For the most part my New Haven Line tour has thus far focused on quite a few barely-stations on both the Danbury and Waterbury branches. Today we’re going to look at what may be the leader on the barely-there stations, Merritt 7. I figured now would be a good time to take a look at the station, as it has recently been in the news and is slated to get a five-million-dollar upgrade. The low level platform will become a high-level with pedestrian bridge, and the 88-car parking lot will be enlarged. Hopefully a new station sign will also be included – one that looks like the signs at every other Metro-North station (the only other exception I am familiar with is Suffern, which barely counts. The hundred-plus other Metro-North stations all have them).

Merritt 7’s name derives from the Merritt 7 Corporate Park which the station is adjacent to. Merritt obviously refers to the Merritt Parkway, and the 7 from Connecticut’s Route 7. The corporate park houses well-known companies such as Kodak, GE, Siemens, and Canon. The station was built in 1985, partially to service the corporate park, but also to serve the citizens in the northern part of Norwalk. Unlike Norwalk’s other stations which are on the New Haven main line, Merritt 7 is part of the Danbury Branch. The station is located 45 miles from Grand Central, and travel time takes on average one hour and fifteen minutes.

As of right now, this is what Merritt 7 looks like. Not much to write home about. Perhaps once the station is rebuilt, I’ll have to go and take another look.