NJ TRANSIT Collection

NJ TRANSIT is the State of New Jersey’s public transportation agency, providing rail, bus, and light rail service to thousands of riders each day. Established in 1979, the agency was created to assume responsibility for public transportation services previously operated by financially insolvent private carriers. Its first major action was the takeover of bus operations from Public Service Coordinated Transport.

In 1983, NJ TRANSIT assumed control of commuter rail services that had been operated under state contract by Conrail, itself a federally created corporation formed in 1976 to consolidate several bankrupt Northeastern railroads into a more viable system. Prior to NJ TRANSIT’s involvement, commuter rail service in New Jersey had been provided by five separate private carriers, many of which had struggled financially for decades and relied on aging, failure-prone equipment.

Since its inception, NJ TRANSIT has unified these inherited operations into a cohesive statewide network of eight rail lines and has steadily modernized the system through infrastructure improvements and the introduction of modern rolling stock.

In December 2024, NJ TRANSIT relocated from its long-time headquarters at One Penn Plaza in Newark to offices at Two Gateway. As part of this transition, the agency donated a substantial collection of historical records, photographs, and operational artifacts to the United Railroad Historical Society of New Jersey (URHS) for long-term preservation.

These materials document more than four decades of NJ TRANSIT’s growth and its efforts to build one of the largest public transportation systems in the United States. The collection includes:

  • NJTA: Train Operations
    • Series 01: Bulletin Orders
    • Series 02: Operating Rules & Instructions
  • NJTB: Public Timetables
    • Series 01: Morris & Essex Division (Morristown Line, Gladstone Branch, Montclair Branch pre-MoBo)
    • Series 02: Main/Bergen County Line
    • Series 03: Pascack Valley Line
    • Series 04: Montclair-Boonton Line
    • Series 05: Raritan Valley Line
    • Series 06: Northeast Corridor
    • Series 07: Atlantic City Line
    • Series 08: North Jersey Coast Line

To be cataloged:

  • Locomotive and passenger car equipment manuals
  • Interoffice correspondence
  • Large-format engineering drawings
  • Marketing and public relations materials
  • Engineer's field notebooks
  • Capital projects documentation
  • Additional supporting records and ephemera

In partnership with the Tri-State Railway Historical Society, URHS has secured and stored these materials for cataloging and preservation. As volunteer processing progresses, the collection will be organized and made available to researchers and the public.