CMSL Gets Help From NJ Assemblyman And Congressman

[themallard]

Long Lost Rail Link Wins New Hope of Funds 3.29.2006

COURT HOUSE - Assemblyman Jeff Van Drew (D-1st) is supporting a proposal to extend train service from Cape May to Richland in Buena Vista Township, Atlantic County.
To bring about the extended service, tracks from Court House to Woodbine would need repairs at a cost of $1 million a mile or $10 million for the 10-mile span of rails. The track work would link the existing operational Cape May Seashore Lines route from Court House to Tuckahoe where Conrail, NJ Transit and the state Department of Transportation operate the present line to Richland.
Cape May Seashore Lines currently operates trains in the summer from Cape May to Middle Township Elementary School 2 in Court House and ran excursions last fall from Tuckahoe to Richland.
Van Drew said he was contacted by the mayors of Buena Vista Township and Woodbine with interest in the project.
"There would be a direct linkage from Cape May, all the way to Richland, and all the tourist spots and areas of interest in between," said Van Drew.
Richland has a restored train station, as does Tuckahoe, he said.
"I believe it is important that, at a minimum, Cape May, Cape May Point, West Cape May, Woodbine, and the townships of Lower, Middle, Dennis, Upper, and Buena Vista stand united in support of this issue," said Van Drew.
He is asking for the governing bodies of those municipalities to pass resolutions in support of the project, which will be forwarded to U.S. Rep, Frank LoBiondo (R-2nd), who is attempting to get federal funding.
The resolutions will also be forwarded to Sen. Nicholas Asselta (R-1st) and Assemblyman Nelson Albano (D-1st) and to Van Drew to seek state funding.
Van Drew said the expanded train service could serve as an economic boost for inland communities and general economic development all along the route and would reduce traffic congestion, have a favorable impact on tourism, and could be an additional option for evacuating residents during natural disasters or homeland security incidents.
Most of the interest in the expanded train service has come from Upper Township, Buena Vista Township, and Woodbine, said Van Drew.
He said he first wants to gauge the level of interest.
"We would eventually like to connect Richland to Winslow Township which would offer connections to (train) routes to Atlantic City and Philadelphia," said Van Drew.
A meeting on the topic of expanded rail service was held in Dennis Township two weeks ago.
Attending were: Dennis Township Mayor Ruth Blessing and Deputy Mayor John Murphy, Upper Township Mayor Richard Palombo, Buena Vista Township Mayor Chuck Chiarelllo and Deputy Mayor Theresa Kelly, Woodbine Mayor William Pikolycky, Middle Township Mayor Nathan Doughty, and Cape May Seashore Lines President Tony Macrie.
The state invested nearly $1.3 million for repair of five miles of track from Tuckahoe to Woodbine in May 2005, which allows freight service to Woodbine.

Contact Fichter at (609) 886-8600 Ext 30 or at: [email protected]

Cape May County Herald

[CJPat]

I noticed that the township of Rio Grande isn't mentioned in the article.

[lv414]

Has service to Cape May been as sucessful as CMSL planned. It seeems like every year they cut the number of train on the scheduele. It seems by now they should be using more than a single RDC if traffic has grown. Don't know if people will be willing to take a two hour trip from Richland if they could drive down ther in less than an hour.
Roger D.

[David]

If you are truely a railfan and like trains, you won't care if the trip took five hours to get to Cape May by train--LOL

[Steam man]

I noticed that the township of Rio Grande isn't mentioned in the article.

There is no Twp of Rio Grande, Rio Grande is in Middle Township which was represented.

[Steam man]

If you are truely a railfan and like trains, you won't care if the trip took five hours to get to Cape May by train--LOL

It's all fine and dandy to be a diehard railway enthusiast, but in reality it's the daisy pickers that make up the majority of the ridership on tourist railroad. You have to make the operation attractive enough to make people want to use your trains. The novelity of a new operation will soon wear off and there has to be continued practical reasons to keep the wheels rolling. If the CMSL can make thier trains an desireable alternative to using the highways to get to Cape May then they should do well. This would have to include a reasonable travel time from whatever northern terminus to Cape May and sufficently convienant timetable schedule frequency. The fares would have to fairly cheap and the travel time close to the travel time by car. This would mean that the 42 miles from Richland to Cape May would have to be covered in about an hour,which would mean track speeds in the 60mph range to allow for stop at Tuckahoe,CMCH and Cold Springs. There would have to be a lot of work done and money spent to upgrade the present railroad to FRA class 3 to make this possible. Then what's the attraction to bring pepole to ride the train? The town of Richland is trying to get something rolling as an tourist site, Cape May is certianly a attraction, but is there enough of a draw to bring the people in? And as much as I love the Jersey Pines, using the scenery as a sellling point would be tough. I'm not in anyway trying to put a hex on anything the CMSL is trying to do,I wish them all the luck in the world and I hope they succeed beyond anyone's dreams, but it's going to be a hard pull.

[JJMDiMunno]

Has service to Cape May been as sucessful as CMSL planned. It seeems like every year they cut the number of train on the scheduele. It seems by now they should be using more than a single RDC if traffic has grown. Don't know if people will be willing to take a two hour trip from Richland if they could drive down ther in less than an hour.
Roger D.

Not sure what the numbers are on the Cape May to Cape May Courthouse portion of the trip these days, but I can tell you that the Tuckahoe to Richland excursions this past fall were VERY successful...a majority of those trains were filled to capacity and beyond. Standing room only on a few that I rode personally...

