Denville station is the reason a lot of people move to Denville in the first place, and it is also the thing new residents ask about most. It is a junction, the parking is not run by the town, and the permit rules have deadlines that catch people out. Here is how it actually works.
Where the station is
NJ Transit lists the station at Estling Lake Road, a tenth of a mile off Route 53. Locally it sits at Estling Road and Main Street, on the edge of downtown. It opened on July 4, 1848, which makes it older than most of the buildings around it. The original 1903 depot burned on September 21, 1991 and was demolished the following year. The Denville Interlocking Tower still standing at the site has been found eligible for the State and National Registers of Historic Places.
Which lines stop here
Two lines serve Denville: the Morris & Essex Line, known locally as the Morristown Line, and the Montclair-Boonton Line. This is a real junction. The two lines rejoin just west of the station, where three tracks merge into two.
Montclair-Boonton service at Denville is limited. That platform handles inbound trains in the morning rush and outbound trains in the evening rush, and not much else. The Morristown Line is the workhorse.
Next stop west is Dover on both lines. Going east, it is Mount Tabor on the Morristown Line and Mountain Lakes on the Montclair-Boonton Line.
The layout is three side platforms across four tracks. The two curved Morristown Line platforms each have a mini-high section for accessible boarding, and the Montclair-Boonton Line gets its own single low-level platform.
Getting to New York and Hoboken
Denville has service toward both Hoboken Terminal and New York Penn Station, with New York trains running through Midtown Direct. Which trains run straight through and which require a change depends on the schedule you are riding, so check the Morris & Essex and Montclair-Boonton timetables or the trip planner at njtransit.com before you build your morning around it.
Denville is fare zone 16. NJ Transit adjusted fares systemwide effective July 1, 2026, so any fare figure you find on a third-party site is probably stale. Price your ticket on the NJ Transit app or the official fare charts rather than trusting an aggregator. We covered the July 2026 fare increase when it landed.
Real-time departures for Denville are on DepartureVision.
Parking: the part people get wrong
The two commuter lots on Estling Lake Road are owned by NJ Transit, not by Denville Township. They are administered by an outside operator, Park America, reachable at 800-523-1026. If you call Town Hall about a station permit, you are calling the wrong place. The township runs the downtown municipal lots, which are a separate system with separate rules.
There are two lots and 237 standard spaces between them.
Lot 1 is permit only, with 96 standard spaces and the station’s accessible spaces. Sources disagree on the accessible count, listing between seven and 10.
Lot 2 has 141 standard spaces and takes both daily parkers and permit holders. Daily parking is $4.00 a day.
A quarterly permit is $150.00 in either lot. The rate is the same for residents and non-residents, which is unusual and worth knowing if you are moving in from out of town.
Evenings and weekends are free. Overnight parking is allowed in the lots. There is no on-street parking at the station.
How to pay
Daily parkers use a numbered-space pay station. Note your space number before you walk to the machine, then pay by cash, credit card or phone. There is no parking app at the station lots, so do not go looking for one.
Quarterly permits are paid online through Park America, which adds a 3.5 percent processing fee, or by check mailed to Park America, One Bala Avenue, Suite 500, Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004. Questions go to customercare@parkamerica.net.
The permit deadlines that catch people
Permit payments are due by the 20th of the month before each quarter starts. Miss the date and you are a daily parker until the next cycle.
- January, February, March: pay by December 20
- April, May, June: pay by March 20
- July, August, September: pay by June 20
- October, November, December: pay by September 20
Park America’s Denville page currently shows permits as available, so there does not appear to be a waiting list at the moment. That can change, so check before you assume.
What is at the station
Denville is an accessible station. There is no ticket agent, but there are two ticket vending machines, one next to the tower on the Montclair-Boonton side and one in the shelter on the Morristown side. Wi-Fi is available, and there are bike racks and lockers.
NJ Transit bus route 880 also serves the station.
For scale, Denville averaged 302 weekday boardings in 2024. It is a small station doing a specific job for a specific set of commuters, which is why the lots fill on weekday mornings and sit half empty the rest of the time.
Quick reference
- Lines: Morris & Essex (Morristown) and Montclair-Boonton, limited service
- Fare zone: 16
- Daily parking: $4.00, Lot 2 only
- Quarterly permit: $150.00, either lot, residents and non-residents alike
- Parking operator: Park America, 800-523-1026
- Free parking: evenings and weekends
- Overnight: allowed in the lots
Rates and rules change. Confirm current numbers with NJ Transit and Park America before you write a check.
Featured photo: Denville station parking lot and tower by 4300streetcar, licensed CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Once you are back in town after your commute, our guide to the best restaurants in Denville covers where to eat downtown.
