Fixing Your Branch Line: Atlantic City Line 

The track at Haddonfield, along with Patco, were put below ground level because the town did not want it to be an eyesore. Haddonfield did not want an elevated track.

I used to live next to the Ashland PATCO station and then the Collingwood PATCO station. I've been a regular on that train in the summer for 20 years. I'm also a planner with background on former and current funding and long term plans. Here's the thing, No one lives in the Pine Barrens and new development isn't allowed. There won't be big rail demand there. On top of that AC is a small city and the station is kind of a far walk from the Boardwalk. So, how to fix the line? New station at ACY airport, new stop at Woodcrest, new station at Merchantville. All trains stop at North Philly. Double tracking where possible to allow for hourly headways - . The only really constrained areas are the trench in haddonfield and the area between Woodcrest and Ashland station. During the AM peak add two extra inbound trains that only run from Atco to 30th St. Do the same thing in the PM. University City is a huge trip generator with no easy access from South Jersey. Eliminating ACRL access from South Jersey to West Philly in my opinion is just stupid. All the ACRL needs is better frequency and two new stations to generate trips. Stopping trains at the existing North Philly station better connects the ACRL to the rest of the regional rail network and a new stop at Woidcrest takes advantage of the massive park & ride with direct interstate access.

If it wasn't addressed before there is one major problem with using the Ben Franklin Bridge for heavy rail: It was never designed for that type of rail use. It was designed and built for subway-type trains, which is why the tunnels on both sides are as tight as they are, as the "Bridge Line" operated over it before PATCO was built.

My guess about the trench is that a group of people near the station screamed so loud the political world stopped turning. The same thing happens here in California when BART wants to convert parking lots into apartments. At least some of the time. My BART Board member even ran on a position of banning these conversions and sat on the Capitol Corridor JPA. She makes me die inside just a little bit.

I think you need to include reopening the route to Cape May New Jersey and Zoo Park locations. This would also lead to opening up Millville and Vineland with more traffic instead of just a historic line. Almost all the track from RT 55 to Millville has been updated and replaced by the Seashore Line. This line also opens up additional routes as the coal trains no longer use this - as the power plant was converted. The biggest mistake and leave it to New Jersey was a high speed line should have been added to the Parkway construction from Cape May to New York.

Imagine...a unrealistic alternate reality in which the CNJ gained LIRR style state takeover from New Jersey for its commuters services. While NJT does its job covering parts of New Jersey a lot of the CNJ lines covered parts of Jersey that are neglected now. With its growth Bayonne could use a connection to the rest of Jersey along with Communipaw as a Hudson Terminal which would alleviate congestion, southern Jersey is also neglected especially on the eastern side and CNJ would cover that better than its successor in NJT.

I used to live in Elwood, NJ., I know the PRSL line. In 1967 the Atlantic City line was single tracked with some portions of having it double tracked for up to 15 miles. PATCO had originally planned to extend their line into Atlantic City in gradual phases which they failed to do. Converting the PATCO line to heavy rail, extending all the way to Atlantic City, and Eve to Ocean City, Cape May would be very good. Also even a line all the way to Bayhead from Camden which would connect both South Jersey & North Jersey lines at Bay Head. The Raritan Valley line used to go all the way to Philippsburg and should be extended into Allentown,PA and SEPTA extend service back into Bethlehem & Allentown fron Lansdale where service ends.

The Reading and Allentown service should be branded as the Keystone Service, and continue to Harrisburg. It is just smarter, also these services could run to Pittsburgh as they are already under diesel.

The RVL's limiting factor in service isn't the fact it's mostly double-tracked rather than quad-tracked since the early '90s. It's not even the single-track Aldene ramp to the Lehigh line east of Cranford (which there's plenty of room to double-track if they wanted). The real pinch point is the connection between the Lehigh line and the NEC at Hunter interlocking. It's double-tracked, but it only feeds into track 4 of the NEC, which is designed for westbound running. So inbound trains have to be timed to slot into the NEC traffic accordingly. An example of how delicate this balance is: the inbound train I ride daily now sits for 6+ minutes at Hunter waiting for an outbound RVL train AND, almost insultingly, a deadhead equipment move, to pass onto the Lehigh line so we can proceed toward Newark via track 4 and then onto the two-way track 5 when it starts closer to Newark Penn Station. This started because the outbound train's departure was pushed back, and that happened because its nominal connection from New York was pushed back a few minutes in the newest timetable to accommodate construction at Elizabeth on the NEC. A flyover at Hunter that will allow inbound RVL traffic to access the actual eastbound NEC tracks is in NJT's capital plan, and would solve a lot of this (And yes, some RVL trains currently access the "inbound" side of Newark Penn, but they have to cross all the other tracks at grade to get there...not great). Combined with upcoming NEC improvements (Portal Bridge, Gateway, etc.) the Hunter flyover would make increased service on the former CNJ main more plausible. Until then it's not all that practical.

