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Staten Island Railway
South Shore Line
Ventworth Avenue to
St. George
By Peggy Darlington
overview
The Staten Island Railway is the lone
commuter rail service in the borough of Staten Island.
This service operates 24 hours a day/7 days a week
between Tottenville and Saint George along 14 miles and
21 stations from end to end and is double tracked.
At the St. George terminal, the schedules are
coordinated with the arrival and departures of the
Staten Island Ferry, most
trains arrive 5 to 7 minutes before a boat departs.
Likewise, when a boat is scheduled to arrive, the
connecting SIR train departs St. George about 5-7
minutes later as well. The fleet is comprised of
retrofitted R44 cars to conform to FRA regulations and
have been in service since they arrived in 1971,
replacing 50 year old Baltimore & Ohio railcars . Trains
make all local stops (see exceptions on Nassau and
Richmond Valley stations below), while there are peak
direction trains that skip some stops, all AM and PM
rush trains bypass Tompkinsville and Stapleton stations
because of the close proximity to St. George terminal.
The Staten Island Railway’s fare structure is unique to
most transportation systems as the fares from MetroCards
and single ride tickets are collected only when entering
or leaving St. George or Ballpark stations. All
other stations have no fare collection, so customers can
legally ride the SIR for most of the route, for free.
Before MetroCard was introduced to SIR, the method of
fare collections was a collector who was responsible for
collecting fares on board trains, at all times.
History
The
Staten Island Railway’s original name was Staten Island
Rapid Transit, and was along from the old Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad company that assumed ownership of the RR
and inaugurated the first train from Tottenville to
Tompkinsville on 7/31/1884. Most of the original
ROW between Clifton and Tottenville actually predates
back to the 1850’s. A year later after the 1884
opening, the greatest extension from Tompkinsville, and
the framework for the 1898 consolidation of New York
City was achieved with the opening of Saint George
station. Over time in the late 1880’s, the North
Shore and South Beach lines were open for business as
well as the B&O freight connection to Cranford NJ, via.
a bridge over the Arthur Kill. (The ROW from
Arlington Yard and tracks are still active, they pass
underneath the Goethals Bridge at the New Jersey end.).
The trains would run from the North Shore line and would
either terminate at St. George or continue along the
mainline or South Shore branches.
But misfortunes plagued the B&O
Railroad, it was saddled into debt and had to file for
bankruptcy. Eventually sold at auction, the B&O
was purchased by CSX railroad in 1899, but survived long
enough to operate the railroads and even the old ferry
boats to the Whitehall Terminal. However, a 1901
boating accident changed all that, and 4 years later the
City of New York took over the ferry operations in 1905
(Amazingly, the accident claimed only 5 lives).
The B&O now only had to hang on to the SIRT.
Decades later, the roaring 20’s and other forces beyond
their control, forced the BRT to merge operations with
the BRT’s “Dual Contract” program, and scrap plans for a
tunnel connection from the SIRT main line, to the “new”
4th Ave Line in Brooklyn. The proposed
line was to have a double junction from both legs of the
SIRT mainline at a point near the present location of
Victory Blvd, run as a tunnel to Brooklyn and along 67th
Street to 4th Ave. The bad luck
continued with the advent on the 1929 Great Depression,
the new age of faster and more efficient GMC Old Look
buses replacing the antiquated trolley lines, and the
lack of a direct connection in any form from Staten
Island to Brooklyn over the decades made things worse.
The Saint George terminal suffered a fire that nearly
gutted the entire station on 6/25/1946, a year later the
Great Blizzard of 1947 crippled the SIRT for days, since
most of the RR was built at grade back then. The
newer and faster buses also put a stranglehold on the
B&O in operating the railroad, which the B&O was
threatening to end all service in Staten Island.
Ridership continued to be on the decline as bus fares
were cheaper than SIR. Eventually, the city
intervened and entered into an agreement with B&O to
subsidize the current SIRT line (main line) from Saint
George to Tottenville to keep rail service operating.
Service to the North Shore and South Beach branches
closed on March 31st, 1953. Another
fire on SIRT property happened on April 5, 1962, this
time 7 cars were lost at the Clifton Shop and Yard.
The 1964 opening of the world’s longest suspension
bridge (at the time of opening), the Verrazano-Narrows
Bridge, brought a population explosion to Staten Island
within the next 20 years as one of the fastest growing
counties in U.S. history. The automobile would be
a mainstay from now on in Staten Island, spurring new
construction. But the SIRT was still struggling
with aging equipment and soaring costs. Finally,
the final grade crossings and station at Jefferson Ave
in 1966 were eliminated, marking the first time in SIRT
history that the entire line was converted from at
grade, to grade separated. In 1971, the MTA took
over the SIRT operations from the B&O railroad, and
replaced the entire fleet in 1973 with sixty-four
retrofitted R44 cars to meet Federal Railroad
Administration (FRA) regulations, these cars would
replace the B&O SIRT cars that were in service since the
1925 electrification of the 3 lines. The entire
SIR is FRA regulated because of the track connections to
freight service to New Jersey. In the early 1990’s
the T in SIRT was dropped by the MTA and NYCT,
converting the name from Staten Island Rapid Transit to
MTA Staten Island Railway.
