They purposely looked the other way when conductors skimmed money from the collected fares, allowing them to show a lower ridership to the Interstate Commerce Commission, and in return improve their chances for abandoning the branch.

[9] The right-of-way from the Port Richmond Viaduct to Arlington Yard has remained intact and in good condition, though the former station sites and infrastructure are dilapidated and need rehabilitation or replacement should passenger service be reactivated.

About 2 miles (3.2 km) of rock fill along the Kill Van Kull needed to be built to deal with opposition from property owners in Sailor's Snug Harbor.

[18] The North Shore Branch opened for service on February 23, 1886, up to Elm Park cutting travel times to 39 minutes from an hour and a half via the ferry system.

The accepted proposal consisted of a 5.25-mile (8.45 km) line from the Arthur Kill to meet the Jersey Central at Cranford, through Union County and the communities of Roselle Park and Linden.

[1] Congress passed a law on June 16, 1886, authorizing the construction of a 500-foot (150 m) swing bridge over the Arthur Kill, after three years of effort by Erastus Wiman.

The line's electrification project was completed on Christmas Day of 1925,[29][30] cutting ten minutes off of travel time from Arlington to Saint George.

[31] In the 1930s, the SIRT began several projects to remove grade crossings along the formerly surface-level right-of-way, constructing the current concrete viaduct and open-cut sections of the line.

The need to transport war material, POW trains, and troops, made the stretch of the Baltimore & New York Railway between Cranford Junction and the Arthur Kill extremely busy.

[30] The station at Port Ivory, which was used for workers of the Procter & Gamble Plant and was only open for the morning and evening rush hour, closed around the year 1950.

On the morning of October 21, the press train, consisting of 10 cars, left the Camp in New Jersey and traveled to the SIRT via the Lehigh Valley Railroad.

The B&O and C&O became isolated from their other properties in New Jersey and Staten Island, with the creation of Conrail on April 1, 1976, by merger of bankrupt lines in the northeast United States.

[15] Only a few isolated industries on Staten Island were using rail service for freight, meaning that the yard at Saint George was essentially abandoned.

[1][37][44] In 1989, the NYS&W embargoed the right-of-way east of Elm Park on the North Shore Branch, ending all rail freight traffic to Saint George.

[43] During the early 2000s, plans for reopening the Staten Island Rapid Transit line in New Jersey were announced by the New York Port Authority.

[15] On December 15, 2004, a $72 million project to reactivate freight service on Staten Island and to repair the Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge was announced by the NYCEDC and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The line would have descended into bedrock at Pine Street, stop at South Ferry, and would have emerged under Liberty State Park in Communipaw, New Jersey with a transfer to the proposed Hudson–Bergen Light Rail.

From there it would have run along the Jersey Central's line to Constable Hook, and then pass through a tunnel under the Kill Van Kull and connect with the North Shore Branch in New Brighton.

[51]: 155 The New York City Department of Transportation undertook a study called North Shore Transit Corridor, which proposed using the right-of-way as a guided busway, which would decrease travel times to and from St. George for bus routes from across the island.

Specially equipped buses were to enter and leave the guideway at Howland Hook, Morningstar Road, Broadway or Bard Avenue, and operate nonstop to the ferry, or with a local stop near St. George.

As part of the first phase, St. George would be connected with Arlington Yard, where an intermodal facility could divert express bus and car passengers that went to Manhattan via the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.

[52] In 2003, Borough President James Molinaro and the Port Authority commissioned a study on the feasibility of rebuilding the North Shore line and restoring passenger service to St.

[11] In a 2006 report, the Staten Island Advance explored the restoration of passenger services on 5.1 miles (8.2 km) of the North Shore Branch between St. George Ferry Terminal and Arlington station.

[54] A similar study, performed in 2009, explored the possibility of expanding the Hudson Bergen Light Rail line over the Bayonne Bridge and along the West Shore (including the Travis Branch right-of-way), adding service to Staten Island Teleport and West Shore Plaza, and creating the possibility of a rail belt line around the island.

[11] An approximately 1-mile (1.6 km) portion of the western end is used for freight service as part of the Howland Hook Marine Terminal transloading system called ExpressRail, which opened in 2007 and connects to the Chemical Coast after crossing over the Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge.

A smaller eastern portion provided seasonal service to the passenger station for RCB Ballpark, where the Staten Island Yankees play.

Bus rapid transit was the preferred option for its cost and relative ease of implementation, which would require $352 million in capital investment.

[60] In July 2018, the MTA indicated that it was retaining a consultant to advise on an environmental impact assessment for the bus rapid transit line on the North Shore Branch.