Newark continued as a joint SEPTA- NJT operation until 1981. NJT ended service to West Trenton in 1982, but this route is once again under consider- ation for reactivation. As Conrail took its
first steps to-
wards profitability, their management campaigned to be relieved of the com- muter rail responsibility it had inherit- ed. The Northeast Rail Services Act of 1981 outlined two options to achieve this goal. One plan was to create the Northeast Commuter Services Corpo- ration as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amtrak which individual state agen- cies could choose to participate in. The second option was for individual state agencies to assume both funding and operational management of the com- muter services in their territory. By the middle of 1982, it was decided that NJ Transit would take over the commuter rail assets and transfer employees from Conrail on January 1, 1983.
Route designations and services re-
RIGHT: An F40PH leads a Raritan Valley Line train over the Raritan River at North Branch in September 2002. BELOW: In this sunset scene at Newark, we find the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) at far left, the shared NJT-Amtrak Northeast Corridor Line at center, and the NJT Morris & Essex Lines at far right. ERIC WILLIAMS PHOTO
mained largely unchanged through the transition, though grouped into dis- tinct operating divisions. The Newark Division consists of the Northeast Cor- ridor, the North Jersey Coast Line, the Raritan Valley Line, and the Atlantic City Line. The Hoboken Division in- cludes the Main Line (including the Bergen County Line and Port Jervis service), the Pascack Valley Line, the Montclair-Boonton Line, and the Mor- ris & Essex Lines (consisting of the Morristown Line and the Gladstone Branch).
Initially New Jersey Transit was us-
ing the old CNJ shop at Elizabethport for maintenance, but it was clear this was only a temporary solution. The new Meadows Maintenance Complex opened in 1987 on the site of the old PRR Meadows Yard. Almost all major locomotive and rolling stock service takes place at the MMC. Small layover yards are located throughout the sys- tem, while a number of mid-day trains are stored at the former PRR facility at Sunnyside Yard in Queens, shared with Amtrak.
Two service changes came at the end of 1983, when service on the Raritan
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