Station Review #187: Newark, DE (Amtrak/SEPTA)


Newark is a station on the Northeast Corridor rail line located at the rail line's intersection with S College Avenue in Newark, Delaware. Newark station is the terminus for the SEPTA Wilmington-Newark Line. 

History

The old station building, now a museum.


In 1877, the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Rail Road built the old Newark, DE station. This station served as the station for Newark service along the Northeast Corridor for over a century afterwards.

Newark has been part of SEPTA's network since 1989, when the Wilmington line was restored to its past length and then extended. In 2018, the station was rebuilt, but the platforms were not.

Services

Newark currently has two main rail services that stop at the station. One of these is the Amtrak Northeast Regional, of which the variants 84, 87, 120, 124, 134, 152, 156, 184, 187, and 193 all stop at Newark. Despite all of these variants, Newark still usually only gets 2-4 trains per day per direction. 

The other is the SEPTA Wilmington - Newark Line, which serves Newark station on weekdays with peak commuter service from Philadelphia, with Newark being one of the three Wilmington - Newark line termini (besides Wilmington and Marcus Hook). Northbound, nine trains depart towards Philadelphia per weekday, meanwhile eight trains depart southbound back towards Newark, with many of these being express trains, for 17 SEPTA trains per weekday.

Tour

Key Card validator on the Southbound platform 

Newark is an interesting station to say the least. The entire time, it feels like this is a station that does not have SEPTA service. Any SEPTA trains that come to this station feel like excursion trains from Wilmington rather than an actual service provided by SEPTA. It probably doesn't help that the station gets such little service. 
 

Newark only has one platform that's usable. That's all it gets. There are multiple platforms at the station but SEPTA usually just uses one of them. Amtrak stops in the middle of the tracks instead of using any of them.

The horrifying stairs
Whenever I would try to go up or down these stairs, they would actively creak.


Acela at Newark

Silverliner IV at Newark

Bike parking

The singular platform

This is essentially the entirety of the station that SEPTA uses. 

MARC step stools

Broken mini-high, apparently maybe working now?

Despite the mini-high, the station is completely inaccessible due to its location and how you interact with trains here. The mini-highs are a farce and may as well not be real. 

Outdated map!

Another outdated map! 

More abnormal signage! 

Depot

The depot was built in 2018 and is probably the nicest part of the station. 

Waiting room

This was one of the few stations SEPTA has that's open all day. Something feels off about the interior design. 

Departure board

Elevator

Closed staircase? 

More bike parking?

Bus stop


Parking lot hellscape
 
All there is outside this station is endless parking. This station is similar to Port Jervis in that it's not in a third state, but commuters from a county in another state do drive to the station and take the train into Philadelphia. In this case, it's Cecil County, Maryland. 

Bus connections 


There's only one DART bus that runs to the station, and two that run outside the station.

  • 10 - Wilmington/University Plaza/Newark: This bus runs locally between the bus bay at Newark station to Wilmington via Wilmington Airport, and is the slowest route from Newark to Wilmington. Buses run every 45-70 minutes
  • 33 - Wilmington/Christiana Mall/Newark: This is an express bus between Newark Transfer Hub and Wilmington Transit Center. Buses run every 20-30 minutes or so. Outside of the train itself, this is the fastest way between Wilmington and Newark. This bus can be taken at College Avenue
  • 46 - Newark/Glasgow/Middletown/Odessa Park & Ride: This bus runs north to south between Newark, Glasgow, Middletown, and Odessa. Buses run to Glasgow every Hour, and Odessa every other hour. This bus can be taken at College Avenue. 
  • DART Connect Newark - Local service around Newark: This is a microtransit service that runs around Newark, DE. Vans run every 15 minutes on weekdays only. This replaced the UNICITY bus, which only ran a few buses a day on weekdays only in a loop around Newark.  

Meanwhile, Cecil Transit runs one bus here: 

  • Route 4 - Newark Connection: This bus runs in a loop linking Elkton, Newark Station, Newark Transfer Hub, and People's Plaza in Glasgow. The 4 runs every 90 minutes or so. 

