Main Street, Spring Valley

Postcard view of the Spring Valley area

Welcome to the Pascack Valley Line – our tour here will be done in nearly the blink of an eye… Only three stations on the line are in New York State and considered part of Metro-North – Spring Valley, Nanuet, and Pearl River. The line is named after the Pascack Valley, an area in New Jersey that encompasses the Pascack Brook. On New Jersey Transit timetables, the line is represented by a pine tree and the color purple. Metro-North only uses the color purple to represent the line, though the station signs on all three platforms look more blue than purple.

Erie K-1 Pacific running commuter service in Spring Valley, 1953.

Another view of Spring Valley, 1966.

By now, I’ve been to a total of 104 Metro-North stations. I can’t recall too many where I seriously felt a bit afraid for my life, but for some reason Spring Valley was one of them. Maybe I’m used to high-level platforms, third rail, lots of fences, and the tracks generally being off-limits. I saw too many people here walking along the tracks, popping out of the woods and crossing over the rails. I was entirely convinced that one was going to come over, whack me over the head, steal my camera, and then disappear back into the trees. As I am still alive and writing, and am still in possession of my camera, this obviously didn’t happen – but there is just something about Spring Valley that made me feel uneasy.

While many west-of-Hudson stations are practically dead on the weekends, Spring Valley (and perhaps Pearl River) seem to be the exceptions to that rule. In Spring Valley’s case, the area near the station serves also as a bus terminal. The station building is also home to a cafe – Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery & Grill. For those taking the train, Spring Valley is approximately 31 miles from Hoboken, a journey ranging from 50-80 minutes depending on the train. That is about it for this quick visit to Spring Valley, next week we’ll be moving on to Nanuet!