Data are presented to show that when linear polyethylene is quenched from room temperature to temperatures below 273 K, it exhibits a volume decrease for times long compared with that required to establish temperature equilibrium. The time, temperature, and density dependence of this decrease is shown to be consistent with a relaxation occurring in the amorphous portion (lamella boundary layers) of the samples. The data can be superposed and the shift factors follow the WLF formalism. Analysis by this method yields aTgof 231 ± 9 K but the uncertainties preclude any correlation with specific volume over the range 1.01–1.05 cm3g−1. The data indicate the absence of any comparably strong time dependence of the volume near 150 K. This method of detecting a glass transition in partially crystalline polymers is relatively freer of subjective judgment than most.