Wesmont Station

Not for nothing but why did they name the station wesmont? Seems to me that having a Wesmont and a Westmont in the same state would be confusing...

TDowling wrote:Not for nothing but why did they name the station wesmont? Seems to me that having a Wesmont and a Westmont in the same state would be confusing...

It's the name of the adjacent housing development, on whose dime (at least partially), this station is being built.

Hawaiitiki wrote:

CentralValleyRail wrote:

pumpers wrote:Adam, thanks for posting.

Can we get the moderator to change the title to Wesmont, as noted earlier in the thread. Google maps reminded me today that there is Westmont Station in NJ already (on the PATCO line out of Philadelphia).
JS

Are you really being serious with nitpicking?

Westmont is part of PATCO as you mentioned which is under the Septa page not the NJ Transit page. There is ZERO reason to change it.

Well the fact that it is wrong IS a reason to change it. I wouldn't call it an urgent necessity, but it would also reflect to more accurate results on search engines if someone was actually looking for information on the NJT Wesmont vs the PATCO Westmont. I'd say two rail public transportation stations with similar names in one of the smallest states in the country is a decent reason also to distinguish. Old timers here on RR.net are obv clear on the distinction, but newbies may not be.

HT and Everyone:

I looked at the name of this development and noticed that the full name is Liberty Square at Wesmont
Station and with the potential of confusion with PATCO's Westmont (Camden County) Station a name
revision could help here - how about "Liberty Square-Wesmont"?

This for some reason reminds me of names like "Washington Township" in New Jersey - there are five of
them in five NJ counties - and that the name "Wesmont" can easily be confused with "Westmont" a name
revision can help anyone - let alone us here in the know - determine the difference between these two stations...

MACTRAXX

The station seems to have come a long way, so maybe they can open it some time this year (the activity seems to have slowed down quite a bit, but not much is left to be done).

As constructed now, the station will be accessible only from Wood-Ridge. Now that Farmland Diaries is gone they could try to get part of that property for a parking lot and make the station also accessible from Wallington. Is it worth it to do so? There seems to be a decently large residential community beyond the Farmland Diaries property with some of it being multi-family housing. For decent part of Wallington walking to the station could be an option. Will there be demand for this though?

I've been meaning to post these two images of the Wesmont development and station which were taken from a flight on final approach to Newark Airport back in April.

First, an overview of the development. You get a sense how far a lot of it is from the station. You can also spot what looks like the Aquatrack train tied down adjacent to the NJT MofW facility:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/erielimit ... ed-public/

A close-up view of the new station (well, as close as I could get):
https://www.flickr.com/photos/erielimit ... ed-public/

There seems to be a lot of unused land on the Farmland site.

Rob

Oh good... it looks like they're building a bad passenger pen at the east side of the station.... standard for most new stations.

To me looking at it from the train, the station seems complete. Even lights are on and the heavy machinery is gone. I still cannot figure out how people are supposed to get to the station as it seems disconnected from streets and abuts what appears to be an industrial property. It is worth also noting that the new schedules came without the station opening. I thought that it was supposed to open this fall (arguably we are still in summer until Sept 23). Does anyone know what is going on with the station and when it is supposed to open?

EuroStar wrote:To me looking at it from the train, the station seems complete. Even lights are on and the heavy machinery is gone. I still cannot figure out how people are supposed to get to the station as it seems disconnected from streets and abuts what appears to be an industrial property. It is worth also noting that the new schedules came without the station opening. I thought that it was supposed to open this fall (arguably we are still in summer until Sept 23). Does anyone know what is going on with the station and when it is supposed to open?

I sense something similar to a Wayne Rt.23 Transit Center Mid-January opening.

I have no idea what is going on with the station. Is the opening delayed because of parking? Last thing I read was that there was a plan for a parking lot, but from the train it seems that they have not even started on it. Is this one of those cases where someone forgot to get the permits before starting construction, so now we have a station that cannot be used because they cannot build the parking lots? Not that I am a big fan of parking, but that station needs it to get to meaningful ridership. There is no connection to the neighbourhood on the west side of the tracks, so walking is limited to only one side and even there it still involves some industrial area. There seems to be a reasonable density southwest of the station. Why was not it connected to the station?

