks which terminate in Hoboken. Passengers on those trains can switch to the NEC at Allied Junction. Further along, within a few minutes, you will enter the tunnels that will take you under the Hudson River and into Manhattan.

Newark has a lot to offer a visitor like yourself. I only wish you had time to take a walking tour, ride the Newark Subway and ride the PATH. In particular, I would like you to see the artwork, murals in tile mosaic, that is in many of the stations of the Newark subway.

Newark's "Ironbound" section is so named because it is bordered completely by railroad tracks and yards. And I wish you had a second day to tour some of the railroading hot spots in the Garden State, although this part of the state is its industrial heartland.

Oh, well. Perhaps that will be something you can look forward to on your next visit. Enjoy the Big Apple, and safe journey!

--
Robert J. Emery

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I was able to watch the tracks on the north side window. I noted the new stations.

After our business we took the the MetroNorth train to New Haven and then the Shore Line to Old Saybrook.

Two comments on that trip. I saw a New York state policeman who seemed to be on duty even though we were in Connecticut. Do you think he was acting as transit police?

The other thing was the state of the Shore Line train. It was diesel on an electrified line and the platforms were very odd: just big enough to cope with one door on the train (I noted the same three years ago on the Waterbury line). That looks like a service run on the very cheap. But the new station at Old Saybrook is very impressive. I suppose it was paid for by Amtrak as part of the upgrade of the Boston line.
George Matthews

There is no and never was a tunnel connecting the stations. What the article refers to is the remnant of the tunnels that connected the basement of the Public Service Terminal Building at Raymond and Park Place to the subway. The tunnels end at what is now the basement wall of the present PSEG building, i.e., they run from approximately the western curb of Mulberry Street at Raymond Boulevard easterly to connect to the subway. The one that was for traffic from the PS Terminal Building to Newark Penn Station dips down and crosses under the westbound subway track making it ideal for the new branch line. The tunnels were used to store MOW and spare equipment until recently, and are easily seen from the windows of trolleys between Penn Station and Broad Street. The project will be all above ground from the ex-Lackawanna Broad Street station until approximately the Mulberry Street area where the tracks will dip down to a short new tunnel to be connected to the old tunnels at Mulberry and Raymond. Construction in the area has started, with Mulberry Street north of Raymond Boulevard slated to be closed for a year or two in the very near future.

---Ken W2KB

Since the end of Jan., to date, I have been working 6 days a week, execpt for a couple of weeks when my services were not needed. I am working on Sat. the 21th in the pit again.

Send me some E-mail when you have the chance, I have much to tell you.

Bob KA2CKV