TOP: A former PRR GG-1 leading an NJT North Jersey Coast Line train meets an Amtrak AEM-7 at Rahway in 1982. All GG-1’s were off the roster by 1983. ABOVE LEFT: Rebuilt E8’s in NJDOT and NJT paint meet at South Amboy in 1983. The E8’s were retired in 1987 in favor of newer diesels equipped with Head End Power (HEP). ABOVE RIGHT: The GE U34CH’s were purchased for Erie Lackawanna in 1970 and painted in NJDOT’s purple and silver. Some units later received full NJT paint. Based out of Hoboken, these units were retired in 1994.
fic to the ports at Elizabeth. Commuter service was offered from CNJ’s own wa- terfront terminal at Jersey City west along its main line through Cranford to High Bridge and Phillipsburg. At one time, both the Reading and the B&O used trackage rights over the CNJ to access the Jersey City terminal, with trains from Philadelphia operating over the Reading to Bound Brook and the CNJ eastward. With the departure of the B&O in 1958 and the later cut- back of Reading trains, the CNJ looked to close Jersey City terminal and aban- doned their
ferry service The 1967
“Aldene Plan” routed CNJ trains over a new connection to the Lehigh Valley at Aldene where they would then contin- ue onto the PRR to terminate at Newark Penn Station. From there, pas-
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sengers could change trains or use the Hudson & Manhattan (which became PATH in 1962) to continue their jour- ney to New York City. A curious shuttle was instituted as a result from Cran- ford to provide riders from Bayonne a better connection to main line trains. Conrail was looking to abandon the Newark Bay drawbridge, and since the little used Bayonne “scoot” was the only train using this route, the shuttle oper- ation came to an end on August 6, 1978. The CNJ route to High Bridge is cur- rently operated as the Raritan Valley Line. The upper Jersey Shore was initially served by the Jersey Central, which built a line from Elizabethport to Perth Amboy in 1873; below there the CNJ leased the New York & Long Branch
(built in 1875) down the coast to Bay Head. The PRR was also interested in serving the shore and built a six-mile line from the main line at Rahway to a connection with the CNJ at Woodbridge Junction, just north of Perth Amboy. Rather than continue with its own con- struction, however, the PRR entered in- to a joint lease of the NY&LB in 1882. Today the route is operated by NJT as the North Jersey Coast Line, using the ex-PRR from Rahway and the former NY&LB south from Perth Amboy. The New York Central also operated a commuter service from its ferry ter- minal at Weehawken, along the Hud- son River to West Haverstraw, N.Y. The railroad appealed to the state for some form of subsidy to offset mounting deficits but was denied. The trains
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