Buena Vista to Cape May seashore

From the Vineland Times Journal

http://www.thedailyjournal.com/apps/pbc ... 40307/1002

where will the cmsl tie into the richland tracks? I am a little bit confused about the kind of ytrack structure that remains down that way after reading that article.

Ed

Elwood wrote:where will the cmsl tie into the richland tracks?

Looks like at Tuckahoe. Richland is about 10 miles northwest of Tuckahoe on the line that ends up in Winslow Jct.

Where exactly is Buena Vista Township??

thanks,
Steve

There not going to be able to run trains up there until the tracks and ties north of Woodbine are replaced.


Steve

The Cape May Seashore Lines (CMSL) equipment on site at the Richlands (Buena Vista) ceremony Nov. 23 suggests that CMSL equipment can run between Woodbine and Richlands right now. And, in fact, such is the case in physical (infrastructure) terms.

No, providing passenger/excursion service right now is a political issue, not a physical one, and must be resolved among NJDOT, New Jersey Transit (the owner of the Cape May Branch) CSX, and CMSL, at minimum.

The New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers (NJ-ARP) is busy assisting (or prodding) the various parties toward such a possibility. We are cautiously optimistic.

Meanwhile, we salute the mayor of Buena Vista for being able to see beyond the horizon -- and wanting something better for his municipality than so many other New Jersey communities seem willing to settle for.

Douglas John Bowen wrote:The Cape May Seashore Lines (CMSL) equipment on site at the Richlands (Buena Vista) ceremony Nov. 23 suggests that CMSL equipment can run between Woodbine and Richlands right now. And, in fact, such is the case in physical (infrastructure) terms.

No, providing passenger/excursion service right now is a political issue, not a physical one, and must be resolved among NJDOT, New Jersey Transit (the owner of the Cape May Branch) CSX, and CMSL, at minimum.

The New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers (NJ-ARP) is busy assisting (or prodding) the various parties toward such a possibility. We are cautiously optimistic.

Meanwhile, we salute the mayor of Buena Vista for being able to see beyond the horizon -- and wanting something better for his municipality than so many other New Jersey communities seem willing to settle for.

You are quite correct as far as the CMSL having a connection with the outside world. I believe the issue is actually the condition of the track between Cape May Court House and Woodbine. While it is physically in place and can obviously handle occasional equipment moves (even the F's and Geeps have moved over it in the last year), it is currently in no condition for regular revenue operations. For any scheduled service to commence even to Tuckahoe, ROW and grade crossing improvements will need to be completed. Hopefully the revenue from the planned freight service to Woodbine will allow those improvements to happen soon.

NJ-ARP agrees that the Cape May Branch's weakest link right now is the mileage between Cape May Court House and Woodbine. We continue to seek aid and assistance -- financial and political -- for Cape May Seashore Lines (CMSL) to address this gap.

However, as noted previously, it is physically possible right now to provide (off-season) excursion service linking Tuckahoe and Richlands (Buena Vista). Buena Vista's mayor has asked for this, CMSL is ready to comply, and even New Jersey Transit has expressed mild interest in this possibility.

Another passenger generator for Woodbine and south to Cape May is the plan for improvements to Woodbine Airport which is close to the track. The airport improvement plan, among other things, includes provisions to encourage general aviation pilots to fly to Woodbine and then take the train to Cape May for the day, weekend, etc.

One of the hurdles needed to be overcome is the arrogance and attitude of the BLE.... I had a very heated arguement with some of the Union Folks over this issue last year... The attitude I got was unless NJT was going to run the trains, the BLE would do everything in their power to prevent it from happening....

Perhaps the BLE's stance on this has since changed????

I don't begrudge the BLE. Why should NJT be using its limited funding to expand passenger service that does not use BLE personnel? They already got away with it with HBLR and the RiverLINE. The BLE has to stand up for its members.

Off season excursion trains are different, in my opinion, but a scheduled or a resemblance of a daily revenue passenger operation is a whole other story.

Although im not in the BLE, im in the UTU, but don't worry Joe, my union won't say a word, just like they have not fought for and lost the trainmen of NJT jobs on the Southern Tier, and at SEC, oh the list goes on and on..........

But to have scheduled passegner trains running on NJT owned railroad for Godssakes without NJT employees IS NOT going to happen, adn the BLE and the UTU should fight it tooth and nail.

Jtgshu wrote:Off season excursion trains are different, in my opinion, but a scheduled or a resemblance of a daily revenue passenger operation is a whole other story.

Although im not in the BLE, im in the UTU, but don't worry Joe, my union won't say a word, just like they have not fought for and lost the trainmen of NJT jobs on the Southern Tier, and at SEC, oh the list goes on and on..........

But to have scheduled passegner trains running on NJT owned railroad for Godssakes without NJT employees IS NOT going to happen, adn the BLE and the UTU should fight it tooth and nail.

Same reason why Jimmy Wilson won't be able to run his own trains into Hoboken......His trains would have to have a NJT crew....

njt4172 wrote:Same reason why Jimmy Wilson won't be able to run his own trains into Hoboken......His trains would have to have a NJT crew....

The big difference here is that trains are currently running into Hoboken. For the last 26 years, NO ONE (except Tony Macrie, of course) has given a rat's rear end about running any kind of regular service along this line then as soon as there's a glimmer of hope of something happening down here, the vultures come out of the woodwork before the first train has pulled out of storage. Simply pathetic!