Editing Newark Light Rail (section)

==Newark City Subway==
[[File:NewarkSubwayPCC.agr.jpg|thumb|left|[[PCC streetcar]] at [[Pennsylvania Station (Newark)|Newark Penn Station]] in 2001, signed as ''7 City Subway''.]]
The Newark City Subway is the longer and older of the two segments.<ref>See Riley, John Harrington, "The Newark City Subway Lines," (1987). This scarce book, which covers the history of the subway lines and the predecessor horse and trolley lines, is occasionally available on Amazon.</ref> It is a [[semi-metro|"subway–surface" line]]<ref name="ST182">{{cite journal |author1=John W. Schuman |author2=Louis T. Klauder |title=Evaluations of Operating Light-Rail Transit and Streetcar Systems in the United States |journal=TRB Special Report |date=1978 |volume=182 |issue=Light Rail Transit: Planning & Technology |page=94}}</ref><ref name="TRC112">{{cite journal |author1=HARVEY L. BERLINER |author2=ANTHONY M. FLERES |author3=KURT E. KAUFFMAN |title=Construction of the Newark City Subway Broad Street Extension |journal=Transportation Research Circular |date=2006 |volume=E-C112 |issue=A World of Applications and Opportunities |quote="Despite its name, the NCS is a subway–surface light rail line that runs underground downtown and aboveground in outlying areas." |page=326}}</ref> which runs underground from Penn Station to Warren Street, and above-ground north of Warren Street. Before becoming a part of the Newark Light Rail service, it was also known as the ''#7-City Subway line,'' an NJT Bus Operations route number carried over from its days when it was part of [[Public Service Corporation|Public Service]]'s [[Transport of New Jersey]] subsidiary. The number still applies internally. During subway system closures, replacement buses would also bear the route number "7 City Subway".

The segment is {{convert|5.3|mi|km|1|abbr=on}} long and runs between Grove Street in [[Bloomfield, New Jersey|Bloomfield]] and [[Pennsylvania Station (Newark)|Newark Penn Station]], a major transportation hub with connections to the [[PATH (rail system)|PATH]] rapid transit system to [[Manhattan]], multiple bus routes, and both [[Amtrak]] and [[New Jersey Transit Rail Operations]] trains.

=== History ===
{{See also|List_of_Public_Service_Railway_lines|l1=List of Public Service Railway lines}}
[[File:NJPSCT 7 (PCC) at Orange Street station, September 3, 1965.jpg|thumb|left|Newark City Subway leaving Park Street station on September 3, 1965]]
The line opened in 1935 along the old [[Morris Canal]] right-of-way, from Broad Street (now known as [[Military Park (NLR station)|Military Park]]) to Heller Parkway (now replaced by the nearby [[Branch Brook Park station]]).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.njtod.org/light-rail-spurs-new-development/|title=Light Rail Spurs New Development|date=November 30, 2005 |publisher=NJDOT.org|access-date=September 23, 2023}}</ref> [[Works Progress Administration]] artists decorated the underground stations with [[Art Deco]] scenes from life on the defunct Morris Canal. The southernmost part, south of Warren Street, was capped with a new road, known as [[Raymond Boulevard]]. Only one [[grade crossing]] was present on the original subway; the line crosses Orange Street at grade so it can pass over the below-grade [[Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad]] (now NJT [[Morristown Line]]) immediately to the north. The original Newark City Subway line had its own [[Right-of-way (transportation)|right-of-way]] and did not share city streets with local traffic, except at the Orange Street grade crossing.

Operation of the complete subway to the newly built [[Newark Penn Station|Penn Station]] was delayed until 1937. The terminal below Penn Station has five tracks, two incoming and three outgoing, connected by two loop tracks. This part of the subway included a grade-separated junction with a connection to the lower level of the [[Newark Public Service Terminal]] that was used for only a few months (June to September).

[[File:NJPSCT 27 (PCC) at the Franklin Ave. Station end of the line of the Newark City Subway, Newark, NJ on September 3, 1965 (22699470106).jpg|thumb|left|Newark City Subway at the Franklin Avenue station, 1965]]

An extension to a wooden station at North 6th Street or Franklin Avenue was opened in 1940, located north of the present Branch Brook Park station. In 1953 the line was cut back about one block to accommodate construction of a turning loop, and a new station, still called Franklin Avenue, was opened adjacent to Anthony Street. The station was enlarged in 2002 and renamed Branch Brook Park.

