The line was originally chartered as the Hackensack and New York Railroad (H&NY) in 1856. The H&NY would eventually run from Rutherford to Hackensack, New Jersey. In 1866 under the leadership of David P. Patterson the company was chartered as the Hackensack and New York Extension Railroad and it extended its line north of Hackensack. It later reorganized as the New Jersey and New York Railroad. The line reached the town of Hillsdale, New Jersey, by 1870,[1] the village of West Haverstraw by 1873, and the village of Haverstraw by 1887.[4]
The NJ&NY was leased for 99 years by the Erie Railroad in 1896.[3] The NJ&NY continued to exist as an Erie subsidiary until the 1960 merger that created the Erie Lackawanna Railroad. In 1976, the Erie Lackawanna was merged with several other railroads to create Conrail. In 1983, after several years under operation by Conrail, operations of the Pascack Valley Line were transferred to New Jersey Transit Rail Operations.[6] The segments of the two former railroad lines in New York – north of Spring Valley to Haverstraw and north of Nanuet to New City – are no longer in service.
In 1956, NJ&NY reported 4.4 million net ton-miles of revenue freight and 21 million passenger-miles on 39 miles of railroad.
Railroads in italics meet the revenue specifications for Class I status, but are not technically Class I railroads due to being passenger-only railroads with no freight component.
