The point was made that the state of NJ would have allowed the E-L to retain one track from Paterson Junction to Mountain View instead of abandoning the line altogether. The E-L was desperate for money, and the option of retaining one track would have reduced what the state would have paid. By 1963, there was one track only remaining of the two from Paterson Junction to Mountain View.
Another question was asked regarding routing trains from Netcong over the Boonton Line to Paterson Junction and then via the Newark Branch. An April 1, 1963 New York Division timetable shows several trains to and from Netcong or Dover via the Boonton Line. Such trains would have proceeded east through Paterson Junction and, within a mile, past the junction with the Newark Branch. So, yes, trains to and from Netcong could have traveled via the Newark Branch and the Boonton Line. As I recall, the connection between the Newark Branch and the Boonton Line was completed before 1963--I was in high school in North Haledon from 1962-1966. We lived in Rutherford, and I recall my parents driving on Kuller Road to get to my school before 1963.
A minor point, but the Erie Main Line through Passaic was not street running. It was between Main Avenue and East Main Avenue. There were multiple crossings that were blocked when a train stopped at the Passaic station. In hindsight, it seems likely that the Passaic politicians were grasping at straws to save a dying downtown. The railroad was easy to blame, so it pulled its trains out. There was little parking at the Passaic station, and it was not near the center of a residential population which commuted by rail any more. The Lackawanna Passaic station had a slight bit more parking, but not very much.
By 1963, the Market Street, Paterson station Lower Level, which had been the origin and terminus of Newark Branch trains, had been abandoned. Newark Branch trains originated and terminated at Waldwick.
The biggest cuts in passenger service took effective on October 3, 1966.