Aldene Connection

The Aldene Connection is a connection between two railroad lines in Roselle Park, New Jersey, United States, one formerly belonging to the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ), the other formerly of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, allowing trains on the New Jersey Transit Raritan Valley Line to travel from Cranford through stations in Roselle Park and Union to the Hunter Connection in Newark, which in turn allows access to the Northeast Corridor and Newark Penn Station.

History

The CNJ in the mid-1960s was losing money, in a permanent downward spiral that would lead to the railroad's filing for bankruptcy early in 1967. Desperate to cut costs, the CNJ turned to the state who created a "railroad transportation division" within the highway commission headed up by Dwight R. G. Palmer, who was placed in charge of preserving rail commuter services as a cheaper alternative to a new highway building program. Palmer's office produced a report called "The Rail Transportation Problem" stating that the state should partiality subsidize service until more fundamental changes could be made. One of these "fundamental changes" became known as the "Aldene Plan". It would involve the building of a ramp to connect the CNJ and the Lehigh Valley Railroad at the site of the recently abandoned Aldene Station to reroute trains bound for Jersey City to follow the LV to the Pennsylvania Railroad mainline (now the Northeast Corridor) and on to Newark Penn Station where passengers could transfer to PRR trains into New York Penn Station. This would allow the CNJ to abandon its labor-intensive ferry service and much of its Communipaw Terminal in Jersey City, and all local trains operating east of Cranford, all totaling up to about $1.5 million in annual savings. As a concession to a few hundred factory workers that worked along the CNJ east of Aldene, Budd Rail Diesel Cars continued to run between Cranford and Bayonne (over the CRRNJ Newark Bay Bridge) until August 6, 1978.