Railroad Forums 

  • Salem County Line - Swedesboro to Salem - Operated by: West Jersey, SRNJ, US Rail, SMS

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New Jersey
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New Jersey

Moderator: David

 #1599613  by jdh823
 
If anyone would be able to grow traffic, it would be SMS.

SRNJ just isn't good about it and turns away any new potential traffic. With the rumor of them losing the stone traffic I wouldn't be shocked if they go belly-up soon.

SMS traffic has been growing yearly pretty much so we'll see what they can do.
 #1600676  by Dcell
 
Rebuilt? Salem County's filing details the substantial work that is needed, fair use excerpt here:
"SALEM COUNTY is the owner of the property and right-of-way comprising the Salem Branch Line and the Rail Line thereon. “The Rail Line has been underutilized for decades, with rail traffic of only approximately two to three railcars per year over the last five to six years” and “is presently out of service due to lack of maintenance, including significant washouts and undermining of track bed[,] requir[ing] considerable investment in repairs and improvements in order to attract active and robust commerce in the County along and on the Line.” Correspondence from SALEM COUNTY to Cynthia T. Brown, Chief, Section of Administration, Office of Proceedings, Surface Transportation Board (“Board” or “STB”), dated May 9, 2022 (“County’s May 9th letter”) "
 #1601015  by JohnFromJersey
 
Seems like they have big plans for the Salem Branch then, despite the Port of Paulsboro overshadowing the Port of Salem, due to it being bigger and more used. Hopefully, it doesn't turn into some political corruption scandal like the Rahway Valley Railroad project ended up becoming.
 #1601192  by WashingtonPark
 
Maybe, but I was told, for what it's worth, that's the plan. Sweeney spent millions of taxpayer dollars 3 years ago to up grade the portion of the line in Salem County. If anybody wanted rail service I would think we would have seen it then after he made a big photo op production of "reopening" the line in Salem.
On another note, I noticed that for the first time this year something was run out of Woodbury yard towards Swedesboro. Maybe an SMS hirailer for inspection?
 #1601196  by Bracdude181
 
Is there tire marks on the rails? If so, that’s a sign of a recent hi-rail run.

The reason why no customers were picked up is because of SRNJs poor service. They aren’t even willing to run directly to the customers on this line anymore! It all gets transloaded in Woodbury! I’ve heard that’s why A&E Stone in Pleasantville stopped getting service from them too.

Mannington Mills would be the one to go after right now. They were getting cars under SRNJ.
 #1601221  by rr503
 
Pretty sure A&E stone isn't getting service this summer because NS refused to haul the stone from Birdsboro to Winslow thanks to their crew shortage/the short haul and low margin nature of stone traffic.

As for Salem: they were really close to landing a new plastics plant there a few years back but the deal fell through. Concretely, there's an ongoing project to use the Port of Salem as a staging point for offshore windfarm installs which could conceivably bring some traffic depending on the sourcing of the turbine components. Less concretely, there's been talk of the soil company on the Salem waterfront using rail, as well as potential port rail access improvements and rail-to-barge aggregates transloading at the port. These concepts should give some hope, but I definitely wouldn't be sitting at the edge of your seat.
  • 1
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 19