The subway was operated by Transport of New Jersey (formerly Public Service Coordinated Transport) as its No. 7 line. Other streetcar routes used parts of the subway, reaching street trackage at the locations shown below, ending as each route was closed and replaced by bus service:
* [[Newark Public Service Terminal|Public Service Terminal]] connection (and [[Cedar Street Subway]]), 1937 only: #13 Broad, #17 Paterson, #27 Mount Prospect, #43 Jersey City
* Warren Street ramp, 1935–1951: #21 Orange—West Orange via Market Street
* Central Avenue ramp, 1935–1947: #23 Central
* Orange Street crossing, 1935–1952: #21 Orange—West Orange via Orange Street
* Bloomfield Avenue ramp, 1935–1952: #29 Bloomfield

Until June 5, 1952, the [[Roseville, Newark, New Jersey|Roseville]] Car House, on the south side of Main Street (on the No. 21 line) near the eastern city line of [[East Orange, New Jersey|East Orange]], was used for the No. 7 line. From that time until 2002, Newark Penn Station was used for storage and maintenance. A new shops and yard complex opened at the end of the extension to Grove Street.

Starting in January 1954, 30 [[PCC streetcar]]s bought from [[Twin City Rapid Transit]] provided all service on the route. They were single-ended, requiring construction of a new turning loop at the Franklin Avenue terminal. The cars had been built 1946–1949 by the [[St. Louis Car Company]] and were sold by TCRT when that system went through a conversion to buses. Four cars were scrapped over the years, and two were sold to [[Shaker Heights Rapid Transit]] in 1978.

[[New Jersey Transit]] took over operations in 1980.

In 2001, new [[light rail]] cars built by [[Kinki Sharyo]] in Japan in 1999 replaced the PCCs. The last day of PCC service was August 24, 2001.<ref name="t&ut-oct01">"Farewell to Newark PCCs" (October 2001). ''[[Tramways & Urban Transit]]'', p. 386. [[Ian Allan Publishing]].</ref>

[[File:NJ Transit streetcar No7.jpg|right|thumb|The former PCC railcar No. 7 from the subway located on the property of the [[New York Museum of Transportation]]]]
Some of the PCCs are stored in the Newark City Subway shop. Eleven were sold in 2004 to the [[San Francisco Municipal Railway]] for use on its [[F Market & Wharves|F Market heritage streetcar line]].<ref>{{cite web | title = Historic Streetcars in San Francisco | publisher = Market Street Railway | url = http://www.streetcar.org/streetcars/1070/ | access-date = April 1, 2013}}</ref> One PCC, #15, was delivered to the [[Connecticut Trolley Museum]] in 2013 for restoration and display. One of the Shaker Heights cars has been restored by the [[Minnesota Transportation Museum]], which operates it on a short stretch of track in western [[Minneapolis]].

In 2005, eight PCCs were given to the City of [[Bayonne, New Jersey|Bayonne]] to be rehabilitated and operated along a proposed {{convert|2.5|mi|km|0|adj=on}} loop to serve the [[Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor]], formerly [[Military Ocean Terminal at Bayonne]] (MOTBY). The proposed line would be connected to the [[34th Street (HBLR station)|34th Street]] station of the [[Hudson-Bergen Light Rail]].<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20070620155900/http://www.bayonnelra.com/planning_board.pdf Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor development plan]}}, page 17, accessed July 25, 2006</ref>

On September 4, 2004, Broad Street Station was renamed Military Park Station, to avoid confusion with the terminal of the new route to the [[Broad Street Station (Newark)|Newark Broad Street Station]] at University Avenue, operated by New Jersey Transit.

[[File:banister-tungsol-morriscanal-subway.jpg|thumb|left|Orange Street platform view to U-Haul and formerly Tung-Sol Electric]]

===Bloomfield extension===
[[File:Heller Parkway Station - Feb 2015.jpg|left|thumb|The former Heller Parkway station in February 2015]]
On June 22, 2002, the Newark City Subway was extended to the suburbs of [[Belleville, New Jersey|Belleville]] and [[Bloomfield, New Jersey|Bloomfield]] along what had been the former [[Erie Railroad]] Orange Branch, now under [[Norfolk Southern]] ownership. New stations were opened at [[Silver Lake station|Silver Lake]] and [[Grove Street station (Newark Light Rail)|Grove Street]], and the Heller Parkway and Franklin Avenue stations were combined into a new Branch Brook Park station. The loop at Franklin Avenue was removed, since the new vehicles are bidirectional, unlike the old PCCs. A new loop, however, is in place at the Grove Street facility. All the street crossings on the extension are [[grade crossing|at-grade]].<ref>Staff. [http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=PI&s_site=philly&p_multi=PI&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=10FCAB7BCA54C298&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM "Subway extension to open in summer, Newark officials hope that the $207.7 million downtown project will help spur a renaissance."], ''[[The Philadelphia Inquirer]]'', February 13, 2006. Accessed July 18, 2011. "The last major expansion of the 4.3 mile subway in 2002 brought the service into the neighboring cities of Belleville and Bloomfield."</ref>

====Shared-track operation====
The original agreement gave sole operating privileges to Norfolk Southern between 11&nbsp;pm and 5&nbsp;am daily, but a new agreement allows passenger service to operate at all hours, with late-night service commencing on January 8, 2005. In exchange, Norfolk Southern can now operate during all off-peak hours, when passenger trains are infrequent.