One of the main selling points of the merger between the Erie, and the Lackawanna was the consolidation of commuter passenger trains to Hoboken. That was accomplished within a year of the merger with 2 exceptions, the NYS&W and the EL's trains on the Northern branch. East of Granton Jct. , the Erie and NYS&W ran along side each other, and for years the tracks had been treated as a double track main, the Erie being the westbound, and the NYS&W the eastbound track to Jersey City. There was no way to make a direct connection to the ex-Lackawanna line(s) without having to make a back-up move, so the trains continued to use the Erie terminal for some time......I'll have to dig the books out for exact dates. If I remember correctly, when the EL totally pulled the plug on commuter service on the Northern branch, the NYS&W cut back to the Transfer to avoid paying all the charges to maintain both the extra tracks and the JC terminal.
Hard work is never easy