Loved your rapid-fire presentation. Great content and interesting proposals for future expansion or re-expansion. Only wish I'd be around when some of them are finally chosen.

Nice one dude. I definitely learned something!!! I've actually ridden the line and its one of my favorites. Great video

not to be that guy, but its pronounced Ab-sea-kin, not a-bes-con. In any case, great video! Love to see my neck of the woods get some coverage online. We have a shit ton of unused rail lines in south jersey that connect population centers and its a shame to see them waste away. The GCL is a promising look at what the future could hold for rail in south jersey. It certainly opens the door to extending the line down to millville, and maybe one day all the way down to cape may. And if that takes off, I feel like other rail lines, such as the merchantville one mentioned in the video, would have the possibility of reactivating as well. Again, great video. Much love from Medford, NJ!

Just so you know, "heavy rail" refers to metros like the NYC subway or Tokyo Metro. It serves as a distinction from light rail. The term you're looking for is main line or regional/commuter/intercity rail.

As a south jersey resident who happens to work for a railroad in here. I can honestly say none of this will ever happen for 2 reasons. 1: Atlantic city is a shit hole and the only time the line is busy is for the air show. 2: once south of lindinwold there's almost nothing there and only a handful of people use it to commute to Philly.

Looking forward to this!

The Ben Franklin Rail Spaces already have a Sell-By date, after which it will be unsafe to even walk on, from an engineering standpoint. I respectfully lean toward a tunnel into Jefferson. Though I live in TX., I am a Delco native.

I'd say the cheapest and best compromise option is to double track the ACL from Atlantic City to Lindenwold and then turn back some trains. The rest of the line into 30th Street would operate at the current schedule or as frequently as the bottleneck permits.

How did I miss your postings? PATCO should have been extended to the Penn Hospital complex decades ago, which is an alternative perhaps even more compelling.

So NJ transit A long time ago, look into the feasibility of running from New York to Philly through Red Bank to Winslow Junction down the old blue Comet line. Obviously as right now nothings happening. But hey you never know. Stranger things have happened

2:36 ~ That locomotive looks an awful lot like the first NZR Q class; a couple of Rogers 2-4-4 tanks built for New Zealand in 1877. I certainly learnt a lot about Atlantic City's railways from this video, having forgot about the Blue Comet. Despite the line being significantly rationalized, I think the current NJT service is better than no train at all (but yeah, the situation at Haddonfield is just stupid).

New rolling stock for PATCO can be bought that is dual mode 3rd rail and catenary so it can be used to run at high speed operation past lindenwold on catenary mode

I know this is old but that thick line going north from Bound Brook where CSX and Norfolk Southern meet toward Martinsville is only available for the local quarry, operated souley by NS, the additional branching off lines don't exist anymore, even though there were only 3, can't recall how often its used but I thinks its just once a week at like 2am or something. I could hear the train horn with my window open all the way up to halfway between I-78 and Martinsville some nights. Interestingly I've never seen any freight rail trains near me only passenger trains its almost like I don't live near main fright lines or something. Great video though. Traveled many of times along the Morris and Essex Line into the city usually on the midtown direct from my local stop. I've watched your other branch line videos up to this point and the information is fascinating.

NJT can start by connecting the Cherry Hill Station to the Costco and the other stores and the new residential area surrounding the stores and stop at North Philadelphia stations. It'll supply the retail area with workers from Philly and commuters from NJ without cars

On the Texas coastline all the spurs and branch lines are literal trenches with the grading inside the trenches because the land is so flat there’s nothing to build a grade on. They also used to use oyster shells for ballast

Those short Amtrak routes would almost certainly be partially funded by the state they are in, and therefore the state government would have a lot of say in their details.