Flixbus also runs two routes through here: 

  • Richmond, VA to White Plains, NY
  • Norfolk, VA to New York, NY
Both of these run once a day, the first bypassing Philadelphia, the second not. 

Points of Interest Near Newark station

There's not really much here. You're far enough away from the downtown of Newark that it's a bit of a hassle to go there. There is a really good ice cream place nearby named the UDairy Creamery, but otherwise you get nothing. It's at least less disappointing of a place to end than West Trenton, but it's not much better. 

Unfortunately, absolutely no sidewalks exist here, despite being on the University of Delaware Campus. 

Statistics


Name: Newark
Agency: Amtrak, SEPTA
Line(s): Northeast Regional, Wilmington-Newark Line
Locality: Newark
Municipality: Newark
County: New Castle
State: Delaware
Ridership: Amtrak: 44,877 (2024). SEPTA: 546 riders per average weekday (2024). 

Amenity Checklist


Accessible: ×
Bathrooms: ✓
Bicycle parking: ✓
Clean Station: ✓
Connections to other transit routes: ✓
Easy passage for each side: ×
Existence is justifiable: ✓
Fare Payment Kiosks (if applicable): ✓
Good Wayfinding: × (this place is kind of a maze)
Indoor Shelters: ✓
Maps: ✓
Multiple entrances/exits: ✓
Adequate Parking: ✓
Safe to use: ×
Seating: ✓
Shelters: ×
Station In Good Condition: ×
TVMs: ×
Ticket Offices: × (formerly, they have since been removed)
TOD: ×
Train Departure/Arrival Info (countdown clocks): ✓
Updated/Useful Signage: ×

Final Verdict: 1.25/10. Maybe it'd score higher if it was actually accessible and had more than just two singular side platforms that act like different stations. 

Station Directory



--------MASSACHUSETTS--------
--------Suffolk County--------
Boston South Station
Back Bay
--------Norfolk County--------
Route 128
--------RHODE ISLAND--------
--------Providence County--------
Providence
--------Washington County--------
Kingston
Westerly
-------CONNECTICUT--------
--------Southeastern Connecticut Planning Region--------
New London
--------Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region--------
Old Saybrook
--------South Central Connecticut Planning Region-------- 
 
TRAINS TO SPRINGFIELD, MA CONTINUE NORTH AND ARE NOT SHOWN HERE 
 
New Haven Union
--------Greater Bridgeport Planning Region--------
Bridgeport
--------Western Connecticut Planning Region--------
Stamford Transportation Center
--------NEW YORK--------
--------Westchester County-------- 
New Rochelle 
--------Manhattan Borough-------- 
New York Penn
--------NEW JERSEY--------
--------Essex County--------   
Newark Penn
--------Middlesex County-------- 
Metropark
--------Mercer County-------- 
--------PENNSYLVANIA-------- 
 
WILMINGTON-NEWARK TRAINS CONTINUE TO SUBURBAN, JEFFERSON, AND TEMPLE UNIVERSITY STATIONS 

''''''''Center City Zone''''''''
Philadelphia-30th Street
Penn Medicine
--------Delaware County--------
''''''''Zone 1''''''''
''''''''Zone 2''''''''
Curtis Park
Sharon Hill
Folcroft
Glenolden
Norwood
Prospect Park-Moore
''''''''Zone 3''''''''
Ridley Park
Crum Lynne 
Chester Transportation Center
Marcus Hook
--------DELAWARE--------
--------New Castle County--------
''''''''Zone 4''''''''
Claymont Transportation Center
Churchmans Crossing
Newark  
--------MARYLAND-------- 
--------Harford County-------- 
Aberdeen
--------Baltimore City-------- 
--------Anne Arundel County-------- 
BWI Airport
--------Prince George's County-------- 
New Carrolton
--------DC--------  
Washington DC Union 

TRAINS TO NEWPORT NEWS, NORFOLK, AND ROANOKE CONTINUE SOUTH AND ARE NOT SHOWN HERE

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