page_title: Hoboken Terminal
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Hoboken Terminal / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Hoboken Terminal, New Jersey ca. 1910
context_page_description: Hoboken Terminal is a commuter-oriented intermodal passenger station in Hoboken, Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. One of the New York metropolitan area's major transportation hubs, it is served by nine NJ Transit commuter rail lines, one Metro-North Railroad line, various NJT buses and private bus lines, the Hudson–Bergen Light Rail, the Port Authority Trans Hudson rapid transit system, and NY Waterway-operated ferries. More than 50,000 people use the terminal daily, making it the ninth-busiest railroad station in North America and the sixth-busiest in the New York area. It is also the second-busiest railroad station in New Jersey, behind only Newark Penn Station, and its third-busiest transportation facility, after Newark Liberty International Airport and Newark Penn. Hoboken Terminal is wheelchair accessible, with high-level platforms for light rail and PATH services and portable lifts for commuter rail services.
context_section_description: The site of the terminal has been used since colonial times to link Manhattan Island and points west. It was long a ferry landing accessible via turnpike roads, and later plank roads (namely the Hackensack, the Paterson and a spur of the Newark Plank Road). In 1811, the first steam-powered ferries began service under John Stevens, an inventor who founded Hoboken.
   The coming of the railroads brought more and more travelers to the west bank of the Hudson River. Passengers traveling to Manhattan from most of the continental USA had to transfer to a ferry at the riverbank. Cuts and tunnels were constructed through Bergen Hill to rail–ferry terminals on the west bank of the river and the Upper New York Bay. The first of the Bergen Hill Tunnels under Jersey City Heights was opened in 1876 by the Morris and Essex Railroad, which was leased by the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad (DL&W). The DL&W built the modern terminal in 1907, and opened the second parallel tunnel in 1908. Both tunnels are still used by NJ Transit. The tubes of the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad, forerunner of PATH, were extended to Hoboken Terminal upon its opening. The first revenue train on the new line ran from the terminal on February 26, 1908.
  At the peak of intercity rail service, five passenger terminals were operated by competing railroad companies along the Hudson Waterfront. Of these, Hoboken Terminal is the only one still in active use. Those at Weehawken (New York Central), Pavonia (Erie Railroad), and Exchange Place (Pennsylvania Railroad) were demolished in the 1960s, while the Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal was restored and is now part of Liberty State Park.
  In October 1956, four years before its merger with the DL&W to form the Erie Lackawanna Railway, the Erie Railroad began shifting its trains from Pavonia Terminal to Hoboken. The Erie moved its Northern Branch trains to Hoboken in 1959. In October 1965, on former Erie routes, there were five weekday trains run to Midvale, three to Nyack on the Northern Branch, three to Waldwick via the Newark Branch, two to Essex Fells on its Caldwell Branch, two to Carlton Hill, and one to Newton. All those trains were dropped in 1966. The last intercity trains that called at the station, with service to Chicago and Buffalo, were discontinued on January 5, 1970. 
  Conrail acquired the terminal in 1976 when it bought the Erie Lackawanna's rail assets. NJ Transit bought Conrail's rail properties in northern New Jersey, including Hoboken Terminal, in 1983.
  Numerous streetcar lines (eventually owned and operated by the Public Service Railway), including the Hoboken Inclined Cable Railway, originated/terminated at the station until bustitution was completed on August 7, 1949.
  Ferry service from the terminal to lower Manhattan ended on November 22, 1967. It resumed in 1989 on the south side of the terminal and moved back to the restored ferry slips inside the historic terminal on December 7, 2011. In addition, the terminal's clock tower was rebuilt in a renovation that took place between 2005 and 2009. The terminal building's walls were demolished and rebuilt to resemble their original appearance.
  The station was badly damaged during Hurricane Sandy on October 29, 2012, with a 5 feet (1.5 m) storm surge inundating the facility; the water rose as high as 8 feet (2.4 m) in the PATH tunnels. The waiting room reopened in January 2013, while extensive repairs were still in progress. Daytime PATH service to midtown Manhattan was restored earlier, on December 19, and pre-Sandy service patterns were gradually restored by March 1, 2013.
caption: Hoboken Terminal shortly after its construction
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