Westfield
 next stop to theright  Garwood 
 next stop to theleft  Fanwood 
Home<New Jersey<NJ Transit Rail<Raritan Valley Line<Westfield

Westfield is a NJT station located on the ex-CNJ mainline of the Raritan Valley Line that originally had 4 tracks. The station today has two high-level side platforms that were built recently (around 1998 judging from the year of the artwork in the station's underpass) but in a historic design along the former outside local tracks and spared the original two station houses. The station has just two tracks still in service and there is unfortunately (for photos) still a fence between them.

The station has two station houses. The older one, built in 1892 is on the north side (Raritan-bound) of the tracks and presently houses two non-profits: the Westfield Foundation and United Fund of Westfield. This building is made of stone and has the usual wrap around porches that most historic stations have. The southern (Newark-bound) side of the station was built in 1912 and is open from 6:00am to 2:00pm when the staffed ticket office is open. The exterior is similar to the 1892 station house with a taller gabled roof and porches that extend a good ways in each direction to provide canopies for arriving passengers and some bike racks. Just east of the station in the parking lot is an odd blue kiosk type shelter that looks historic. Inside are a number of wooden benches and walls made up of red brick beneath and white paint above. The ticket office is in the middle of the building with blue paneling and its circular area extends a little outside the building to allow staff a view down the tracks (blocked now by the high level platforms). When the ticket office is closed TVMs are located on the Newark-bound platform only for buying tickets. The station houses are towards the western ends of the platform and directly across from each other. They are both set back from local streets with the station between where the tracks have overpasses of Central Avenue (to the west) and Plaza to the east (thats what the street is called). The area between the Newark-bound platform and South Avenue (County Road 610) is mainly taken up by a parking lot of over 500 spaces. Along the Raritan-bound platform are mainly local businesses (and 83 spaces of commuter parking) between it and North Avenue.

The two modern platforms are exposed in front of the station houses where short staircases lead down from the platforms to the former areas of the low-level platforms. The Raritan-bound platform ends at a walkway that runs at track level for a while before going through some woods and reaching a small 9/11 memorial at the complicated intersection of Broad Street and North Avenue. Just west of the station houses is a connecting pedestrian tunnel. The inside of this tunnel has stone walls with pictures along the walls. In these picture frames are historic photos of Westfield called Railroad Ties, 1998 by Stacey Farley. These photos are from the 1864 arrival of the CNJ Railroad to the 1920s and mainly document scenes of transportation in Westfield plus a ferry boat named Westfield (I assumed operated by the CNJ). At each end of the underpass are staircases up to the street level followed by more staircases up to the platform. There are also elevators at each end of the underpass that connect directly up to each platform with an intermediate landings at street level. These elevators are at the western end of the platforms canopies. These canopies are each held up by red supporting beams with stone bases, and stretch to the western end of the Newark-bound platform and about three quarters of the length of the Raritan-bound platform. At the western end of both platforms are wheelchair ramps down to the parking lots. Beneath the canopies are various small glass half-height windscreens plus two more substantial full height windscreens to provide slightly more protection to benches. On the Raritan-bound platform's exposed portion (across from the still canopied New York-bound platform) one of these is separate from the windscreen and looks like a nice, little shelter.
All Photos taken on 1 February, 2012

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Approaching a name written underpass
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Welcome to Westfield written on the underpass
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The parking lot and station beyond it
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It's permit parking only until noon in this Westfield Public Parking lot
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No fence between the parking lot and tracks
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Looking up to the end of the 'new' high-level platform
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Ramps up to the high-level platform
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Signs at the end of the canopy
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This bench on the Raritan-bound platform has its own shelter
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The only TVMs are on this closed platform
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The Newark-bound platform is closed, trains are single-tracking
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Behind the high-level platform fully made of stone
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The canopies attached to the depot cover the bike parking
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A bunch of bikes and a neat blue kiosk
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Area between the high-level platform and depot where another track once was
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Interior view of the depot with the ticket window and wooden benches
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Wooden benches and the ticket window
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The two middle benches and more on the sides
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Last Updated: 30 December, 2012
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