Alexander Piechowski / photos by the author
New Brunswick is the seat of Middlesex County, New Jersey, home to the main campus of Rutgers–The State University, and the corporate headquarters of pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson. The city has massively redeveloped over the past decade with the explosive growth of Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and numerous high-rise office and residential towers.
ABOVE: The pedestrian bridge connecting Somerset Street and the Gateway Parking garage stands at 12 levels high. This garage is open to the public and has fenced open slots for some good afternoon perspectives of westbound trains below. Pictured on Track 3 is Legacy Acela trainset 6, consisting of power cars 2031 and 2030, on train 2167 from New York to Washington, D.C., 5:55 p.m., April 3, 2026.
New Brunswick served at the eastern terminus of the Delaware & Raritan Canal from Trenton, of which there are remnants surviving or rebuilt along the river. The city was also served by the Newark–Trenton Fast Line interurban trolley, operated by Public Service Coordinated Transport until 1936. It serviced a 72-mile long route that that extended between Jersey City and Trenton, with an intermediate stop in New Brunswick.
ABOVE: Trenton-bound NJ Transit train 3841 is departing west on Track 4 from New Brunswick station at 1:05 p.m., September 22, 2023. The view is from the eastbound passenger platform. Pushing west is a dual-power ALP45DP locomotive filling in for the overworked ALP46 motors. In the background is Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, one of the primary hospitals serving the city and Middlesex and Somerset counties.
The Raritan River Railroad had its western extension in New Brunswick, and at one time was proposed to continue west to Bound Brook. The freight station still stands along Sandford Street.
ABOVE: Unlike the popular shots of westbound Conrail ME-02, the evening returning shots are often trickier to attempt on the busy Northeast Corridor. ME-02 typically returns east from County interlocking, two miles west of New Brunswick station, between 6:00 and 7:00 p.m.; the train often waits for NJ Transit to clear the Millstone Branch at Jersey Avenue before it can proceed east. CSX GP40-2 6249 is in charge of the short train making an oddball Thursday run from Pioneer, heading east to Metuchen on Track 1, viewed from the westbound platform at 6:09 p.m., May 14, 2026.
Amid all of this, Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor pierces the heart of downtown on an elevated, four-track right-of-way, hosting Amtrak Regional, long-distance and Acela trains, NJ Transit Trenton Line commuter trains, and weekday Conrail local ME-2. Once part of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s “Broad Way” the line also hosting mainline freight trains, however under Conrail those freights have since migrated to other nearby freight lines. Thus the Northeast Corridor through New Brunswick is primarily a passenger train venue, with a constant parade of trains.
ABOVE: New Brunswick’s Wellness Parking Garage, located between Joyce Kilmer and Paterson streets on the east side of the Northeast Corridor, provides a good place to photograph passing trains. On levels two and three you are just slightly above the trains and the station. At 12:48 p.m. on April 3, 2026, Amtrak Northeast Regional 131 makes its station stop at New Brunswick on Track 4 while a New York City bound NJ Transit local boards passengers on Track 1. The Wellness Parking Garage is easy to access and is connected to a nearby lobby that will serve as a parking area for the New Rutgers University Health HELIX building on French Street. In this view, above the Amtrak locomotive you can see the Gateway Parking Deck and the pedestrian skybridge connecting the westbound platform of the New Brunswick station, the parking deck, and out-of-view Somerset Street.
Photography opportunities are available from the NJ Transit New Brunswick high-level station platforms, and also from three conveniently located trackside high-rise public parking decks, which provide a major focus of this feature story…
