NEWS from the:

Ewing Township Environmental Commission/

Ewing Township Green Team June 14, 2010

Contact: Lee Farnham: lafarnham@verizon.net, 609-771-6972

Pete Boughton: PeteJBo742@aol.com, 609-771-9173

This Saturday morning, June 19, beginning at 9 a.m., scouts from Ewing, Lawrence and
Trenton in Troop 15 under Scoutmaster Bruce Wentworth will join volunteers from the
Ewing Environment Commission and the township’s Green Team to clear the Johnson
Trolley Line Trail in Ewing. It is part of a “rail to trail” conversion of old trolley and
train tracks to recreational use across Mercer County. They will be assisted by Tom
Elder and Ewing Public Works Department staff through a Clean Communities grant.

The trolley line, also known as the Trenton and Mercer County Traction Company, ran
from Trenton to Princeton and was electrified and completed in July, 1902. Prior to that
time the trolleys were pulled by steam engines. Chartered in 1899, its Trenton terminal
was on West Hanover Street between Willow and Warren Streets. Passenger service ran
to “within a hundred yards of the university in front of the campus”, according to a report
in The New York Times, dated July 18, 1902, noting “The roadbed is exceptionally
good.”

Passenger service was discontinued in 1941, but freight service, operated by the Reading
Railroad, continued on the line until the 70’s when Interstate 295 was built.

Volunteers will meet at the end of Whitehead Road Extension (off of Ewingville Road)
and work both north toward Lawrence Township and south toward Spruce Street in
Ewing.