PENNSYLVANIA STATION, NEWARK

The opening to public service of Pennsylvania Station, Newark, on Sunday, March 24, 1935, marks the consummation of the first of three major steps in the extensive program of improvements which the City of Newark and the Pennsylvania Railroad are jointly engaged in carrying out, at an estimated total cost of approximately $42,000,000. Of this sum, the railroad's share will be $20,000,000 and that of the City $22,000,000.

The undertaking is one of paramount importance, as it aims to provide the residential and industrial population of New Jersey's largest municipality and its environs with transportation facilities, which in completeness, convenience, utility and beauty will not be surpassed in either America or Europe.

Inauguration of service at the new station at this time is particularly impressive by reason of being linked with the establishment of through passenger train electrification between New York, Newark, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, with materially faster schedules planned for the near future and dedication of the freight service soon to follow. This gives New Jersey's metropolitan city a place of great prominence on the largest railroad electrification project in transportation history.

General View of Main Waiting Room

Work on the Newark improvements was commenced six years ago, and about two more years will be required to carry out the entire plan. The portion now ready for use includes the main station building, two platforms and three tracks and a new lift bridge over the Passaic River. The next step includes the construction of two more tracks and platforms for rapid transit purposes, which will require approximately another year, The third and final step, which cannot be finished before 1937, will provide additional tracks and platforms, so that ultimately there will be eight tracks and six platforms. Two more bridges are also to be built over the Passaic River in Newark, with six tracks on the three new bridges.

Harmonious negotiations between the administrative officers of the City of Newark and the Pennsylvania Railroad management, as well as the prospect for the future development of traffic, especially under high speed electric operation, have resulted in the erection of a more impressive and commodious station building than was originally planned, and in a substantial broadening of the scope of the entire improvement project.

The new station has been designed to serve four distinct transportation systems. In addition to replacing the old station as Newark's principal rail center for passenger traffic, it will, with the elimination of Manhattan Transfer, become the Newark transfer station of the rapid transit lines to downtown New York, and their connecting point with the through trains of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

A large area, at the street level, will be used for a highly developed bus, taxicab and private automobile terminal, and below grade will be the terminus of the new City railway subway. In planning the station, the City, the Railroad Company and the architects aimed to provide most efficient means of interchange for passengers of these transportation systems, which will eventually occur at four different levels.

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