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  • 21 Aug, 2019

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Aberdeen-Matawan (NJT Station)

Aberdeen–Matawan is a station on NJ Transit's North Jersey Coast Line, located in Aberdeen and Matawan, Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. This station, convenient to Route 35 and the PNC Bank Arts Center, is popular with both commuters and concertgoers, and is the busiest station on the line between Bay Head and Rahway.

The station is located at grade on Atlantic Avenue, on the border of Aberdeen and Matawan, and has two high side platforms, as well as two abandoned low side platforms, and two tracks. A ticket office is located on the New York-bound platform. All trains on the North Jersey Coast Line serve this station. The former Freehold Branch can still be traced in a southeastern parking lot.

History

For many years, the New York and Long Branch Railroad-built station was known as just Matawan, as its stationhouse and main platform were in Matawan, and only an auxiliary platform and large extra parking area were in Aberdeen.

The original building was opened on July 1, 1875 as a temporary station for regular service. It was the first station built on the line and was estimated to cost between $4,000 and $6,000 at the time. In 1982, the original building was closed and replaced by a small, one-story building on the north side of the tracks, to accommodate morning rush hour travelers commuting into New York City. The station was electrified in 1983 under New Jersey Transit as just a one-stop extension from the original end of electrification under the Pennsylvania Railroad in South Amboy. In 1984, the original station building was listed in the New Jersey Register of Historic Places and National Register of Historic Places as part of the Operating Passenger Railroad Stations Thematic Resource.

When the station was reconstructed and expanded in the 1990s, the new stationhouse and main platforms were built on the Aberdeen (eastern) side of Atlantic Avenue. NJ Transit considered renaming the station to just Aberdeen, but Matawan officials protested, since much of the town's recognition factor was due to the heavy use of the station by central New Jersey residents. Thus, the joint Aberdeen-Matawan name was adopted. All three station buildings are still in existence.

In 2003, the area surrounding the station was designated a Transit Village by the New Jersey Department of Transportation. Work began on the redevelopment of the surrounding area in August 2016. In October 2018, a new mixed used development called "The Link at Aberdeen Station" was opened right next to the station on the Aberdeen side, replacing the abandoned Zobel paint factory. In late 2023, construction began on a mixed used development called "Matawan Junction" on the intersection of Main and High Streets, two blocks away from the current station, an empty lot which had been abandoned since 1984.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Public Transportation". PNC Bank Arts Center. Retrieved July 19, 2018.
  2. ^ "New York and Long Branch Railroad". The Monmouth Inquirer. Freehold, New Jersey. July 1, 1875. p. 3. Retrieved February 1, 2020 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  3. ^ "New Matawan Train Station Won't Have Aberdeen Name". The Asbury Park Press. May 10, 1983. p. 23. Retrieved January 31, 2020 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  4. ^ De Santis, Susan (November 4, 1983). "Matawan Station Dedicated". The Asbury Park Press. Retrieved June 21, 2019 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  5. ^ "QUARTERLY RIDERSHIP TRENDS ANALYSIS" (PDF). New Jersey Transit. December 27, 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 19, 2013. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
  6. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  7. ^ "New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places". New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection - Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved January 7, 2015.
  8. ^ Sears, Steve (October 26, 2011). "Three Buildings, One Stop: A Closer Look at the Aberdeen-Matawan Train Station". Matawan-Aberdeen Patch. Retrieved December 17, 2015.
  9. ^ "Aberdeen-Matawan". Subwaynut.com. Retrieved December 17, 2015.
  10. ^ Matawan New Jersey Transit Railroad Station Survey
  11. ^ Monmouth County Listings at the National Register of Historic Places
  12. ^ Hlavenka, Jacqueline (January 28, 2010). "Aberdeen, Matawan revisit plans for transit village". Greater Media Newspapers. Archived from the original on September 26, 2015. Retrieved December 17, 2015.
  13. ^ Vantuono, William C. (August 11, 2016). "New New Jersey Transit transit village under way". Railway Age.
  14. ^ "City Living's Unlikely New Address Is The Link at Aberdeen Station". Jersey Digs. April 30, 2018. Retrieved September 17, 2023.
  15. ^ Harris, Vashti (February 19, 2021). "Professional discusses details of mixed use Matawan Junction project". centraljersey.com. Retrieved September 17, 2023.

Media related to Abeerden-Matawan (NJT station) at Wikimedia Commons