Ranya's Ramblings

Grove Street is the northern terminus station on NJT's Grove Street line, one of the two lines of the Newark Light Rail. The station is located at Grove Street in Bloomfield, New Jersey.  History Original Grove Street station Grove Street was originally the name of a station along the DL&R's main line. The original station was built in 1901, and served as a station all the way until 1991.  By that point it served the Gladstone and Morristown lines before being discontinued and later demolished.  Immediately after this, NJT decided to extend the western branch of the Newark Light Rail further from Franklin Avenue station into Silver Lake and Bloomfield. To do so, the choice was made to disconnect part of the former DL&R Orange Branch from the rest of the American rail system. This section went as far as the branchline's intersection with Grove Street at the town line between Silver Lake and Bloomfield. The station was named the exact same de...

Branch Brook Park is a station on NJT's Grove Street branch of the Newark Light Rail (NLR), located at 5th Street in the city of Newark, New Jersey. Branch Brook Park is the final station on the Grove Street line in Newark.  History Before Branch Brook Park, there was Franklin Avenue and Heller Parkway stations. Franklin Avenue used to be the terminus station, with a loop for the PCCs used on the Newark Light Rail.  In 2001, NJT phased out usage of the PCCs, and in doing so went through with a planned extension to Bloomfield. This required Franklin Avenue station to be rebuilt. Considering that Franklin Avenue and Heller Parkway stations were extremely close to eachother, NJT decided to hit two birds with one stone and merge both stations into one station. This new station was near Branch Brook Park, the largest park in Newark, so what better to call the station than Branch Brook Park?  Today, the remains of Heller Parkway station is still able to ...

Springfield Mall Transportation Center is an intermodal station located at Baltimore Pike and Sproul Road in Springfield Township, Delaware County, PA.  History Springfield Mall station was built as part of the Philadelphia and West Chester Traction Company's Media line, in 1913. For many years, the station was aptly named Sproul Road. Through a series of acquisitions, the line eventually became a part of SEPTA. Around the same time this happened, Springfield Mall opened very close by to the Sproul Road station. For the purposes of boosting ridership and promoting the mall, SEPTA decided to rename Sproul Road to Springfield Mall, a decision that has not been reversed since. Tour Springfield Mall Transportation Center really consists of three parts: The trolley station, the mall, and the bus bays.  The Trolley Station There's not much to this station, it's your average SEPTA suburban trolley station. There is a singular bench i...

Avon Road is a station on SEPTA's 101 and 102 trolley lines (D lines). This station is at the intersection of the combined 101/102 section and Avon Road, in Upper Darby, PA, hence the name.  Like every other trolley station, this station is completely inaccessible, disabled people cannot easily get on the trolleys as they're high-floor and designed with steps. However, even if one was using low-floor trolleys that could bridge the gap between the station and the trolley, this station would still be inaccessible due to its staggered design and traffic flow issues. Tour 102 Trolley at Avon Road There is very little at this station. It's just two shelters, two platforms, and a few signs. All of the amenities of each shelter are at the very end of the shelter, as if it wasn't inaccessible enough otherwise.  Platform Old shelter There used to be a shelter much like the other older 101/102 shelters, but it seems to have been clo...

PCC Trolley at Mattapan Station Mattapan Station is the southwestern terminus station for MBTA's Mattapan Trolley. The station is located in the southern portion of the Mattapan neighborhood of Boston, immediately north of the Neponset River (and thus north of Milton).  History The old station in 2006, before renovation.  Credit to Frank Herbert for the photo Mattapan station was made in the late 1920s and opened on December 21st, 1929 . The station used this stone depot for many years until 2006 or so when the new station was built.  Station Tour View from Mattapan Station Mattapan Station has shelters with benches, as well as shelters without them. The architecture style is similar to  Temple University Station (SEPTA) , but only specifically with the bench spacing and the general resemblance to gas station canopies. The station also has two bus loops, for all of the bus routes that either deviate to or terminate at the station....