Great Notch - (Closed 2010)

Great Notch Station closed on January 15, 2010 because of a lack of ridership, just 9 passengers per day were using the station in its final months. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Notch_(NJT_station) Wikipedia article for more information) The station was closed because it lacks parking, with maybe 14 parking spaces and the opening of the nearby MSU Station in 2004 with over 15,000 parking spaces. Further harming the station, the parking spaces are used by as a park & ride by passengers who would catch the much more frequent bus service into the Port Authority Bus Terminal. The stop is also the first one on the diesel portion of the Montclair-Boonton Line after the Montclair Connection opened in 2002, which also doomed the station. The stop is electrified but no electric train has ever stopped at the station. This is because the tracks are only electrified for access to the Great Notch Yard that exists just south of this station.

The station has one short, decaying side platform with a few visible lampposts along the north side of the one mainline still electrified track, there is a second track in the station that is an electrified siding for the Great Notch Yard. A chain link fence has been built, with no trespassing signs between the former track and the tiny haphazard parking lot between the former station and Great Notch Road in a residential community. All platform signs for the station have been removed although NJ Transit signs still say parking for NJ Transit Commuters only. The other remains of the platform are a line of lampposts. There was once a bus shelter for waiting passengers, but this has since been removed. The parking lot is still full of cars on the middle of a weekday, commuters now parking to catch buses at the corner of Notch and Long Hill Roads (that crosses the tracks on an overpass just west of the station) to the Port Authority Bus Terminal. The stop for New York buses has a bus shelter.
All Photos taken on 9 September, 2011 (with my camera's white ballance messed up)

The fenced off former platform and sign that parking is still only for NJ Transit Commuters

Cars park up against the fenced off platform

New No Trespassing signs on the fence of the former platform. The platform floor with a fading yellow line is visible

Looking over the fence and down the platform

Commuters only sign and lampposts along the abandoned platform

An equipment box on the abandoned platform

The Hackettstown-bound end of the abandoned platform with the chipped yellow line

Bus Commuters Park along the former rail platform

Walking up the hill and out of the little still used parking area along the closed rail platform

The nearest bus stop with a shelter and full parking area along the now abandoned Great Notch Station

Sign for the 3 bus routes to New York that have replaced rail service to Great Notch at the platform visible below

A nearby sign for Little Falls at Great Notch