I use both PATCO and the AC line, they are both to convenient. I can take either into philly then connect to the airport line, or there is a free shuttle from Egg Harbor to the AC airport. If you want to get to the AC Convention center thats the last stop, the station is at the building. NJT also has a free bus from the station to the casinos. IDK why people don't use it.

I live right by the freight line that the GCL is proposed to run on, though I live slightly south of glassboro. The main bottleneck with construction of the gcl is the NIMBY movement against it primarily in the suburbs south of Camden. I suspect that after 'phase 1' of the GCL the Millville extension will be comparatively easy due to the suburbs being less populated and much of the line going through non populated areas

Excellent.

On Raritan Valley line in the 90s, there was 3 lines revenue into Newark in the AM, 3 outbound PM going past Raritan, it sounds like times have changed.. I used to ride into the city one weeknight a week and had to park at a stadium/station further in from Raritan, since the station lot was contract only, and parking in the residential areas was nowhere to be legally found.. but alas, I'm in Iowa now, and listen for the IARR to go by every night about 8:30 and other times, in fact I was at the bank and heard a strange whistle.. kind of like a steam engine going by.. and sadly the train is freight only and whizzes right on through.

Interesting proposal

The solutions to fix the RVL are Hunter Flyover and introducing Stadler FLIRT Dual Modes that way there's High Bridge Weekend service to relive I-78 NJ exits 18-Delaware River PA mp 77.3 to Allentown. Phase II restore RVL to Allentown, PA and amtrak to Harrisburg via the RVL and Reading RR Main Line Allentown Reading Harrisburg. When needed NJ Transit RVL Stadler Flirt dual modes can be transferred to ACL and NJCL if required.

0:12 *confused montrealer screaming* st constant is where the canadian rr museum is

ACL more like, more like, more like, I can’t come up with a light hearted pun for this.

The issue with even using this line at all is that it's very difficult/slow to get up and down the island without a car. If I lived out in the suburbs, I would have to drive into town (30-45 mins.+15 minutes with parking/being early), sit on a very slow train (1.5 hours), and then find a jitney/bus/Uber to get me where I need to be (20-45 mins. with waiting). While transit is critical, I couldn't see myself taking it (even if I lived in Center City), especially with luggage/beach stuff.

What about creating an upper level track at Haddonfield just to the side

Watching for Morris fears

Im just here cuz it’s nice my neck of the woods is getting some attention😊

Nice video brother. You should’ve included the Gladstone branch tho

also in mentioning the ac line is many options njt has been thinking of and a few are redevolpment of as many south jersey rail lines as posible. also making bayhead a pass through like long branch to connect to the ac line also there is a couple of lines you did not mention at all and that is on the coast line there is a couple of branchoffs one at perth amboy or south amboy going through to jameburg then head south through freehold to lakewood that there are redeloping as i type this Also another from monmouth junction to jamesburg to freehold thine lines still exsist just have to be converted to either commuter use or light rail lines but most of all once you leave lakewood the camden route went throught the pinelands to trenton to camden --i know that because my mom took that exact line from freehold to trenton cathloic high school all it would take is a line inspection crew in a rali pickup to inspect the lines for flaws

