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The Newark Branch was a Branch line of the Erie Railroad in New Jersey, United States, running between Jersey City and Paterson and passing through the Broadway Section in North Newark, the origin of its name. Inaugurated in the 1870s, the line was last used for passenger service on September 30, 1966, but continues to be used for freight service on a portion of its length.
Originally a crossing of the Lower Passaic River was planned so trains from Newark could travel east using the New Jersey Railroad bridge, ROW, and terminal at Exchange Place in Jersey City. In 1871, construction began on a new alignment from Newark to Jersey City.
The company was re-organized in 1872 and renamed the Paterson, Newark, and New York Railroad when a crossing was developed at the site of NX Bridge. Eventually trackage from the river crossing converged with the New York and Greenwoood Lake Railway, which crossed the Passaic to the north over the WR Draw. From that junction in the Kearny Meadows, the two lines continued east over the Hackensack River on the DB Draw to the Long Dock Tunnel through Bergen Hill, terminating at Erie's Pavonia Terminal.
A portion of the line along the west bank of the Passaic River, known as the Newark Industrial Track, is still used to serve one customer in Clifton, Van Ness Plastics.
In 2020, the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority, in conjunction with the Passaic County Planning Board, produced the Paterson–Newark Transit Market Study report, which examined the potential of restoring passenger service on the line.
Service
Passenger service on the line became known as the Newark Branch. From Pavonia Terminal, and later Hoboken Terminal, service ran west to Harrison and Kearny. After crossing the Passaic into Newark, it ran west of and parallel to the river to Belleville, Nutley, Clifton and Paterson with some continuing service to Glen Rock, Ridgewood, Ho-Ho-Kus, and WaldwickNewark Branch http://shorock.com/don/trains/donel4.htm Newark Branch timetable, 1962 Like the Bergen County Line, the Newark Branch was a branch of the Main Line, both with service extending north to Waldwick laying over at nearby Waldwick Yard. Commuter operations on the Newark Branch were discontinued in October 1966.
Status and re-use study
By the 1960s, only one of the two tracks was in a suitable condition, The line became part of Conrail and later Norfolk Southern Railway. (NS). In 1977 the line was severed when the NX Bridge over the Passaic River was taken out of service and left in the open position. By 2002 the line east of the bridge was out of service. That was due to the loss of the last shipper on that portion of the branch, SparTech Poly-Com.
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