The Staten Island Railway (SIR) is the only rapid transit line in the New York City borough of Staten Island and is operated by the Staten Island Rapid Transit Operating Authority, a unit of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The railway was historically considered a standard railroad line, but today only the western portion of the North Shore Branch, which is disconnected from the rest of the SIR, is used by freight and is connected to the national railway system.
While the first rail proposal for rail service on Staten Island was issued in 1836, construction did not begin until 1855 after the project was attempted a second time under the name Staten Island Railroad. This attempt was successful due to the financial backing of William Vanderbilt. The line opened in 1860 and ran from Tottenville to Vanderbilt's Landing and connected with ferries to Perth Amboy, New Jersey and New York, respectively. After the Westfield ferry disaster at Whitehall Street Terminal in 1871, the railroad went into receivership and was reorganized into the Staten Island Railway Company in 1873. In the 1880s, Erastus Wiman planned a system of rail lines encircling the island using a portion of the existing rail line, and organized the Staten Island Rapid Transit Railroad in 1880, in cooperation with the Baltimore &amp; Ohio Railroad (B&amp;O), which wanted an entry into New York. B&amp;O gained a majority stake in the line in 1885, and by 1890 new extensions to the line were in service. In 1890, the Arthur Kill Bridge opened, connecting the island to New Jersey. This route proved to be a major freight corridor. After a period of financial turmoil in the 1890s which saw both B&amp;O and the Staten Island Rapid Transit Railroad company enter bankruptcy, the railroad was restructured as the Staten Island Rapid Transit Railway (SIRT), and was purchased by the B&amp;O in 1899.
In 1924, SIRT began electrification of its lines, to comply with the Kaufman Act, which had become law the previous year. New train cars, designed to be compatible with subway service, were ordered, and electric service was inaugurated on the system's three branches in 1925. Through the 1930s and 1940s grade-crossing elimination projects were completed on the three branches. During World War II, freight traffic on the SIRT increased dramatically, briefly making it profitable. In 1948, the New York City Board of Transportation took over all of the bus lines on Staten Island, resulting in a decrease in bus fares from five cents per zone to seven cents for the whole island. Riders of the SIRT flocked to the buses, resulting in a steep drop in ridership. Service on the branches was subsequently reduced. In 1953, the SIRT discontinued service on the North Shore Branch and South Beach Branch. The South Beach Branch was abandoned shortly thereafter while the North Shore Branch continued to carry freight. While the SIRT threatened to discontinue service on the Tottenville Branch, the service was preserved as New York City stepped in to subsidize the operation. The last grade crossings on the line were eliminated in 1965. In 1971, New York City purchased the Tottenville line, and the line's operation was turned over to the Staten Island Rapid Transit Operating Authority, a division of the state-operated Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Freight service continued until 1991.
Improvements were made under MTA operations. The line received its first new train cars since the 1920s, and several stations were renovated. The MTA rebranded the Staten Island Rapid Transit as the MTA Staten Island Railway (SIR) in 1994. Fares on the line between Tompkinsville and Tottenville were eliminated in 1997 with the introduction of the MetroCard. In 2010, fare collection was reintroduced at Tompkinsville. A new station on the main line, Arthur Kill, opened in 2017, replacing the deteriorated Nassau and Atlantic stations. It was the first new station opened on the main line in seventy years. While the railway does not serve residents on the western or northern sides of the borough, light rail and bus rapid transit have been proposed for these corridors. Freight service in northwestern Staten Island was restored in the 2000s.
First line: 1836–1885.
Initial efforts: 1836–1860.
The railway's predecessor, the Staten Island Rail-Road Company, was incorporated on May 21, 1836. The charter called for the construction of a single or double-tracked line "commencing at some point in the town of Southfield, within one mile of the steamboat landing at the Quarantine, and terminating at some point in the town of Westfield; opposite Amboy." The proposed line would have run between the present-day locations of Clifton and Tottenville. The route had an estimated cost of $300,000. However, the company lost its charter in 1838 because the railroad was not built within two years after it was incorporated.
Attempts to start a rail line on the island were restarted in 1849 and 1850, when residents of Perth Amboy and Staten Island held meetings concerning a possible Tottenville-to-Stapleton line. Like the previous attempt in 1836, they faced financial difficulties, and sought out the help of William Vanderbilt—a son of Cornelius "Commodore" Vanderbilt and a resident of Staten Island. Vanderbilt had conceived of such a railroad as a way to reduce the monopoly of the Camden and Amboy Railroad, which was the only mean of reaching Philadelphia. Passengers would take ferries from New York City to Amboy, the railroad to Camden, and finally a ferry to Philadelphia. Vanderbilt thought his railroad would cut travel times—passengers would take a ferry from New York to Staten Island, then take his railroad, before taking a ferry to Amboy—and eliminate the monopoly of the Camden and Amboy between New York City and its terminus in Amboy. Since the plan conceived by the local residents followed Vanderbilt's proposed route, he helped charter the Staten Island Railroad Company (SIRR) on August 2, 1851, in order to build the rail line. The articles of association for the company were filed on October 18, 1851.
In 1852, the line was expected to cost $322,195. Two possible route options were considered; the first would start at New Ferry Dock in Stapleton, before passing through Rocky Hollow, following the valley between Castleton and Southfield Heights before descending to New Dorp. After going through the valley, the line would curve toward Amboy Road before curving southward, passing Billop House, and ending near Biddle's Grove and the Amboy ferries. The second route would start at Vanderbilt's Landing and run through Clifton to New Dorp.
