Line SIR North Shore Branch Tracks 2 Borough Staten Island | Services none Opened 23 February 1886 Platforms in use 2 | |
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Closed March 31, 1953; 63 years ago (1953-03-31) Former/other names Elm Park − Morningstar Road Similar West New Brighton, Sailors' Snug Harbor, Port Richmond, Tower Hill, Richmond County Bank Ball | ||
Elm Park is a station on the abandoned North Shore Branch of the Staten Island Railway (SIR). The station is located in an open cut under the Bayonne Bridge approach in Elm Park, Staten Island, at Morningstar Road between Innis Street and Newark Avenue. It has two tracks and two side platforms. The station is approximately 3.9 miles (6.3 km) from the Saint George terminal of the SIR.
History
The station opened on February 23, 1886 as a surface station. In the early 1930s as part of a grade crossing elimination project, the station was depressed into the current open-cut below grade level, and rebuilt with concrete platforms. The platforms are slightly offset due to the right-of-way crossing at a diagonal with the streets in the neighborhood; each measures about 240 feet (73 m) in length, which would fit three cars of the former ME-1 rolling stock (67 feet in length) or of the current R44 SIR cars (75 feet in length). Exit stairs were located at the west end of the station towards Morningstar Road. An overpass from Eaton Place to Newark Avenue over the line (not connected to the station) was located at the station's east end under the Bayonne Bridge. East of the station past John Street, the line rises onto a concrete trestle built in 1935. Elm Park was closed on March 31, 1953, along with the South Beach Branch and the rest of the North Shore Branch.
Elm Park is one of several stations along the North Shore line still standing today, although the street staircases have been taken up and the former platforms are severely dilapidated, while the line's open cut is overgrown with vegetation. Only a single track — the St. George-bound track — remains, unelectrified and in ruins. It is one of the stations to be returned to operation under the proposals for reactivation of the North Shore branch for rapid transit, light rail, or bus rapid transit service.