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NJ Transit Montclair-Boonton Line Trip Report

My first trip on the Montclair-Boonton Line was a very short one on 24 December 2009 to visit the Great Notch station before it closed. I drove to Little Falls, arriving about a half hour before my train was scheduled to depart. I was glad to see the small station building was open, and was surprised to even see some chocolates laid out for Christmas. I took the short ride to Great Notch, buying my ticket on the train. Once at Great Notch I waited for a NJ Transit bus to ride back to Little Falls. The ride was much longer than I expected, and I wasn’t exactly sure when I should get off since the bus didn’t really go near the train station, but I guessed correctly, made my way back to the station, and drove home.

Our second trip on the Montclair-Boonton Line was on 29 December 2009 when we rode from Hackettstown to Hoboken. After arriving in Hackettstown, we rode around a bit looking for someplace to pick up a quick breakfast. Unfortunately being a holiday week, many smaller businesses were closed and we ended up just getting some breakfast at Dunkin’ Donuts. Back at the very cold station we looked around the train for awhile before realizing that one of the doors was open and we could board. We bought our ticket on the train, and were happy to learn that because it was a holiday week children could ride for free. The conductor said we should change trains in Dover, but when we said we wanted to stay on the Montclair-Boonton Line train instead, he said that would be fine too. The train continued to fill until we reached Dover where most people departed to take the Morristown Line train instead. We stayed on though and continued our ride to Montclair State University. Here we had to change trains to an electric connecting train. It was very cold and windy out on the platform, but the crew of our train from Hackettstown was aware of this and left their train open at the station so people could wait inside the train for the connection to arrive rather than having to stand out on the cold platform. Finally our connecting train arrived and we rode to Newark Broad Street. Here we changed trains again since our train from Montclair was headed to New York and we wanted to go to Hoboken. We had a long wait in Newark but were happy to spend some time in the beautifully restored old station. The building was not very crowded and was surprisingly clean, even the restrooms. Eventually our train arrived and took us to Hoboken, ending our journey on the Montclair-Boonton Line. We then rode a Morristown Line train back to Hackettstown.

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