The railroad's charter gave it two years to be built. Like the original plan for the line, however, difficulties were encountered. One problem was the acquisition of property for the line's right-of-way; many property owners refused to sell their land, blocking the proposed line. To prevent the loss of the line's charter, in 1853, the company successfully petitioned for a two-year extension to build the line. In 1853, a bill giving the company the right to operate ferries between New York and Staten Island was passed. Still facing difficulties, in January 1855 the company applied to the New York State Legislature for a three-year extension to complete the project. After all of the property required for the right-of-way was acquired, construction commenced in November 1855. The company, however, had run out of money to complete the line and asked Cornelius Vanderbilt—the sole Staten Island-to-Manhattan ferry operator—for a loan. Vanderbilt agreed to finance the railroad, but changed the northern terminal of the line from Stapleton to Vanderbilt's Landing, his ferry landing further east. Vanderbilt tried to stop competitors who had obtained a lease for the ferry at Vanderbilt's Landing before he could get a lease. He appointed James R. Robinson to build a structure to block his competitors, but on July 28, 1851, people tried to deconstruct the almost-finished structure and threatened to hurt Robinson if he tried to block them. In 1858, Cornelius's son William Vanderbilt was inducted onto the railroad's board of directors.
Opening: 1860.
Stockholders and officials took an inaugural ride on the double-track line between Vanderbilt's Landing and Eltingville on February 1, 1860, and passenger operations began on April 23 that year. At Vanderbilt's Landing, passengers continued their passage to Manhattan by ferry. The first locomotive was named "Albert Journeay", after the railroad's president. A second locomotive was added to the line on May 5, 1860; it was named "E. Bancker" after the company's vice-president. The remainder of the line was expected to be completed in a month.
Over the next month, the remainder of the line was built between Annadale and Pleasant Plains as a single-track line, with a passing siding at Huguenot, passing through mosquito-infested land laced with peat bogs and quicksand—an area known locally as Skunk's Misery. It took a lot of time and wood to build the sub-roadbed with logs. It was viewed as unlikely to be a worthwhile investment to double-track the line because of the low passenger volume south of New Dorp. South of Pleasant Plains, the line was double-tracked. The line was extended to Annadale on May 14, 1860, and was completed to Tottenville on June 2, 1860, with a formal opening of the railroad. The completion of the line to Tottenville allowed passengers to transfer to a ferry that crossed the Arthur Kill and allowed passage to Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Initially, services made eleven stops between Vanderbilt's Landing and Tottenville. Many stations were named after nearby large farms, such as Garretson's and Gifford's. The stations built at Eltingville and Annadale—whose namesakes, the Eltings family and Anna Seguine, were influential in paying for the construction of the rail line—were the most elaborate. The arrival of the railroad gave dignity to some locations on Staten Island; "Poverty Hollow" was renamed Rosebank, Oakwood became Oakwood Heights, and other places were renamed with the coming of the railroad.
In August 1860, the railroad was extended from the depot at Vanderbilt's Landing to the wharf, which allowed passengers to walk directly to the boat from the train instead of walking along the sand. At the time, it took one and a half hours to get to Tottenville from Manhattan. Patronage of the rail line exceeded the greatest expectations of its projectors. On February 27, 1861, the New Jersey Locomotive Works gave notice of foreclosure on the two locomotives; Cornelius Vanderbilt interceded again and on September 4, 1861, the SIRR was placed into receivership with William Vanderbilt to prevent the loss of the locomotives and rolling stock to creditors. The Vanderbilts had taken stock in the railroad but in 1863, William Vanderbilt managed the receivership well enough for it to be discharged, with the debt paid off. As a result, the railroad became property of the Vanderbilts; facilities were enlarged under their leadership—an expansion made possible by increasing the capital stock to $800,000 from $350,000.
On October 5, 1861, in what might have been the first major accident on the railroad, Mary Austin, age 16, was killed by a train at Princess Bay as she crossed the tracks.
Ferry conflicts: 1860–1884.
Ferry service between Perth Amboy and Tottenville began in 1863, operated by the SIRR. It was necessary to have a direct connection between the trains and the infrequent ferries to and from Manhattan, but this was difficult during the beginning of operation. The ferries serving Vanderbilt's Landing were owned by the attorney George Law. Vanderbilt tried to operate a ferry service between Manhattan and Staten Island that would compete with Law's. He also started construction on a central dock on the island, but he abandoned the scheme after a storm destroyed the timber work. Only the large stone foundation remained; it was still visible at low tide in 1900.
Vanderbilt was eventually forced to sell his ferry service to Law after a franchise battle. After the battle, Vanderbilt lost interest in transit operations on Staten Island and he handed the ferry and railroad operations to his brother Jacob H. Vanderbilt, who was the president of the company until 1883. In March 1864, William Vanderbilt bought Law's ferries, bringing both the railroad and the ferries under the same company. In 1865, the railroad took over operation of the New York &amp; Richmond Ferry Company, and would later assume direct responsibility for operating the ferry service to Manhattan. The Perth Amboy and Staten Island ferries were taken over by the railroad under the leadership of Jacob Vanderbilt, who increased service.
The SIRR and its