A beautiful bicycle and pedestrian path will open soon in our area. When completed, the NYS&W Bicycle and Pedestrian Path, a bike path paved on an abandoned rail line, will run from River Drive in Pequannock to Mountainview Boulevard in Wayne. 

Originally named the New York and Greenwood Lake Railway, the commuter, and later industrial, line ran from Jersey City to Sterling Forest, New York. It provided rail transportation from eastern cities to the formerly rural areas in the west. One of these rural areas, at the time, was Wayne. Two stations were serviced by the line: Mountain View Station and Ryerson Avenue (Wayne) Station. Operated by the Erie Railroad, this line was one of the first opened in present-day Wayne. Since 1943, operations of the railroad declined greatly. The track was transferred between many companies before ending up in the hands of the New York Susquehanna and West Railroad (NYS&W). By 1966, all passenger trains north of Mountain View Station were no longer used. The remaining northern stretches of the line were used for freight trains until the 1980s.

In 2020, Morris County bought the property owned by NYS&W for the purpose of transforming it into the NYS&W Bicycle and Pedestrian Path. As of now, the path is complete from River Road to Newark-Pompton Turnpike in Pequannock. This southern portion of the path crosses the river on an old train bridge built with the original line, a beautiful relic of the past. The final stretch of the pathway from Newark Pompton Turnpike in Pequannock to Mountainview Boulevard in Wayne is nearly complete, set to open in 2024. It is unclear whether the record-breaking flooding along the Pompton River has affected the estimated completion date or if it will impact the path in the future. When completed, the entire path will be a 4.8-mile trail eventually tying into Passaic County’s Morris Canal Greenway.