In later years looking at expanding the Lindenwold line, other townships have spoken loudly about above ground vs below ground and one went so far as to demand that not only the transit line be buried but the privately owned freight rail line be 'undergrounded' as part of the expansion. Of course the freight line said 'fine, just as long as you pay for it', understand that freight railways cannot handle the same grades as transit and have a larger loading gauge all of which would make the underground part of the project much larger and much more expensive, for this and other reasons the project was never built aside from the Camden/Trenton interurban that used an abandoned rail line. We have to look at these projects from a feasibility prospective, the money well has its limitations. Road bridge tolls pay for both capital costs and operating subsidies of the existing line except for the Trenton line that is run by the state. The Lindenwold is limited by train capacity over the 75 year old Franklin bridge, I believe that these tracks were originally built for trolleys and this line is certainly not a trolley line in terms of train weight, it is a heavyweight rail transit line. Remember too that truck weights on the bridge when it was built were in the range of 25 tons and now they are twice that and remember too that trucks pay tolls, trains don't. Lastly, a major line limitation is the terminal at Philadelphia, there are only two tracks in this former subway station and while some investment has been made to improve train access and eliminate a speed restriction there is still only two tracks. The station does not connect to either the Philadelphia transit nor to the commuter lines in the city, other than that it isn't a bad location but as I remember it is the only stop in Philly. Really, discussion of the AC line has to consider AC itself. When the line was built the city was a resort location outside Philly and was a pretty nice one. With the end of the Penn Central it was necessary for somebody to take the line over or see it closed like most of the other former commuter lines into Philly, given the road congestion that was not a good plan and it was added to all of the other commuter lines now run by the NJDOT. This line was a big loser for PC and they never spent much money on it and the state has upgraded it a lot since takeover without going crazy although some of this has involved long term shutdowns that force riders into alternatives, some never come back. A lot of folks thought that casino gambling in AC was going to be the solution to that city's downfall and that it would become the Las Vegas of the east, that didn't happen despite large investments by casino operators in some very nice new hotels and casinos there. What wasn't done was investment in the 'before gambling' assets in the city such as the boardwalk and the attractions there. What happened to the city itself was that a lot of former summer beach properties were converted to year round and rented out in the off months eventually turning to year round leases on properties that are increasingly run down. AC itself doesn't provide a base of commuter ridership, some of the communities around it do, on either side of AC are some really nice communities with none of the decline and decay and crime that infests AC. There is simply not enough parking at the AC terminal however. At one time there was a branch line extending to the southern end of NJ that also generated ridership however this has been discontinued, these communities have continued to grow and prosper. What happened to the casinos at AC is that the high rolling gamblers that make LV so successful didn't show up at AC, most of the casinos are mostly slots and armies of retirees show up daily on chartered busses with a fanny pack of coins to amuse themselves and maybe have a lunch in the casino cafeteria not the expensive restaurants like those in Vegas. A big blow to AC was that neighboring states of PA and NY opened casinos of their own and these have drained a lot of revenue out of the city. NJ itself is at least talking of building a casino just outside of NYC, that would be another nail in the coffin of AC. Neither Amtrak nor NJ transit ever seriously proposed a direct train to AC for gamblers or others. I believe that historically such a train existed.

A new station should be constructed near the old Frankford Jct station in Philly, but closer to the Mkt-Fkd El. That way, Trenton line and El riders could catch the Atlantic City train there instead of riding all the way to 30th St. to transfer, saving at least a half-hour.

the much quicker solution would be to buy new bi-mode (possibly battery range extended with fast charge points at atlantic city itself) patco trains and run some of those trains to atlantic city express services. that way you can do electrification/double tracking slowly. not ideal but it’s more likely than big infrastructure modifications

Can’t find we’re the pascack valley line fixing is? But good video!

Counter: convert the ACL south of Lindenwold for metro service, reduces overall operating costs, allows for 2 track services and can expand upon express service by having a dual-running system where NJT owns/operates from Lindenwold to AC and PATCO into philly without changing trains

You seem to assume that the powers that be care about rail service in Southern New Jersey. Or that Camden is desirable to travel and visit. Or that anyone would spend the money to double track an extremely iffy rail line. I was told there were studies done that recommended more frequent service on both the River Line and Atlantic City Rail Line, and nothing has happened.

Haddonfield was trenched because the elitists there didn't want an elevated line going through their town. They also were one of the bitterest NIMBY opponents to the Atlantic City line in the 1980s. It's Ab-SE-con, not AB-se-con.

End of PATCO line is Lindenwold not Lindenwood. Other than that, great video!

I have thought about converting Patco back to heavy rail. At that, just restore heavy rail to Glassboro-Millville service with heavy rail over LRT, and maybe even take it to the Cape May-Lewes ferry (they could do that with LRT if they wanted). They could always convert the line from Pennsauken to Haddonfield into a River Line Branch/dinky if people still want service. If there are already deals with Conrail/CSX on the Glassboro-Camden line, maybe it wouldn't be much more to ask. I also had a thought if we bring service from the Bridge Line, we might want to put back Spring Garden for Chestnut Hill, Cynwyd, and maybe Reading and Leigh Amtrak service if desired (although I do not think that area is as desirable as Madrid having Sol and Recoletos, even if Spring Garden and Jefferson would be about Equidistant [3000ft], depending on where station entrances are placed). There a chemical factory and some theaters in Callow Hill where said station would be when Sol is an economic hub and one of the transfer hubs of the metro where Recoletos has an out of station transfer with Line 4 at Colon or Serano as well as a couple of museums, parks, and I think the Spanish Supreme Court. I spent almost half the year in Spain so I know quite a bit-but I don't know if I can translate the Spanish Wikipedia pages into English unless I was paid to do it

