Valhalla station

The Valhalla station is a commuter rail stop on the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem Line, located in Mount Pleasant, New York. Trains leave or arrive approximately every 20 minutes during peak periods, hourly otherwise, to Mount Kisco, Southeast or Grand Central Terminal. It is 25.5 miles (41.0 km) from Grand Central Terminal and travel time there is approximately 41 minutes.

Valhalla
Northbound view of Valhalla station from the southbound side of the platform.
Location2 Cleveland Street, Valhalla, New York
Coordinates41.0732°N 73.7729°W / 41.0732; -73.7729
Line(s)Harlem Line
Platforms1 island platform
Tracks2
ConnectionsBee-Line: 6
Construction
Parking191 spaces
Disabled accessYes
Other information
Fare zone5
History
Opened1890
Electrified1984
700V (DC) third rail
Passengers
2007118,404 0%
Services
Preceding station Metro-North Following station
North White Plains Harlem Line
limited service
Mount Pleasant
towards Southeast
Harlem Line Hawthorne
towards Southeast
Former services
Preceding station Metro-North Following station
North White Plains Harlem Line Kensico Cemetery
(closed 1984)
towards Wassaic
Preceding station New York Central Railroad Following station
North White Plains
toward New York
Harlem Division Kensico Cemetery
toward Chatham

The station is popular with commuters from the interior of northern Westchester County given its location at the foot of the Taconic State Parkway.

This station is the northernmost station in the Zone 5 Metro-North fare zone.

History

The former New York Central Railroad station house, now the Valhalla Crossing Station Restaurant.

Rail service in Valhalla can be traced as far back as 1846, with the establishment of the New York and Harlem Railroad, which installed a station named "Davis Brook," but by 1851 the name had been changed to "Kensico." The NY&H became part of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad in 1864 and eventually taken over by the New York Central Railroad. By the late-1880s Kensico and the rail line that ran through it were relocated to make way for the Kensico Reservoir despite protests from the community lasting for the rest of the century, and the community that replaced it was named "Valhalla." The current station house was built in 1890, and at some point was converted into a restaurant.[1][2]

As with most of the Harlem Line, the merger of New York Central with Pennsylvania Railroad in 1968 transformed the station into a Penn Central Railroad station. Penn Central's continuous financial despair throughout the 1970s forced them to turn over their commuter service to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority which made it part of Metro-North in 1983.

Prior to Metro-North Railroad's electrification of this section of the Harlem Line in 1984, service at the station had been greatly reduced compared to other similar stations. In the late 1970s, weekday service was about half that of most other stations north of North White Plains, and weekend service was limited to a flag stop for six trains.[3] By 1990, service had been restored to fourteen trains a day on weekends, the equivalent of that at other similar stations.

On February 3, 2015, the Valhalla train crash occurred north of this station, in which a Metro-North train crashed into a Mercedes-Benz SUV[4] at Commerce Street near the Taconic State Parkway. The crash caused 6 deaths and at least 15 injuries, including 7 serious injuries.[5]

Station layout

This station has one six-car-long high-level island platform serving trains in both directions.[6]:11

G Street level Exit/entrance and parking
P
Platform level
Track 2      Harlem Line toward Grand Central (North White Plains)
Island platform, doors will open on the left or right
Track 1      Harlem Line toward Southeast (Mount Pleasant or Hawthorne)

References

  1. NY Existing Stations-Westchester
  2. The Valhalla Crossing Restaurant
  3. Harlem Line timetables effective 30 October 1977 and 17 September 1979
  4. Santora, Marc; Flegenheimer, Matt (4 February 2015). "Investigation Underway in Metro-North Train Crash". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-02-04.
  5. Trott, Bill; Heavey, Susan (4 February 2015). "Cuomo says death toll in commuter train accident revised to six". Reuters. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  6. "Metro-North Railroad Track & Structures Department Track Charts Maintenance Program Interlocking Diagrams & Yard Diagrams 2015" (PDF). Metro-North Railroad. 2015. Retrieved January 28, 2019.


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