Belair Road station

Belair Road is a demolished station on the abandoned South Beach Branch of the Staten Island Railway. It had two side platforms and two tracks, and was located at Vermont Avenue, between Belair Road & St. Johns Avenue. This station served the US Quarantine station, which was one block to the east.^[1][2]

Belair Road
Former Staten Island Railway station
Remnant of trestle support on St. Johns Avenue
General information
Location	Staten Island
Coordinates	40.610278°N 74.067222°W / 40.610278; -74.067222 (Belair Road Station)
Line(s)	South Beach Branch
Platforms	2 side platforms
Tracks	2
History
Opened	March 8, 1886; 138 years ago (1886-03-08)
Closed	March 31, 1953; 71 years ago (1953-03-31)
Former services
Preceding station Staten Island Railway Following station Rosebank toward Clifton South Beach Branch Fort Wadsworth toward Wentworth Avenue

The Belair Road station was built out of wood, and could only platform two cars. There was a shelter on one of the platforms. The station was rebuilt in 1936 with concrete. It was rebuilt with an underground access walkway on both sides of the station.^[2]

North of the station, there was a trestle built at Saint John's Avenue in 1936 to allow the road to pass over the right-of-way. Today, all that is left of the trestle is a stanchion that has been morphed into part of someone's backyard, with a pool on top.^[2]

This station was abandoned when the SIRT discontinued passenger service on the South Beach Branch to Wentworth Avenue at midnight on March 31, 1953 because of city-operated bus competition.^[3][4][5][6]

References

1. Bommer, Edward (2003). Stations and Places Along the Staten Island Rapid Transit. Retrieved November 19, 2015.
2. "Gary Owen's SIRT Page". Gary Owen Land. March 31, 1953. Retrieved December 13, 2015.
3. "Gary Owen SIRT Page Part Two". Gary Owen Land. April 20, 1937. Retrieved December 13, 2015.
4. Pitanza, Marc (2015). Staten Island Rapid Transit Images of Rail. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4671-2338-9.
5. Drury, George H. (1994). The Historical Guide to North American Railroads: Histories, Figures, and Features of more than 160 Railroads Abandoned or Merged since 1930. Waukesha, Wisconsin: Kalmbach Publishing. pp. 312–314. ISBN 0-89024-072-8.
6. "The Old Order Passeth: Rails Surrender To Roads: Passenger Runs on Two Lines of SIRT Will End at Midnight". Staten Island Advance. March 31, 1953. Retrieved October 14, 2015.