Passenger Trains > NJ - Manasquan on the North Jersey Coast Line

Manasquan is a lovely shore town in Monmouth County NJ, served by NJ Transit's North Jersey Coast Line. The line was once the New York & Long Branch railroad, a joint venture between Pennsylvania Railroad and the Jersey Central. Manasquan is located just north of the Brielle bridge, and about 3 miles north of the end of track in Bay Head (Junction).

The station is at (NYLB) milepost 35, which has a zero point at RIVER in South Amboy. I believe that's a point just south of ESSAY (SA = South Amboy) and the Raritan River bridge, but north of the station.

The Manasquan station building is a new office building with an Irish pub, stock brokerage, and small waiting room. Surprising to me, the station is on the southbound side (toward BHJ) rather than the direction of morning travel to New York. I don't know if the railroad typically operates on the #1 track here, or if customers cross the usual southbound track to get to the train / station.

Picture 1 - looking northeast, toward the ocean. BHJ is to my right.

Picture 2 - looking compass north / railroad east. South Amboy is ahead in this view

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You may have your directions mixed up in your captions.

Manasquan had an old station that was torn down in the 1990s - does anyone know why?

The view of the tracks is indeed looking north (railroad east) towards MP 0 at River.

River is located north (railroad east) of Essay (formerly SA, but somewhere in the 1980s it was decided that SA was too confusing for the people who sat in their offices dictating the operations of the railroad so it was renamed Essay) on the other side of the Raritan River draw bridge. Known as River Draw, River itself is on the east bank of the Raritan River in Perth Amboy and Essay is on the west bank in South Amboy.

The Manasquan Station burned to the ground in the 1990s, perhaps 1996. It has been rebuilt. The now abandonded PRR line to Farmingdale, Freehold and eventually Trenton left the NY&LB just north of here.

NYP passengers do indeed have to "cross the tracks" to board the train. A lumber mill was once adjacent to the RR east (NYP inbound) tracks) and was even served by freight traffic that roamed the NJCL. Today the mill is gone, but passengers still have to "cross the tracks" when the train pulls into the station. As mentioned, the old station burned down in the mid 1990s. It took NJT and the town of Manasquan a decade or more to get the new station building built. The waiting room often gets vandelized - unfortunately. Again, like Spring Lake, it used to have a lot more passengers on and off than at present.