Tom V, your explanation of MOM routing was excellent. The Red Bank route would probably be the easiest to upgrade. The track is intact and I believe it still sees some freight service.
The Matawan route is the least intact and has seen massive residential development along the old ROW. While I think that the ROW might still be intact, that "massive" development is development after development after development of humongus multi-million dollar homes as close as 50 feet from the ROW. Can you hear the screams when somebody points to their back yards and says "railroad"; even though the railroad was there 100 years before the homes. <sigh>
The Monmouth Junction route is largely intact with existing rails to Freehold, although I do not know what condition that track is really in or the last time it saw a train. The worst section is from east of Freehold to Farmingdale. While all of the ROW is there, the roadbed and rails are either missing or buried and overgrown to the point of being invisible. Not terribly difficult to upgrade, but unable to take a work train or even a track car at this time.
I have always liked the Monmouth Junction route, for the same reason just mentioned by Baju (...hmmm,
another participant from Manasquan; we must have, maybe three of us now?...
) and that is that it provides the possibility of much more convenient access west to Trenton from Central Jersey; and if Amtrak would just "get over" the legal issues, direct NJT access to Philadelphia again.
To travel west of Trenton via Amtrak requires either an NJCL trip to Newark, or to NYP if the Amtrak train originates there; or a ride/drive to Metropark, which isn't too bad. A train from here direct to Philadelphia, or even with a change at Monmouth Junction as long as it was convenient, could not help but attract more riders. When Tom V mentioned "Howell/Farmingdale/Route 195" as a possible station, something immediately struck home: I-195. Can you say "park and ride"...?
Although I have not found a definitive article or map from the era, I have reason to believe that the line once ended at Monmouth Junction in a "wye", allowing trains to travel to or from the branch from north or south. Only the connection to the north exists today, but looking at recent aerial maps leads me to believe the opposite side of the wye could easily be constructed.
Another thought to ponder is that the Monmouth Junction route does not cross the Raritan River bridge. In the event of an extensive bridge outage, at least some substitute service would be available to NJCL customers.
Why not refurbush both the Red Bank
and Monmouth Junction routes? Operate trains in opposite directions with the two routes as a big loop? This would open up the Route 1 corridor stations to NJCL stations and vice-versa without ill-timed changes at Rahway. In the event of a Raritan River bridge outage, run trains down to Monmouth Jct, over to Farmingdale, up to Red Bank ending at South Amboy; and back. The Bay Head-Long Branch shuttle could be extended to Red Bank and an alternate Farmindale-Lakehurst shuttle when Lakehurst trains were temporarily routed back up to South Amboy. Seems to me there are plenty of possibilities to serve a lot more customers in Central Jersey in a greater number of ways, and hedge your bets for alternate or backup service as well.
CJPat wrote:It would be interesting to have something like the Sea Girt to Trenton line brought back. Unfortunately, that ship has probably sailed a looong time ago.
I couldn't agree more; that route runs behind my property. I screamed when it was ripped up, but to no avail.
I believe the ROW still exists, or mostly exists; from Farmingdale to the Frequency Engineering property, which was the last freight customer. The ROW from there through the edge of Allaire Park and Spring Meadow Golf Club should not be a problem, although the former bridge over the Parkway was replaced with a bicycle bridge. There are also now water and sewer trunk lines buried down the center of the old ROW. Do not know how compatible that would be rail traffic overhead. There may be some encroachment near the Allenwood General Store, but I believe the route is again good to Rt. 35 in Wall. There has been development along the ROW in Wall, but the ROW exists to North Main Street in Manasquan; it is in fact a bicycle trail. From North Main Street in Manasquan to the NJCL is where the route has been considerably blocked; probably about 10-12 homes and businesses right on or too close to the old ROW. Install a new at-grade crossing on Rt. 71 and cut a swath through the storage warehouses and/or the Lukoil gas station, and you have again reached the NJCL. Has the ship passed? Probably. While the route is unlikely, it is not yet absolutely impossible.