by JimBoylan
Near the end, 1 Northern Branch train stopped at Susquehanna Transfer, I think about 8:25 a.m. That timetable has been illustrated in a few magazine articles about the NYS&W or the Erie.
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trainwayne1 wrote:Did the Northern Branch trains all stop at the Susquehanna Transfer? It seems that using the transfer would have saved a lot of time for commuters as it did for customers on the NYS&W. Or was it a case of most Northern Branch customers needed to get downtown in NYC to the Wall St. area?A 1941 Official Guide shows a schedule effective April 27, 1941 for the Northern Railroad of New Jersey (in the Erie listing) with 3 trains a day in each direction 6 days a week (the Saturday afternoon trains ran in early to mid-afternoon). Two of the 3 inbound morning trains stopped at Susquehanna Transfer, as did one each of the Mon-Fri and Saturday outbounds, all of which showed connecting bus service to and from the Times Square Bus Terminal, 260 W. 42nd St. (pre-Port Authority Terminal), using buses scheduled to connect with NYS&W trains. The trains not stopping at Susq. Tfr. would not have connected conveniently with scheduled NYS&W bus trips. I remember the Northern stopping at Susq. Tfr. during the 1940s, so it was apparently a continuing thing from the time Walter Kidde started the "Susquehanna Short Cut" around 1940 or -41 until the end. (As an item of trivia, there was still a 23rd St. Ferry 6 days a week in 1941.) As to who used the service, it was probably mostly shoppers rather than commuters, because the big move of offices to midtown really began after 1945. The NYS&W service was also much used by theatergoers, but for people on the Northern it would only have been good for Wednesday matinees.
granton junction wrote:I have done some further research. As late as the April 1938 public tt, the Northern Branch still had a full schedule of weekday and weekend trains. However, with the opening of the GW Br in 1931 and the Lincoln Tunnel in 1937, ridership on the Northern Branch declined substantially in the 1930s. Red & Tan and Public Service provided one-seat bus service to Manhattan. Remember also that the Independent Subway was new, and commuters could now take the 8th Ave Subway from the GW Br to midtown and downtown Manhattan. So far as I can determine the cutback to just 3 trains took place in early 1940, but I still do not have an exact date. A 1947 employee tt shows only the 3 trains (and 2 trains on Saturday, eliminated in the late 1950s). This pattern lasted til the end of service in 1966. The 3 trains were well patronized thru the 1950s, but in the 1960s ridership fell substantially with the cumbersome back-up move to Hoboken Terminal.A compromise in September 1939 proposed cutting back three services (the Northern Branch, the Orange Branch and the NJ/NY). The proposal, which was supposed to come into effect on September, 24, 1939, that the Northern Branch which would lose four eastbound and five westbound trains (they actually applied to can seven of them.) There was one point that the Erie was going to break the lease of the Northern Branch and can all service completely on the line. They did break it on February 1, 1940, but the railroad got a reprieve for three months.
Piermont: Historic train station gets $155K rehab
PIERMONT - Volunteers had restored the village's historic railroad station's facade to its former glory — a time when more than 40 trains a day pulled up to its Ash Street platform.
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During the renovations, volunteers had to remove all the historic items and furniture from the first floor, much of which was used by Belle Kelly who served as a ticket agent and telegrapher and lived at the station long after train service was halted there in the 1960s.
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The Ash Street train station was one stop along the Northern Branch line that shuttled passengers between Nyack and Jersey City, New Jersey, until 1966.
It was not part of the Erie Railroad, which ran from Piermont's pier to Dunkirk on Lake Erie and was once the longest railroad line in the United States.
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