I grew up in South Jersey, and used PATCO and the ACL frequently. Its a real shame how short changed the region was and is and that funds were never allocated to fix the severe congestion problems in the region. There is next to no rail access to the major towns and cities with the rest of the state, which makes the congestion so much worse. It was shortsighted to abandon and convert and outright eliminate ROWs through out the region. I know if I had easier access to public transit rather than dealing with the overcrowding and congestion on the roads, I might still be living there today.

bro i would LOVEEEE the glassboro line

The biggest problem is the terrible schedule. Adding more trains would increase casino worker ridership. Trains should run 24 hours. Last train leaving Atlantic City is before 11. Many shows and concerts end right around or after that time so people end up driving.

Don't convert PATCO, convert to PATCO! Yeah, it's kind of expensive, but it's probably cheaper to electrify to AC than to figure out how the hell to convert all the infrastructure in the city to support heavy rail. Doesn't need the same frequency as PATCO but those trains are just as comfortable as commuter rail

Unlike north Jersey, south Jersey has a tiny metro area. Thus the low numbers on the AC Line mean that NJT will probably do nothing to it. I think what would help is making the line Philly oriented, by having more service to Philly in the morning and AC in the evening. Why this line has no rush hour trains, unlike every other NJT line is beyond me. Otherwise, maybe electrifying the line in the long term would help to make more uniform to other NJT lines.

You murdered some of these town names.

It would seem to me that extending Patco to Atlantic City would make the most sense. But there are few problems: 1- No connection to 30th street station for Amtrak. 2- Patco's trains are the originals that were recently rebuilt. The motors wsere retained/refurbished because they are so powerful. Patco trains pack quite a punch when it comes to acceleration. The question is whether they have enough spare trains to extend say 2 trains to Atlantic City for hourly service (wth rest of trains still terminating at Lindenwold). Or if they would need to purchase new trainsets. (and then there is the issue of fares since going beyond Lindenwold would likely cost more so how do you collect those extra fares?) 3- 3rd rail and level crossings don't mix very well (but do exist) and there are lots of level crossings. I think the worse one is at Egg Harbor City (crossing the main street/highway 50 where width of road might require train to be long enough to still get power from back until front has crossed road and recontacted 3rd rail. Or just keep route as is and just iprove track conditions for highed speed and add more sidings to allow greater frequency. This has the advantage of being incremental in nature instead of rebuilding new serice on the right of way.

There is one question that needs to be answered: could FRA crashworthiness approved trains ever be made to fit dimension and weight wise onto the subway tunnels? If yes, then this project could actually be completed relatively expensively; just add a third rail and add passing sidings to allow for more trains If not you would need to grade separate everything between Lindenwald and Atalntic City which would hike the price up a lot and may turn locals against the project. That said, if you could *somehow* connect this to the City Center Septa tunnel an unsaid benefit would be that you would solve the problem of branch imbalance you would equalize the number of branches on the Reading side compared to the Pennsy side.

The Raritan Valley Line is NOT a branch line. That distinction belongs to the Princeton or Gladstone branches. Also your proposal for the Raritan Valley Line while is interesting, it ain't gonna happen. Most stations east of Raritan won't be moving due to some of the towns not wanting to deal with all that (NIMBY crowds) clusterfuck. Actually it works out fine the way it is with maybe a few more trains running from High Bridge on weekdays

How about extending PATCO to Atlantic City, put third rail down, expand the platforms, add a other track, and you have it, a rail line from Philadelphia to Atlantic City.

when are we getting fixing your branch line of the ffarquahar branch line

Do the opposite of frontrunner and doubletrack the line everywhere but stations that cant get

Not doing any of that, as very few ride to / from A/C , it will remain as is, until it stops entirely.

They could try to get the old southern secondary back up and then run it down and then connect it to the line and that would increase ridership.

