Community Corner
At the Station: Heading to the Party
Who's at the Summit train station? Each week Patch goes to find out.
Each weekday, on average, 3,642 people board a train in Summit, according to New Jersey Transit. The Morris & Essex lines that serve the station carry workers and students, the young and the old. Throw in the train station's sideline as a shortcut through town, and few places offer a better glimpse of Summit's diversity.
Each week, Patch talks with one person at the station. With trains to catch, our questions cover the basics: who are you, where are you from, and where are you going?
Michael Del Mauro, 22, of Warren; Danielle Zilg, 21, of Green Brook; Elizabeth Duffy, 21, of Union.
Find out what's happening in Summitwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
6:45 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 31. Smoking cigarettes under the station awning along Railroad Avenue and waiting for the 7 p.m. train to New York
Where are you headed?
Find out what's happening in Summitwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Del Mauro: To Penn Station. We're going out in the city for New Year's.
Duffy: To Penn Station and then onward!
Zilg: We're going to a bar called Carnival.
Del Mauro: They're having a New Year's Eve party.
You're carrying a plastic Schwepp's tonic water bottle.
Del Mauro: It's whiskey and Coke. You can drink on the trains. As far as I'm concerned, if it's covered, you can drink stuff. I've seen adults doing that, drinking a beer, not just kids trying to get away with it.
How did you get here, to the station?
Del Mauro: We drove - in one car. There were 11 of us. It's a big car, an SUV. We had a designated driver. We went to high school together, and she (Duffy) is roommates with our other friend that we went to high school with.
Ever been here before?
Duffy: I haven't.
Del Mauro: Very frequently. This is the transfer point to get to New York from where we're from.
What do you all do?
Duffy: We're students. I go to Northeastern in Boston.
Del Mauro: I go to George Washington. We're home for the holidays.
Zilg: I go to Kean. I'm a local girl. I feel like we're so special right now, being interviewed by the press. We're celebrities!
What train are you taking back?
Del Mauro: We're actually taking a car back. We were going to take the 2:50 a.m. train, which is the last one back here, but I've heard it's a disaster on a night like tonight.
