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.