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

 #1597923  by WashingtonPark
 
Bracdude181 wrote: Wed May 18, 2022 6:02 pm Okay, found out that they go to Woodstown around once a month or so, but everything else just gets transloaded at Woodbury now.
Nah. They haven't been to Woodstown this year. A couple of grain cars came in about a month ago and they were handled at Woodbury.
 #1597962  by JohnFromJersey
 
Bracdude181 wrote: Thu May 19, 2022 5:38 pm Well whoever told me that is wrong then.

So basically they are leasing this line and not using it? What’s the point of having this line if all they are gonna do is transload everything in Woodbury?
Tax write-offs and preventing their competitors from getting access to the line, which is pretty long. I'd also imagine giving the state puppy eyes every so often about how they need money to rehab the line so they can service the port gets them some money too.

Obviously, it's not going too well for them if they are in financial distress.
 #1597984  by Ken W2KB
 
Dcell wrote: Fri May 20, 2022 11:10 am The last few posts really paint a bleak picture, of the railroad and Salem County's economy in general. I don't think Phil Murphy's windmill pipe dream at Port Salem is going to pan out.
Not windmills, they are wind turbines. And not a pipe dream whatsoever. The project is moving ahead at a fast pace as stated in this recent PSEG press release:

"PSEG and Ørsted Complete PSEG’s Acquisition of 25% Interest in Ocean Wind
Combined with the New Jersey Wind Port and Port of Paulsboro, the state’s key facilities planned to support the development, manufacturing, supply chain and assembly of offshore wind components, Ocean Wind will help New Jersey achieve critical steps in generating clean energy for millions of the state’s residential and business customers, as well as strengthening the domestic supply chain, creating thousands of good-paying jobs and supporting the deployment of offshore wind at scale." https://nj.pseg.com/newsroom/newsrelease218
 #1598277  by Ken W2KB
 
Bracdude181 wrote: Tue May 24, 2022 4:13 pm Here it is. It’s actually for the Woodstown to Salem portion, but there’s no active customers on that section…

https://www.salemcountynj.gov/wp-conten ... 20-min.pdf
Book reservations here: https://www.revrail.com/railbiking-ride ... ntral-run/
 #1599498  by Bracdude181
 
Interesting to see “operator issues” being brought up by Salem County. That’s something I’ve heard quite a lot about…

So SMS is going to be running the line from Swedesboro to Salem. This portion currently has one active customer, the Farmers Exchange in Woodstown. There are some potential customers plus whatever can be done at the port.

Will be interesting to see how this plays out considering SRNJ seems unwilling to run past Woodbury for now. I would assume they will bring cars for SMS to Swedesboro from Woodbury?
 #1599585  by JohnFromJersey
 
CR7876 wrote: Fri Jun 10, 2022 8:48 pm As it stands now, SRNJ still leases Woodbury to Swedesboro from Conrail. I don't remember how long that lease was for, but it was to make the entire line one operator. So, yes, SRNJ would have to deliver any traffic to SMS.
I wouldn't be shocked if CR tries to boot them off of the lease and give it to SMS. Does anyone know anything about SMS, and if they are good?
 #1599590  by pdtrains
 
SMS is good. They have been steadily growing their traffic over the years, and have also been running switching operations in Albany NY, Bristol PA, and fairless Hills, PA, as well as their original Pureland location.

Also, fwiw, they are railfan friendly, and have the largest fleet of active Baldwin diesels probably in the world. Most are in their "reading rr" scheme, altho I think one is painted PRR and one B&O. They also have 2 ex-SF U23b's that are still in full SF paint, AFAIK.

I think having the whole Salem-Sweedesboro line operated by them wud be a good thing.
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