Ventworth Avenue Had one track
and one side platform on the geographic South side . No
further information is available
South Beach Had two tracks and
two side platforms. No further information is available
Cedar Avenue Had two tracks and
two side platforms. No further information is available
Arrochar Avenue Had two tracks
and two side platforms. No further information is
available
Ft. Wadsworth Had two tracks and
two side platforms. No further information is available
Belair Had two tracks and two
side platforms. No further information is available
Rosebank Had two tracks and two
side platforms. No further information is available
Just before we
enter Clifton, we “merge” with the abandoned South Beach
branch. This and the North Shore line were
abandoned in 1953 due to poor ridership and better bus
service in Staten Island. The South Beach line was
2 tracks and had six stations along the Staten Island’s
south shore.
Clifton
(Bay Street, across from Townsend Ave, 1 block south of
Vanderbilt Ave) Embankment, side platforms, beige
canopies. The Clifton Yard is next to the N/B
track, with yard leads and wayside signals to the north
of this station. The wayside signals are expected
to be replaced by modern signals. Currently the
SIR is nearing completion of an extensive signal
replacement program on the entire line and yard leads to
Clifton Yard that will enable reverse tracking of SIR
trains (only as needed, from either track) and provide
faster and more reliable service. The north end
has exits on both platforms that lead to Bay Street; the
S/B side has winding stairs to Townsend Ave, while the
N/B end has stairs and under ROW to Midwood Ave (a block
away). The N/B also has a second staircase on Bay
and Edgewater Streets, no such staircase exists on the
S/B side. On Bay Street (sidewalk level) and
facing the platform above, are remains of original steps
up to the old station platform. The shelter on S/B
also has an interesting look of a stationhouse from the
outside, but actually a shelter while on the platform.
Some of the boarded up windows and layout of this brick
shelter does suggest that it was originally a
stationhouse.
Stapleton
(Prospect Street between Bay and Front Streets)
Elevated, island platform. The north end has exit
to Prospect Street and has a NYC DOT Park and Ride
facility to the west side of the ROW (next to Bay
Street). The south end is sealed for unknown
reasons and formerly had 2 staircases down to Cross
Street or Water Street.
Tompkinsville
(East of Bay Street between end of Victory Blvd and
Hannah Street) At grade (but staircases go up for
overpasses at both ends), island platform. The
north end leads to Victory Blvd and Bay Street; there is
a parking lot adjacent to the S/B track side. The
south end leads to Hannah Street. There is a 3rd
track adjacent to the S/B track; it is part of a
Maintenance of Way shop, with barns on both sides of
this line and located south of this station.
We leave
Tompkinsville and make our way to St. George. We
now enter the only tunnel in the entire SIR system; it’s
underneath the Light House Service of the United State
Coast Guard. This tunnel is about 500 feet in
length. As we leave the tunnel and see daylight
again, we enter a diverging switch that will take us to
the left, the track diverging to the left leads to St.
George terminal while we enter Ballpark station.
This double track is the only such area within the
abandoned North Shore line that sees limited, but
active, service. The actual length of this track
from the cutoff to Ballpark station is only 0.2 miles
long.
Saint George
(Bay Street and Richmond
Terrace, inside Staten Island Ferry Terminal and parking
lot.)
This station
is considered open cut, since the tracks are depressed,
while the 4 lane bus terminal and parking lot are both
above us. The terminal has 5 active platforms and
10 tracks; each numbered #1 through 10 from east to
west. There is also a sixth platform to the west
that is now a passageway to the North Municipal Parking
Field on Richmond Terrace, and towards Richmond County
Ballpark, one of two access points to this station.
The track ballast is present through this construction
zone. The main access point is inside the St.
George Ferry Terminal, on main level, with 17 steps down
from ferry terminal to station mezzanine. The
station is ADA accessible by means of an elevator,
though hard to find with the current construction going
on. The current staircase will be replaced by an
expanded and slightly relocated staircase, which can be
seen to the right of the existing staircase. Going
down this staircase, you can see the original MTA SIRT
logo that was most likely there since the 1971
acquisition from B&O. The mezzanine area has
separate fare control areas, east side for entering
passengers, and west side for exiting. A S/A booth
is available for most of the day for MetroCard sales in
the same manner and purchase procedures are the same as
any other S/A booth in your typical NYCT station.
MetroCard vending machines were observed inside the fare
control area (for fare paying exiting customers.)
Just before each platform bay, are the old destination
indicators to the left and right of each platform
entrance, corresponding to each departing track.
There are green bulbs above these displays that indicate
where the next train will be leaving from. Most
departures take place from tracks 1-4 while the outside
tracks see very little activity for safety reasons.
Station original opened with nothing overhead, no bus
bays, no ramps. The terminal was the site of a
1949 that nearly destroyed the terminal, there may be
traces of the original track locations
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