Wait, didn’t I just write about this? Ah, but there’s a SECOND one in the NYC sphere of influence – in Newark. Well, whatever…
Ah, yes. So, Broad Street. It’s the end of the Broad Street branch of the Newark Light Rail, and it’s also a stop on the Morris & Essex County, Gladstone, and Montclair-Boonton Lines. So, the station is not as grandiose as Penn Station is, but it’s certainly not an awful one. The platforms have countdown clocks, level boarding, the usual. There’s stairs, and a heated waiting area. There’s also a station building (which I did not look inside, however given it’s Newark, I have cause to believe it might be staffed). There’s also elevators down to street level. As for the Newark Light Rail, you have ticketing machines, and two platforms. Service through here is one-way, with trains coming from Penn Station serving one set of stops, and trains heading back serving a different set. Lastly, there’s also frequent buses through here. Yippee! Overall, not a terrible station in of itself.
The good: It serves the northern edges of downtown! Furthermore, it has the NLR connection to link it and Penn Station, and it’s also within walking distance of a few colleges. There’s also many a bus connection.
The bad: I can’t really think of many. Though, why was the heated waiting area’s heating mechanism powered on? It wasn’t winter.
Nearby points of interest: Rutger’s Newark campus and NJIT are both close by! There isn’t much nearby, sadly.
Transit connections:
NJT Rail (Morris & Essex Co., Montclair-Boonton, Gladstone)
Newark Light Rail
NJT bus (11, 28, 29, 30, 41, 72, 76, 78, 108)
Overall, it’s a nice little station. I mean, yeah, there’s parking, but it’s not obscene – especially given there’s a bajillion surface lots nearby anyways. Bleh.
Rating: 7/10
