Does Amtrak still own the Atlantic City Line?

The 1998 Conrail breakup maps show it belonging to Amtrak. Is this still true, with Amtrak service ending in 1995?

I believe New Jersey Transit owns the tracks now.

Amtrak pulled out of there a few years back, and eventually NJT purchased it. Not sure of exact dates though.

It's worth noting that the stops on the line still appear in the Station List on amtrak.com, but are listed as, for example, "Atlantic City - NJ Transit Station, NJ." You can also plan a trip between those stations (on a "Thruway Train," which based on the schedule and fare, is NJT).

It's somewhat curious that this question has arisen when it has (at least to us at NJ-ARP), given the most recent public developments concerning the Atlantic City Line:

(Link to story is provided at bottom.)

CRDA lines up $4.5M. for N.Y.-A.C. rail service

By MICHAEL B. BAKER Staff Writer, (609) 272-7221
(Published: October 19, 2005)
ATLANTIC CITY --The Casino Reinvestment Development Authority on Tuesday
pledged as much as $4.5 million to help NJ Transit establish passenger train
service between New York and Atlantic City.
Using existing rail lines, NJ Transit wants to launch an upscale express
train that goes from New York's Penn Station to Atlantic City for a
three-year demonstration period. NJ Transit officials are working to get the
travel time of the trip down to two-and-a-half hours.
The CRDA was approached for $18 million to buy eight two-level passenger
cars, to lease diesel locomotives from Amtrak for three years and to help
with marketing, according to the authority. In addition to the $4.5 million
approved Tuesday, the CRDA is in negotiations to have the casinos invest the
remaining $13.5 million from their CRDA funds for the project.
NJ Transit officials said they will charge between $70 and $100 for a round
trip, and they expect about 1,100 people to use the service each weekend.
In other business on Tuesday, CRDA board members:
Approved a $300,000 grant to Wildwood for its gateway project. The city
wants to install an electronic sign at its Rio Grande Avenue entryway and
make landscaping improvements to that area.
Approved a $1 million grant with Cape May County for renovations to its zoo
in Cape May Court House. County officials need the money to add an 800-space
parking lot to alleviate traffic jams that currently occur around the zoo
during busy days. The grant also will be used toward other ongoing
renovations at the zoo, which is being redesigned according to a master plan
for the county's parks.

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news ... 0055c.html

Addendum: This subject (of course!) is being covered and discussed in the NJT Rail thread.

Amtrak never owned the Atlantic City Line. It has been owned since the early 1980's by New Jersey Transit, who purchased it from Conrail.

Amtrak entered into a five year lease agreement with NJT to re-hab the infrastructure with a 70% - 30% division of cost. Amtrak was not charged lease payments for the life of the agreement. At the end of the agreement, Amtrak withdrew from operating on the line. Amtrak still has a ticketing agreement with NJT. Thus it is possible (and frequently done) to purchase tickets to Atlantic City from any point on the Amtrak system (except Philadelphia).

it would appear to me that you can buy the ACY tickets even to-from PHL. Amtrak cannot afford to put ticket purchasing restrictions on passengers. It is a big peeve of mine that at Greyhound.com you can't buy tickets to some of the subsidiary company routes. You have to go down in person. Cross honoring would only benefit all parties, particularly the customer. capitoltrailways.com is an unreliable site and iwould prefer to get the schedule and fare from greyhound.com instead.

Launcher wrote:it would appear to me that you can buy the ACY tickets even to-from PHL. Amtrak cannot afford to put ticket purchasing restrictions on passengers. It is a big peeve of mine that at Greyhound.com you can't buy tickets to some of the subsidiary company routes. You have to go down in person. Cross honoring would only benefit all parties, particularly the customer. capitoltrailways.com is an unreliable site and iwould prefer to get the schedule and fare from greyhound.com instead.

GREYHOUND SUCKS!!! BOTTOM LINE! There is a reason why it is soo cheap!


Steve

njt4172 wrote:

Launcher wrote:it would appear to me that you can buy the ACY tickets even to-from PHL. Amtrak cannot afford to put ticket purchasing restrictions on passengers. It is a big peeve of mine that at Greyhound.com you can't buy tickets to some of the subsidiary company routes. You have to go down in person. Cross honoring would only benefit all parties, particularly the customer. capitoltrailways.com is an unreliable site and iwould prefer to get the schedule and fare from greyhound.com instead.

GREYHOUND SUCKS!!! BOTTOM LINE! There is a reason why it is soo cheap!


Steve

I wonder when it happens how many years will it take before the rail service from NYC to ACY starts to operate, that will be great for me to catach a through train to Atlantic City while I am visiting family in NYC from Chicago.

Steve is right about Greyhound, it sucks(REALLY!), I use to ride it, now I only ride it if there is no Amtrak service going to that city, otherwise I use Amtrak.

Service is no big deal now. Ride a Regional to 30th and change to an ACL train. There are some good connections. I've not done it for ACY trips, but instead to my office in Stratford at Lindenwold when I need to travel there.

Is all this the reason I see airline/amtrak type tickets on the ACL?

Yup. A lot of people go to the Amtrak office 'cuz it's the only one that I know of with a human inside, as opposed to the TVM's elsewhere.

ryanov wrote:Yup. A lot of people go to the Amtrak office 'cuz it's the only one that I know of with a human inside, as opposed to the TVM's elsewhere.

Or are ticketed by a travel agent, with the airline tickets for Amtrak.

The article that Mr Bowen posted says the plan is to offer "upscale" service --using double-decker commuter cars? And no food? NJT right now has no food cars. And it has no long-distance cars. If they don't offer comfortable seats and food service, why would anyone ride NYP-ACY when those subsidized casino buses at least match the time and are much cheaper? Is NJT going to buy or leaase cars configured for long distance service? Are they going to go into the food business? Sounds like a plan that can't succeed.

JoeG wrote:The article that Mr Bowen posted says the plan is to offer "upscale" service --using double-decker commuter cars? And no food? NJT right now has no food cars. And it has no long-distance cars. If they don't offer comfortable seats and food service, why would anyone ride NYP-ACY when those subsidized casino buses at least match the time and are much cheaper? Is NJT going to buy or leaase cars configured for long distance service? Are they going to go into the food business? Sounds like a plan that can't succeed.

Because NJT doesn't know how to implement quality service... !! They can fool the commuters and riders by using schemish marketing ploys, but when push comes to shove they fail in the long run....

I still don't understand why they don't and won't learn from MTA or ConnDot who actually still use bar cars for their New Haven service!!

Steve