Fifty years ago trains were a common sight in Belleville. In 1940 two branches of the
Erie Railroad served the town. The Paterson-Newark branch ran north and south, with
stops at Essex and Cleveland Streets. Each week 122 trains ran on this line. The
Greenwood Lake branch extended east and west between Jersey City and Greenwood
Lake. On this line, with its stations at Mill Street and Belwood Park (Hewitt Place),
passed 199 trains weekly.

Nearly one hundred trains a week rolled past the Franklin Street station on a spur line of
the Greenwood Lake branch that went to West Orange. At one time rails carried not
only trains but also electric trolleys. Tracks were laid on Washington Avenue after
1897 to run trolleys into Belleville from Paterson and Newark. Just as the electric
trolley had replaced the horse car, so in 1937 did the bus replace the trolley. The few
trains that serve Belleville today carry freight only; the automobile and the truck are
today's preferred means of transportation.

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