Lake Hopatcong (NJT station)

Lake Hopatcong
Lake Hopatcong station in December 2014, looking north toward Bridge 44.53.
Location	Landing Road Lake Hopatcong, NJ 07849
Coordinates	40°54′15″N 74°39′56″W / 40.90417°N 74.66556°W / 40.90417; -74.66556Coordinates: 40°54′15″N 74°39′56″W / 40.90417°N 74.66556°W / 40.90417; -74.66556
Owned by	NJ Transit
Line(s)	Morristown Line   Montclair-Boonton Line   Lackawanna Cut-Off (proposed)
Platforms	2 low-level side platforms
Tracks	2
Connections	Lakeland: 80
Construction
Parking	96 spaces
Other information
Fare zone	19
History
Rebuilt	1911
Previous names	Hopatcong
Traffic
Passengers (2012)	114 (average weekday)
Services
Preceding station   NJ Transit Rail   Following station Netcong toward Hackettstown Montclair-Boonton Line Mount Arlington toward Hoboken or New York Penn Station Morristown Line Andover Terminus Lackawanna Cut-Off proposed   Former services   Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Greendell toward Buffalo Main Line Via the Lackawanna Cut-off Wharton toward Hoboken Netcong toward Portland or Phillipsburg Old Main Line Terminus

Lake Hopatcong is a NJ Transit station in the Landing section of Roxbury Township, New Jersey, United States. It sits at the intersection of Landing Road and Lakeside Boulevard, about 600 feet southwest of the southern tip of Lake Hopatcong.

Today, the station consists of low-level asphalt platforms on either side of the tracks, with a shelter on the Hackettstown-bound platform and 96 free parking spaces. It is the simplest of at least three structures that have served rail passengers at the site for more than a century.

The station serves trains on the Morristown Line and the Montclair-Boonton Line, with service to Hoboken Terminal.

The railroad tracks through Landing were first laid in 1854 by the Morris and Essex Railroad, which was extending its line from Newark westward to Hackettstown. The right-of-way parallelled the three-decade-old Morris Canal past Lake Hopatcong, the canal's leading source of water. At 900 feet about sea level, the station marked the railroad's highest elevation, which was also the highest point on the canal, which flowed downhill to the Delaware River to the west and the Hudson River to the east. But Landing itself, one of several hamlets that arose to serve the canal's boat crews and mule teams, held no particular promise as a revenue stop, and so no station was built there for about 30 years.

That began to change in 1882, when the Central Railroad of New Jersey opened a station further up the lake and proved that there was money in direct passenger service to a promising vacation spot. Around 1886, the first station in Landing was built by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, a CNJ rival that had taken over the M&E in 1868. The small depot and platforms were sandwiched between the tracks and the canal, requiring most passengers to enter and depart via the steel, cable-stayed Landing Road Bridge. This arrangement, however, did allow passengers to move easily between trains and the steamboats that would take them to lakeshore destinations. A steamboat company, the Black Line, was founded that same year by "the same financial syndicate that owned the Lackawanna Railway and the Morris Canal."