<kuid:210096:1015> Erie_Terminal

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In 1886 the Erie Railroad built its last passenger terminal along Pavonia AVenue
in Jersey City, New Jersey. The building was designed by George E Archer it was built entirely
of wood on pilings sunk into the Hudson River. No plaster was used and the building was built to
be as light as possible not withstanding it required numerous raisings the last one was in 1943.
By 1952 the the Erie Railroad was looking at how to provide its remaining commuter service
as cheaply as possible. The city of Jersey City was asking for them to replace this building as
well. The Erie decided that its best course of action was to build a new station over the
Hudson & Manhattan tubes and to discontinue its ferry operation which had had its non train
ridership decimated by the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels in addition starting in 1950 railroad
employees won a 40 hour week which mandated hiring more people and numerous pay increases, coupled
with declining ferry ridership the Erie decided on terminating the ferry operation.
The City of Jersey City rejected the railroad's position and dug in its heals to fight the proposed
discontinuane of the ferry service, their attitude at the time was that they could thru their opposition
force the railroad to continue operation of the ferry. Believing that diverting trains
to a new station would expedite elimination of the ferry the Erie decided its best course of
action was to consolidate its passenger operations with the Lackawanna at Hoboken, NJ. Long
distance Erie passenger trains began operating into Hoboken in 1956. Gradually all off peak
commuter trains were moved over to Hoboken with the exception of the Northern Branch and NYS&W
trains. On March 18, 1957 the last full rush hour out of Jersey City occured all peak trains
except those operated by the Susquehanna and the Northern Branch began operating at Hoboken. By
this time the railroad had petitioned the NJ PUC to discontinue its Pavonia Ferry Operation
which was bogging down with Jersey City's opposition. At this point the Erie decided that it
would in fact end all passenger train operations into Jersey City. As no good connecton
existed for the Susquehanna or Northern Branch trains the NYSW began terminating its trains
at Susquehanna Transfer in the Meadowlands in 1959 and the Erie began having the Northern Branch
trains make a see saw move at Bergen Jct to get into Hoboken, this added 12 minutes to the
runing time of Northern Branch trains and doomed them to discontinuance as ridership dried up.
The Susquehanna's ridership suffered similar decimation. Susquehanna commuter service and
Northern Branch Commuter service were ended by 1966. The Erie started demolition on its passenger
terminal in 1959 and the building modeled here was completely destroyed by 1960. The Erie left
two platforms in place as if it was thinking of moving the Northern Branch trains back but this
never happened and by the 1970's the whole passenger terminal area had become a parking lot.
today there is almost no trace of Erie facilities at Pavonia Avenue it is now an upscale
condo complex called Newport Center. I have modeled this building from all the information
I have been able to obtain, this information is incomplete thus this building probably has major
to what was there as I have been able to make but I can not claim that this is a perfect model
inaccuracies, I unfortunately never saw this building.