I think they'd do a pretty good business running the entire distance between Cape May and Richland...with this in service, they could start up some sort of dinner train which I'd say would be pretty popular. People, railfans or not, love that kind of thing generally. The idea of doing some sort of dining train with that operation has been floating through my head for some time now...

Mike DiMunno
www.SJRail.com: All about South Jersey Railroads!

[lv414]

I remember they tried dinner trains once a couple years ago (3 maybe) down there and lasted only one summer. The night we wnet in August there were only about twenty people on the train and food wasn't worth the money paid. I think it was cooked by a local resturant then brought on the train and reheated. We went as far as the old Zoo station sat for a while and came back. Wish they would run back to the ZOO like the early years again. Everytime we rode those trains always had a lot of riders going there. Roger

[K3CXG]

Just checked their website; it's already April and there's no mention of passenger service for the upcoming season. We normally spend a week every summer at the shore, and I'd love to take the kids to ride the train (thinly-veiled excuse for Dad to ride!). Anyone know what's going on down there?

[glennk419]

I spoke to a CMSL employee a few weeks ago at Tuckahoe. He said to expect Richland service to resume sometime in mid-May, probably on May 13. He also said that Sunday service was a distinct possibilty as long as they received agreement from NJ Dot and CSAO.

[PRSL1972]

It is a shame how cmsl has abondended the residents of cold spring village to cape may to run service from richland to tuckahoe. what does this accomplish?

[glennk419]

All indications were that CMSL fully intended to run the Santa specials into Cape May this past season, with service on Sundays so as to not stretch the equipment and crews too thin. Apparently the ongoing problems with Canal moveable bridge prevented safe operation of this service. Hopefully they can get the problems with the bridge rectified before the 2007 summer season and we'll see trains on the southern portion of the line once again. The other primary reason for moving the operational HQ to Tuckahoe was the vicious and costly vandalism that was going on at Rio Grande.

I have to believe that eventual restoration of the entire line remains an active component of CMSL's long range plans.

[Douglas John Bowen]

NJ-ARP can categorically state, without reservation or nuance, that Cape May Seashore Lines does not plan to "abandon" its Cape May City-based operations.

Lack of ability, whether due to internal or external (political?) factors, does not equate to lack of will or commitment, either for CMSL or (we modestly submit) for NJ-ARP.

[Sir Ray]

A vague question to ask, but what is the medium-range plan for the CMSL? Would they ever get into a commuter operation w/ NJT support?
Or just various fan trips.
And this:

The state invested nearly $1.3 million for repair of five miles of track from Tuckahoe to Woodbine in May 2005, which allows freight service to Woodbine.

I know this forum had pictures of restored track and all kinds of discussion - is anybody getting freight service regularly?

[JJMDiMunno]

Forum members,
This has to be the 3rd or 4th time I've had to do this...and I don't like having to do it. The name-calling and "e-slamming" (as Douglas put it) has gotten out of control once again here. Seriously...I don't look at this forum for 2 days and we end up with a mess of comments and allegations that don't belong here.

This forum is for RAILROAD discussion guys...particularly historical railroad discussion, of a railroad that was called the "Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines". Effective now, I will no longer tolerate speculation on the Cape May Seashore Lines operations...or the politics that lie beneath them. This thread has turned into a cesspool of political argument (as do so many others related to the CMSL), and is no longer proving any point, nor providing any worthwhile information for others reading this forum who are interested in current happenings in the world of TRAINS, not POLITICS. Nor is it proving any point or providing any worthwhile discussion for those who are interested in the history of South Jersey's railroad, the PRSL.

Effective now, I will tolerate only NEWS RELATED INFORMATION concerning the CMSL, which does relate to the topic at hand here of the PRSL because it's concerning railroad lines that were once operated by the Seashore Lines. It would be concerning an re-birth of these tracks, which SHOULD be (at least) of interest to anyone who is concerned with the history of the PRSL. No further debate will be necessary, or tolerated...wheather the CMSL is right or wrong in what they're doing is of no concern to us here on this forum. Likewise, what your local politician is doing is of no concern to us here on the PRSL forum...you need to take that up with your local government and not the members of this website. If someone has some BREAKING NEWS, such as something that they SAW or can publically confirm, this is still welcome here. For instance, if someone can come up with some photos showing some newly laid tracks or repaired railroad along the old PRSL, then this is welcome here...but we really don't need to be discussing who is politically responsible, or wheather it was right or wrong of the political entity to provide money to a company to perform this action...

I've deleted a number of posts to this thread beginning on January 24th...ALL of them following that have been deleted, no matter who it was that posted it. They are all irrleevant to the topic at hand here...and I have no way of cleaning up the mess that's been created here other than to remove all posts related to the topic. I am truly sorry for that, for those who could have gleaned some real information out of all that mess...

Sentences like the following are immature and unwelcome...and certainly unnecessary.

"...that we Cape May County residents look upon people such as yourself as carpet baggers."

"What planet are you from?"

"Then again, with the number of foamers here, it's likely a locomotive would get more attention than an attractive female."

"I'm sorry that the vandals caused damage to the pristine equipment. I'm also sorry that they didn't go farther."

Now, if we could all get back to discussion of the PRSL and it's history, and TRUE NEWS OF OPERATIONS ON THE EX-PRSL (not political comments), that'd be great. Since some of us here act like 5 year old children, this thread is now locked and will remain so permenantly.

And one final comment...anyone who has something negative to say about historical equipment does not belong on the PRSL forum...if you're coming here to start a fight, you're not welcome...please take your arguments elsewhere.

Thank you all for your time.

Mike DiMunno
PRSL forum moderator.