The Pascack Valley Line is a 31 mile long diesel commuter rail operated by New Jersey Transit, with Metro-North subsidizing service to the most northern 3 stations and last 6 miles in New York's Rockland County. After the Pascack Valley Line leaves the Bergen County Line north of Secaucus Junction, the line is entirely single tracked, with passing sidings. Service on the line is mostly providing in the peak direction rush hours, with some midday and weekend service (not on a consistently frequent schedule, every 2 to 3 hours). Metro-North directly subsidizes two daily (on both weekends and weekdays) Express trains in each direction (they skip all stops between Pearl River and Secaucus Junction).

Before October 28, 2007, when passing sidings and a new signaling system was added, Pascack Valley Line service operated during peak direction rush hours only. The old pre-2007 schedule was 10 weekday trains a day inbound leaving Spring Valley between 5:11am and 7:58am, and 13 trains outbound leaving Hoboken between 1:55 and 10:55pm. 3 of these evening trains deadheaded back to Hoboken but no passengers were transported. One Metro-North Express train operated in each direction. The first time I rode the Pascack Valley Line all the way to Spring Valley was in August 2006. On that trip I returned to New York City from Spring Valley by taking the Tappen Zee Express bus to Tarrytown and the Metro-North Hudson Line back.