EuroStar wrote:I have no idea what is going on with the station. Is the opening delayed because of parking? Last thing I read was that there was a plan for a parking lot, but from the train it seems that they have not even started on it. Is this one of those cases where someone forgot to get the permits before starting construction, so now we have a station that cannot be used because they cannot build the parking lots? Not that I am a big fan of parking, but that station needs it to get to meaningful ridership. There is no connection to the neighbourhood on the west side of the tracks, so walking is limited to only one side and even there it still involves some industrial area. There seems to be a reasonable density southwest of the station. Why was not it connected to the station?

This station has got all of the elements of a boondoggle. At least in this case, the joke isn't entirely on the tax payer since the developer footed some or all of the bill for the station. Why this station is dumb:

*Unless they plan on closing Garfield immediately, all BCL riders west of Rutherford can count on their commute now getting 2ish min longer each way when this opens.
*Nearly 3/4 a mile away from parts of the development whose inhabitants were sold on " onsite transit service".
*Trains will now platform and eject exhaust within 10 yards of peoples backyards, whereas in the past, trains sped through
*Still no parking lot
*No planned direct connection to the established residential neighborhoods that it abuts.
*Nowhere near any sort of downtown or destination, other than a "still to be built-out" housing development that will include some retail. Naturally, the retail is at the furthest possible point from the station.

And my honest observation is that the whole complex looks cheaply-made with many buildings looking like army barracks/low income housing with a bit of lipstick. Yelp seems to agree. http://www.yelp.com/biz/avalon-at-wesmo ... od-ridge-2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hawaiitiki wrote:

TDowling wrote:Not for nothing but why did they name the station wesmont? Seems to me that having a Wesmont and a Westmont in the same state would be confusing...

It's the name of the adjacent housing development, on whose dime (at least partially), this station is being built.

Wait a minute I thought it was called avalon

Wow no surprise with NJT.

Sounds like Summer 2016 if they are lucky. Not Spring.

http://www.northjersey.com/news/wood-ri ... 019?page=2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

TDowling wrote:

Hawaiitiki wrote:

TDowling wrote:Not for nothing but why did they name the station wesmont? Seems to me that having a Wesmont and a Westmont in the same state would be confusing...

It's the name of the adjacent housing development, on whose dime (at least partially), this station is being built.

Wait a minute I thought it was called avalon

Avalon is one of the buildings. The entire development is known as Wesmont. Liberty Square is another building there.

Looks like that the mayor/senator will get the station open for people who can walk to it in the middle of next month. More info at http://www.northjersey.com/news/wesmont ... -1.1534738. A brief quote:

“At least I got a date. For me, that’s great,” said the town’s mayor and Democratic state Senator Paul Sarlo, who announced the opening Tuesday after receiving the date from officials at NJ Transit.
Lisa Torbic, a spokeswoman for NJ Transit, confirmed the opening.
"NJ TRANSIT's goal and intent is to open Wesmont on May 15, which is when the next rail schedule change is going to take place,'' she said.

I see no way how they can finish the parking lots by then given that the selection of the contractor is to take place some time this month. I suspect that they will stop all local trains at the station, so save for the few expresses, passengers going to/from stations beyond Wesmont will have their trip times increase by about 2 minutes.

EuroStar wrote: I see no way how they can finish the parking lots by then given that the selection of the contractor is to take place some time this month. I suspect that they will stop all local trains at the station, so save for the few expresses, passengers going to/from stations beyond Wesmont will have their trip times increase by about 2 minutes.

2 minutes on any station is optimistic. I am afraid that will increase my commute by about 4-5 minutes.

I have heard somewhere that JT eventually plans to close the Garfield station. That is probably one of lamest, shortest low level stations south of Ridgewood. Any word about that?