The service consists of two segments, the original Newark City Subway (NCS), and the extension to Broad Street station.

[6][7] The City Subway opened on May 26, 1935, while the combined Newark Light Rail service was officially inaugurated on July 17, 2006.

The segment is 5.3 mi (8.5 km) long and runs between Grove Street in Bloomfield and Newark Penn Station, a major transportation hub with connections to the PATH rapid transit system to Manhattan, multiple bus routes, and both Amtrak and New Jersey Transit Rail Operations trains.

[11] Works Progress Administration artists decorated the underground stations with Art Deco scenes from life on the defunct Morris Canal.

The southernmost part, south of Warren Street, was capped with a new road, known as Raymond Boulevard.

This part of the subway included a grade-separated junction with a connection to the lower level of the Newark Public Service Terminal that was used for only a few months (June to September).

In 1953 the line was cut back about one block to accommodate construction of a turning loop, and a new station, still called Franklin Avenue, was opened adjacent to Anthony Street.

Other streetcar routes used parts of the subway, reaching street trackage at the locations shown below, ending as each route was closed and replaced by bus service: Until June 5, 1952, the Roseville Car House, on the south side of Main Street (on the No.

Starting in January 1954, 30 PCC streetcars bought from Twin City Rapid Transit provided all service on the route.

In 2001, new light rail cars built by Kinki Sharyo in Japan in 1999 replaced the PCCs.

Eleven were sold in 2004 to the San Francisco Municipal Railway for use on its F Market heritage streetcar line.

One of the Shaker Heights cars has been restored by the Minnesota Transportation Museum, which operates it on a short stretch of track in western Minneapolis.

On June 22, 2002, the Newark City Subway was extended to the suburbs of Belleville and Bloomfield along what had been the former Erie Railroad Orange Branch, now under Norfolk Southern ownership.

In exchange, Norfolk Southern can now operate during all off-peak hours, when passenger trains are infrequent.

It branches off the older City Subway using the existing junction that had led to the Public Service terminal.

A special $0.85 "Underground" fare is available for trips that use only the subway between Warren Street and Penn Station, not the surface portion.

[22] The Newark Light Rail, like most light rail systems in the United States, operates on a proof-of-payment system, in which riders must present their tickets upon request during random fare inspections by police officers, transit workers, or fare agents.

The Newark Light Rail system uses a new-model vehicle built by Kinki Sharyo of Japan.

A contract to expand 10 of the 20 LRVs assigned to the Newark Light Rail system for the purpose of increasing passenger capacity was approved on July 9, 2014.