West Side Avenue station opened on April 15, 2000 as part of the original operating segment of the Hudson–Bergen Light Rail.

The original station was established in 1869[3] as part of the Newark and New York Railroad at the crossing for Mallory Avenue (Hudson County Route 611).

A two-story wooden depot was built at West Side Avenue c. 1888 and an eastbound brick station measuring 15 by 40 feet (4.6 m × 12.2 m) came in 1910.

[4] Service at West Side Avenue, which went to Broad Street station in Newark became truncated on February 3, 1946 when a steamship collided with the bridge over the Hackensack River, eliminating two spans.

[10] In early 2019, it was announced that the West Side Avenue, Martin Luther King Drive, and Garfield Avenue stations on the West Side Branch would close for nine months starting in June 2019 for repairs to a sewer line running along the right-of-way.