For that amount of money, I'd rather electrify the existing line, keeping it single-track but with more (longer) sidings so that trains can theoretically meet "on the run", and I'd build a branch between the Delair Bridge and Frankford Jct to connect to the NEC without reversing at 30th Street. That way you could have two bi-hourly services from Atlantic City: one to Philly, and one to Trenton and points north on the NEC, bridging the gap with the remaining NJT system. Together with electrification, there could be some work on the ROW to upgrade the line to Class 5 standards, allowing operations at up to 90 mph. (This alone could already drastically reduce journey times due to better acceleration and higher speeds.) But that's my ignorant opinion from the other side of the Pond - though I operated on commuter, regional and long-distance trains in Italy for 10 yrs, now operating freight. Good video, anyway.

Ironically I was the opposite, convert the Atlantic city to heavy Subway (PATH) with diesel bits for long distance

If Patco is converted to heavy rail, it could be operated with ex-LIRR cars by either New Jersey Transit or Patco.

After reading comments, I now feel guilty of interpreting Absecon sound as it is spelled. And always though of Lindenwold as it is spelled, not ending as wald. (and for some reason, the name reminded me of the original Westworld movie as some sort of futuristic place where that "plane" is aunched to bring to the amusement park). I agree with another poster about the future of Atlantic City. The casinos haven't done that well. And one large complex that was built at northern end of downtown was sort of half completed after many bankruptcies. The city itself needs to do the work to attract travellers to whatever purpose it decides (casinos, beach or whatever). Unless that is done, the city can't expect transit to magically appear. City needs a plan to attract enough people to warrant improving ACL. On other hand, the smaller communities along the way might become extended suburbs of Camden/Philly and those towns would appreciate seeing home values increase if transit made it possible to have daily commute sto work.

If you know your history, the Newark Bay Bridge was removed because it was a navigation and rail hazard

What about putting back trains to Ocean City and Cape May??

The best and simplest solution would be for DRPA to take over the line and convert the whole operation to metro. This option was turned down in 1979 when Congressman Jimmy Florio proposed it to the agency. The problem was twofold: the cost of money, and the fact that the agency was over-leveraged due to the costs of the Betsy Ross and Commodore Barry bridges. On the west end of the line, it needs to be connected via subway to Thirtieth Street Station. The Sixteenth-Locust terminus is in the middle of nowhere, and the Woodland Avenue subway, into which it was to feed, was never constructed. On the east end, all grade crossings on the line need to be eliminated. Station stops with island platforms need to be at Berlin Township (West Berlin), Berlin Borough (Berlin), Atco, Hammonton, Hammonton Park-and-Ride, Egg Harbor City, Absecon, Atlantic City Convention Center and Boardwalk. A short elevated structure from Convention Center to Boardwalk, even if single-tracked, would debark passengers where the action is, not a long distance from it in a less-than-safe city. New rolling stock capable of 110 mph operation would be needed, and some local stops on the Lindenwold segment would be skipped for Atlantic City trains. The current rolling stock originally operated at 75 mph until too many motors burned out. The speed was lowered to 65, and it may even be down to 60 by now. We need rolling stock that can get around that problem and provide competitive service when rated against the Atlantic City Expressway.

Good presentation. Absecon is pronounced Ahb- SEE-con.

I always wish until this day if they would not scrap the Atlantic City Express from Penn Station Newark Penn Station and to Atlantic City that would have been a big difference

What About The Main And Bergen County Lines? No Electrification And No Penn Station Service Makes Them Important To Fix. What's Your Diagnosis For Them?

The two-hour frequencies are there for a good reason, like many others in here said, AC is a total shithole that not many people want to go to. So why would added capacity by adding another track be worth the money?

What if they restored the West Trenton Line not only for regular Commuter Rail service, but also for a revival of the Atlantic City Express Service? I think that would be great because it could allow for direct service between New York and Atlantic City without having to reverse in Philadelphia, as the line already exists from West Trenton to Philadelphia. I think that the stations the new ACES should serve are Penn Station (New York), Newark Penn Station, West Trenton, 30th Street Station (Philadelphia), and Atlantic City. I also think that a second track would be a great idea, because it would allow for Amtrak trains to run there with little to no congestion. You're right, though. If they were going to add the second track, they would probably have to rebuild the Haddonfield Station, and that would most likely cost at least a few million dollars.

honestly just double tracking a couple more sections here and there and improving track quality would go a long way. i think we get too fixated on grand plans and ignore the effects of small improvements here and there

extend Patco to Atlantic City cheapest way to go. use third rail as they do up in New York where their is a intersection just stop the third rail before inter section. 4 Patco cars will make it throught the break

How about extending PATCO to AC, with battery car on thru trains?

