ATLANTIC CITY LINE

The 'Atlantic City Line' (ACL) is run by New Jersey Transit between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Atlantic City, New Jersey. It runs over trackage that was controlled by both the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines. It shares trackage with SEPTA and Amtrak on the Northeast Corridor until it crosses the Delaware River on its own Delair Bridge into New Jersey. The Atlantic City Line also shares the right-of-way with the PATCO Speedline between Haddonfield and Lindenwold, NJ. There are 14 departures each day in both directions. Conrail also uses the line for freight movements (which are segregated) on small sections, including the NEC-Delair Bridge section to its main freight yard in Camden, New Jersey. However, the line does not have a "peak period" of additional fares during a weekday. [1]

Contents

History

Proposed express service to New York City

Equipment

Station listing

References

External links

History

The current Atlantic City line opened April 1, 1989, using old tracks from previous railways. Amtrak ran from Philadelphia to Atlantic City, mainly, with a "Gambler's Express" train also going to Atlantic City from other areas. The follwing September, New Jersey Transit moved in, serving from Atlantic City to Lindenwold. At Lindenwold, transfer was available to PATCO to get to Philadelphia or elsewhere; the cost of an NJ Transit fare and a transfer undercut that of a direct Amtrak route from Philadelphia to Atlantic City. In 1994, Amtrak announced that it would pull out of its unprofitable Atlantic City service (it actually pulled out on April 1, 1995). Initially, there were worries that NJ Transit would also cease operations, as Amtrak had been helping maintain the track and NJ Transit would be forced to buy its own fueling facility. However, NJ Transit decided to stay, at least for the time being; a target of a US $1 million subsidy reduction was set in March 1996.^[1] Service was expanded to go to 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, and a new station was built in Cherry Hill. Ridership increased, and NJ Transit decided to maintain the line after declaring that they had met their target.
Another improvement that has since occurred was the starting of a shuttle service between the rail terminal and the city's casinos. Now, jitneys take arrivals free of charge to the shore and the various casinos.

Proposed express service to New York City

In June 2006, the board of New Jersey Transit accepted a plan for Express service between Atlantic City, New Jersey and Pennsylvania Station in Midtown Manhattan, for a three year trial to begin in 2007.
Service will be provided with station stops at New York Penn Station and Newark Penn Station, then directly to Atlantic City in about two and one-half hours. New train cars will be provided by Amtrak and service will be partially funded by the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (MGM Mirage) and Atlantic City Express Service, LLC (ACES) (Boyd Gaming Corporation), which are the companies that own Bally's, Harrah's, Showboat, Caesars, Borgata, Resorts, and Tropicana casinos in Atlantic City.^[2]
The service will bypass Philadelphia and enter the Atlantic City Line directly from the Northeast Corridor Line. Only 25% of the seats are slated for sale to the general public, with the rest reserved for the casinos backing the new train service.^[3]
A report on February 18, 2007 said that the new express train service will initially have no stops in New Jersey, and run directly from Penn Station New York to Atlantic City. Although casino officials and NJ Transit left open the possibility that future New Jersey stops might be added.

Equipment

Regularly scheduled service on the Atlantic City Line consists mainly of rebuilt ex-Penn Central GP40PH-2B diesels in the 4200-series. Rolling stock consists of mainly Comet IV cars, with Comet V cars appearing on special trains for the NJEA Teacher's Convention. Back when Amtrak had regular service on this line, power was provided by their now-retired F40PH locomotives, with a cab car on the opposite end to provide push-pull operation.

Station listing

The trains serve the following stations:

City	Station	Operator	Connections
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Philadelphia-30th Street Station	NJT	SEPTA, Amtrak
Cherry Hill Township	Cherry Hill	NJT	NJT 406 (Stops on Route 70), 450 buses
Lindenwold	Lindenwold	NJT	NJT 403, 454, 554, 459 buses, PATCO
Atco	Atco	NJT
Hammonton	Hammonton	NJT	NJT 554 bus, Community Shuttle
Egg Harbor City	Egg Harbor City	NJT	NJT 554 bus
Absecon	Absecon	NJT	NJT 554 bus
Atlantic City	Atlantic City Rail Terminal	NJT	Atlantic City Bus Terminal (2 blocks east of the station): NJT 501, 502, 504, 505, 507, 508, 509, 551, 552, 553, 554, 559 buses

References

1. http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1215/is_n3_v199/ai_20460328, Railway Age
2. Atlantic City And Rail Line Agree to Offer Direct Service, ''The New York Times'', June 20, 2006
3. Casinos, NJ Transit sign deal, ''The Courier-Post'', December 15, 2006

External links

★ Current Schedule (Updated April 23, 2006)