Service to the area known as
Godwinville began on October 19, 1848, with the opening of the
Paterson and Ramapo Railroad, a railroad connecting the
Paterson and Hudson River Railroad at
Paterson to the
New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad at Suffern. A new station was built in 1856, then in 1859. However, in August 1915, the Erie Railroad, now in control, started construction on a new pair of ornate station depots at Ridgewood, both of which opened on November 28, 1916. The
Erie Railroad built Ridgewood station in 1916 as a grade-separated elevated station. It has been listed in the
New Jersey Register of Historic Places and
National Register of Historic Places since 1984 and is part of the
Operating Passenger Railroad Stations Thematic Resource. Until the 1960s, the station served passengers heading to Binghamton and other cities, en route to Chicago or Buffalo. The
Erie Limited and the
Lake Cities served passengers heading toward Chicago. The station received eastbound passengers from the
Atlantic Express. In final years of long-distance service, after the Erie's merger with the
Lackawanna Railroad, unnamed trains ran to Binghamton, where passengers could switch to the
Phoebe Snow after a layover. The discontinuing of the
Phoebe Snow (1966) and the
Atlantic Express (1965) marked the end of long-distance passenger service through Ridgewood. Ridgewood station underwent a major renovation project between 2009 and 2011 to make the station compliant with the
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. As part of the project, high-level platforms were installed and the side platform on Track 1 was demolished to allow for the installation of an island platform that would serve Tracks 1 and 3, and replace Track 3's side platform, which was fenced off. Ramps were installed on both platforms and elevators were installed to carry passengers from the platforms to the floor of the underpass on Franklin Avenue. ==Station layout==