A glance at the rail service in the Philly area shows a lack of service on the NJ side. I think a rail tunnel that connects Philly to NJ would be the best plan. Electrify the tunnel and the line from Camden, Woodbury, down to Vineland. Scrap that light rail mess.

I am not familiar with the line but I imagine the cheapest and most reasonable way to improve service would be to introduce an hourly service instead of the twice hourly. With the length the single tracking appears to be that would probably be achievable with a limited addition of sidings rather than full double tracking. The sidings do not necessarily need to be in the stations either, but can be built on sections wherever there’s room. The other recommendation I would have is to replace the GP40PH-2 locomotives with PL42AC or ALP-45DP units, especially since the line intersects with the very capacity-congested NEC.

Can we please just have NJT’s NE Corridor connect to 30th Street? Then we can have a cohesive system! Amtrak and Septa would, without a doubt, get pissed off though…

You made a mistake. The Franklin bridge can’t support the weight for heavy rail.

PATCO should take over the AC Line and run all the way to the convention center. NJT treats the AC Line as a stepchild .

This was a very informative, but I did get a kick out of you annihilating the name Absecon.

the scanton service should run though nyc penn station to springfield

Single track. What do you expect where even helping the infirm is a business.

Thanks for the rich & checkered history. Just a little nit, but as someone who grew up in Absecon, please allow me to correct the pronunciation: ab-SEE-cunn

It should be Inbound cab into Philly & Outbound 🚂 from Philly

There's a lot they can do expand the north jersey coast train from bay head jct take that trough where abandoned it through seaside heights seaside park and Barnet and beachheaven and contact that thru the lakewood and then Atlantic city lines parts of those lines thru lakewood and Lakehurst is out of service try to connect

Gladstone Branch: *INSERT SECOND TRACK (and more service to New York) HERE*

Maybe the ACL could just share the trackage with PATCO?

Why don't NJ Transit invest money in expanding the North Jersey Coast Line to Atlantic City ?

Another great episode. Very informative, well edited. Attempts at humor are cringe-worthy, though, and hurt the flow. Just saying… What is "Abesconn?" "Abseconn?” You mean Absecon, pronounced “Ab-see-kin” Does anyone proof the scripts before they are recorded?

How is the River Line "light rail"? It uses completely normal european heavy rail rolling stock and is shared with freight traffic.

Can you do a video on NCTD’s SPRINTER

also in the medium o long term it should be extended south t through the greater Atlantic city area to ocean cit. and maybe even the resort community of wildwood. u

Well...for the (PATCO) expand more

how to pronounce Absecon and Lindenwold Lin-den-wald Ab-See-con now you dont have to piss of any nj viewers👍

the raritan line the most unutilized rail line out there as it terminates in high bridge i lived in glen gardener for 5 yrs and use the high bridge station daily --but if you extendit to the delware gap bridge it passes right through philpsburgs easton and bethleham in phil. it would benifit alot of rail passengers living in the highlands of nothwest jersey and that region to allentown to the westbut the track layout and right of ways are still there there is alot of people who travel from philpsburg to highland that would benifit from the redevolpment of that line also about every 3 to 5 yrs passengers who travel that distance pation njt to redevlop the line again i know i let a few of them

the ending tho

Your plan to double track the ACL ignores the lack of demand east of Lindenwold. The rest of the line is in sparsely populated deep South Jersey. The line already takes such a redundant routing through North Philly that most riders just get off at Lindenwold to transfer to PATCO as the trip is faster even with the connection. You are better off converting the entire ACL up to Cherry Hill to BRT. Have a grade separated BRT busway parallel the AC Expressway with sliding converted to passing shoulder lines of some kind. You would then reorient the service as an express to Philly which is where the demand is. The BRT line would branch off at Route 70 in Cherry Hill where is a few relatively empty parking lots and strip malls to build an interchange. You would then have the buses take Route 70 to the Ben Franklin bridge and to Center City Philly. This busway would be modeled after the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway in England.