Ridgewood (NJT Main & Bergen County Lines)

Ridgewood is a major station and is the first stop after the Main Line and Bergen County Line trains rejoin each other onto the ex-Erie Mainline, service to the station is generally at least two trains per hour, including some Metro-North Port Jervis Line Express trains stopping at the station before they run non-stop to Hoboken. A few trains terminate at the station but since the stop doesn’t have a train yard so most of the trains that don’t continue north to Suffern, terminate at Waldwick two stops north, which has ayard. Before all passenger service was discontinued by the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad in the 1960s, Ridgewood was a stop on long-distance trains like the Erie Limited to Chicago.

The station underwent a major renovation from February 2009 and September 2011, that saw the former low-level platform layout that existed when I visited in 2005, replaced with modern and ADA accessible high-level platforms. This also consolidated the platforms with a new island platform being built to serve Suffern-bound tracks 1 and 3, this replaced the former side platform for track 1 (which still exists as a pedestrian walkway but is now fenced off from the track), and widened the platform that previously served track 3 (which was fenced off from track 1), the side platform for Track 1 is still along the station’s historic tiled roofed station house that were built as part of a grade-separation project in 1916.

All platforms both today with the high-level platforms and previously with the low-level platforms are connected only by the south sidewalk of the underpass of Garber Square, located at the end of Franklin Avenue, this sidewalk is also the accessible connection between the platforms with elevators up to both platforms by the staircases. The Hoboken-bound side platform also has a ramp up from station’s 105 space resident only parking lot by the station house that is at the same elevation as the train tracks, and some additional staircases. The island platform (and former platform for the middle track 3) has one additional exit at its southern end, accessed via along walkway that is low-level before ramps lead up to the high-level platform (this area was used to allow trains to continue to stop in the station when the high-level platforms were under construction), stairs lead down (at portals with a tiled roof like the historic station house) to a pedestrian tunnel, that is in the same area as the 3 former low-level platforms, and is original to the station’s grade-separation in 1916. The former Suffern-bound side of the station still has it’s now fenced off low-level side platform with stairs up to it at various intervals and a smaller two-story station house/waiting area in the same historic style that now contains a taxi dispatch office.
Photos 1-19: February 18, 2005

Looking down towards the end of a Suffern-bound platform at Ridgewood, the mornings light dusting of snow has not been cleared yet. Comet I Cab Car #5100 is still in the station

Comet I Cab Car #5100 at Ridgewood, on the back of a Suffern-bound train

Looking down the length of the platform at Ridgewood, Comet I Cab Car #5100 is still in the station

A platform sign at Ridgewood

Comet I Cab Car #5100 leaves Ridgewood, on the back of a Suffern-bound train

A staircase up to one of the two outbound platforms, with a sign saying Ridgewood, hanging between two lampposts

The station has two underpasses that connect the three platforms, each platform underpass has ornate entrances

An staircase down to an underpass at Ridgewood

Looking south, from the southern ends of the platforms at Ridgewood

Looking down the platforms from the inbound track at Ridgewood, Fences between each of the three low level platforms, prevent people from walking across the tracks and force people to use the tunnels

Some of the station buildings at Ridgewood, some are currently used by private enterprises

Part of one of the station buildings at Ridgewood

Looking north of the platforms at Ridgewood, the tracks go over a bridge. The modern high-level platforms extend north of the station platform area

The station house of the inbound platform at Ridgewood

Where it looks like there used to be a platform at Ridgewood, where the tracks cross a bridge just north of the station, this is now part of the modern high-level platforms area

The stand behind yellow warning line on the low-level platform at Ridgewood

An inbound train approaches Ridgewood, although it started in Suffern and not in Port Jervis, it is using Metro-North's Comet V Cars

Metro-North Comet V Cab Car #6704 on the front of an inbound train enters Ridgewood, the diesel locomotive is pushing the train from the other end