NJ Transit Rail Operations


NJ Transit Rail Operations is the rail division of NJ Transit. It operates commuter rail service in New Jersey, with most service centered on transportation to and from New York City, Hoboken, and Newark. NJ Transit also operates rail service in Orange and Rockland counties in New York under contract to Metro-North Railroad. The commuter rail lines had an average weekday ridership of 306,892 from June 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016. This does not include NJ Transit's light rail operations.

Network and infrastructure

The lines operated by NJ Transit were formerly operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad, Central Railroad of New Jersey and New York and Long Branch Railroad and Erie Lackawanna Railroad, most of which date from the mid-19th century. From the 1960s onward, the New Jersey Department of Transportation began subsidizing the commuter lines. By 1976, the lines were all operated by Conrail under contract to NJDOT. The system took its current form in 1983, when NJ Transit took over all commuter service in New Jersey. The two networks were not integrated until the opening of Secaucus Junction in 2003 enabled passengers to transfer between lines bound for New York and Hoboken.

Lines

, NJ Transit's commuter rail network consists of 11 lines and 164 stations, primarily concentrated in northern New Jersey, with one line running between Atlantic City and Philadelphia.

Current lines

Operations are in two divisions:
Although NJ Transit itself does not carry freight, NJTR allows freight service to be operated over its lines via trackage rights agreements with several railroads. Conrail, CSX, Norfolk Southern and several short lines, Dover and Delaware River Railroad, Morristown & Erie Railway, and Southern Railroad of New Jersey ) currently have trackage rights contracts to operate freight service on NJ Transit lines. The Morristown & Erie Railway can only use NJT trackage to get between its owned trackage; it cannot serve customers on NJ Transit trackage. A similar situation exists for Conrail on the Atlantic City Line.
Below is a list of NJ Transit lines and freight lines that operate on them:
NJTR also owns several lines not used for regular passenger service. These lines were purchased by the New Jersey Department of Transportation in the late 1970s for railbanking purposes, with ownership transferring to NJ Transit upon its creation in 1979. These lines are either leased for freight/tourist service, interim rail trail use, or remain derelict:
-South Lakewood: Conrail Shared Assets Operations
NJT owns most of its tracks, infrastructure, bridges, tunnels and signals. The exceptions are:
NJ Transit's main storage and maintenance facility is the Meadows Maintenance Complex in Kearny, New Jersey. Other major yard facilities are located at Hoboken Terminal. Amtrak's Sunnyside Yard in Queens, New York serves as a layover facility for trains to New York Penn Station. Additional yards are located at outlying points along the lines. These include:
NJT has a fleet of maintenance crews and vehicles that repair tracks, spread ballast, deliver supplies and inspect infrastructure. There are eight non-revenue work diesels used for these purposes.

Movable bridges

NJT utilizes numerous moveable bridges:

Reporting marks

All NJ Transit Rail Operations equipment in both revenue and non-revenue service carry AAR reporting marks of NJTR without exception. Equipment owned by Metro-North carries AAR reporting marks MNCW without exception.

Locomotives

Active revenue

These locomotives carry NJTR reporting marks for revenue service. Not included are the EMU cars, which are technically locomotives, but are listed in the Passenger Cars roster below.

Retired revenue

Non-revenue

All non-revenue locomotives are diesel-powered and legally carry the same "NJTR" AAR reporting marks as all other equipment without exception. As these locomotives lack HEP, they do not haul trains in passenger service unless performing a rescue.
ModelNumbersYearNotes
EMD GP40-24300–43031965–1968Ex-Conrail and New York Central.
EMD GP40PH-24102-4104, 4106, 41081968Modified starting in 2014. The HEP motor was removed, unlit number boards were drilled in, the rear ladder was replaced with steps, and LED markers were applied to the rear end replacing their original tri-color class lights. Units are now mechanically standard GP40-2s.
MotivePower MP20B-31001–10052008Rebuilt from 1967 EMD GP40FH-2s 4130–4134.
EMD F40PH-2CAT4119-41201979–1981Relegated to work service since 2013. Recently reactivated in place of cab cars during shortage due to PTC installation.

Passenger cars

NJ Transit has a fleet of over 1,000 passenger cars. The fleet and examples are described below.
Except for the Comet II, all examples shown are cab cars leading or on the tail end of trains.
Car groupings are, except for the Arrow III MUs, arranged in the following order: cab cars, trailers with lavatories, and trailers without lavatories, where applicable.
Single Arrow III MU's are GE Model MA-1J, married pairs are GE Model MA-1H. NJ Transit also leased 10 MARC Train coaches in 2018 to alleviate an equipment shortage.

Stations

NJ Transit provides passenger service on 12 lines at total of 165 stations, some operated conjunction with Amtrak and Metro North.