The computer-generated transcript of this page:
construction. The line was officially opened in January, 1909. Eventually, the Newburgh short-cut route was abandoned, and later still, the main line from Howells Junction to Graham Junction was abandoned in favor of the Graham Line.
The Erie began using the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western's Hoboken Terminal in October, 1956. Merger talks between the two roads started at about this time. On October 17, 1960, they merged becoming the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad Co. (the hyphen was later dropped). In November, 1966, long distance passenger service via Port Jervis, and consequently Middletown, came to an end, leaving only commuter service between Hoboken and Port Jervis.
The Erie Lackawanna Railroad became the Erie Lackawanna Railway on April 1, 1968. At that time, the company was owned by the Norfolk & Western Ry., through a holding company called Dereco. This ended when the Erie filed for bankruptcy on June 26, 1972, largely as a result of Hurricane Agnes. The storm struck on June 21, resulting in losses of nearly $5-1/2 million. Another problem which led to bankruptcy was the government's unrealistic attitude regarding rate increases. The same criticism was leveled at the railroad unions in regards to wages. Intentions of the company were to reorganize.
In 1974, the Graham line, and portions of the main line, were reduced to single track. This was done to reduce maintenance costs, as a result of declining traffic, and because of increased use of the former Delaware, Lackawanna & Western route through Scranton. The New York State DOT filed an objection to this, but to no avail.
At that time (1974), the Erie operated two daily coinmuter runs between Port Jervis and Hoboken daily, and one on Saturday. For years, equipment consisted of ancient Stillwell coaches, delivered to the Erie between 1915 and 1934. These were pulled by General Motors-Electro Motive Division E 8 diesels from 1951, or, later, by GP 7's of a similar vintage. While these trains were a beauty to photograph, they were quite uncomfortable for the people riding them. They were too hot in the summer, and in the winter you'd be freezing at Port Jervis and end up boiling by Hoboken.
Beginning in January, 1971, NJ-DOT began replacing old equipment with brand new coaches from Pullman-Standard and General Electric 034CH locomotives, Conversion to the new equipment was completed in 1973. Of course, this did not affect the Port Jervis trains, as they were subsidized by the MTA, a NY agency. Finally, in July of 1973, it was announced an agreement had been reached to lease NJ equipment for the Port Jervis line (that is, the stations above Suffern). The lease would continue until the MTA could purchase their own equipment. One delay followed another until September, 1974. The last run of old equipment was made Saturday, September 14, 1974. On Sunday