CharlieL wrote: ↑Fri Feb 11, 2022 8:51 pm
I think it's a little of the chicken or the egg thing. There's not enough traffic to justify redoing it, but if it were still operational, there probably would be. Maybe "if you build it, they will come".
Yeah, current traffic currently uses other routes, but as Bracdude said, Woodmansie-Winslow would reduce the travel distance by about 27-30 miles, which could easily be a couple of hours knocked off travel time. If you also reconnected the rails south of Winslow that go to Vineland, you could reduce that even further.
I'd imagine whenever the Glassboro-Camden line comes around, you could reduce the number of freight trains they interact with by rerouting them over a revival of the original Southern Division.
Rebuilding the line north of Winslow at the very least would be a long-term investment. It would also help with other projects, think of more options for transloading/intermodal facilities and NJT. Think MOM + proper North Jersey-South Jersey commuter rail connections.
I think we could expect to see the line reactivated, just not anytime soon. There's really no other reason why I can see some of the upgrades being done to the Amboy Secondary + FIT/SOUS unless they were thinking far far into the future, which would be a first