The Neshaminy Line is a railway line in the states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. It runs from a junction with the SEPTA Main Line just north of to , just across the
Delaware River
The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock (village), New York, Hancock, New York, the river flows for along the borders of N ...
. It was originally built in 1876 as part of the much longer New York Branch, which continued north to
Bound Brook, New Jersey
Bound Brook is a borough in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States, located along the Raritan River. At the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 10,402,SEPTA. It hosts the West Trenton Line commuter rail service. The freight-only Trenton Subdivision runs parallel between and West Trenton.
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...
Reading Company
The Reading Company ( ) was a Philadelphia-headquartered railroad that provided passenger and commercial rail transport in eastern Pennsylvania and neighboring states that operated from 1924 until its 1976 acquisition by Conrail.
Commonly called ...
, leased the Delaware and Bound Brook Railroad and North Pennsylvania Railroad on May 14, 1879. The Reading electrified the New York Branch between Jenkintown and West Trenton in 1931; electric trains began operating from the Reading Terminal on July 26, 1931.
With the Reading's final bankruptcy and the creation of
Conrail
Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busin ...
in 1976, the line was split. The electrified line between Jenkin and West Trenton was conveyed to SEPTA and designated the Neshaminy Line. Conrail's Trenton Line ran from
Port Reading Junction Port Reading Junction is a major rail junction (MANS) in Manville, New Jersey serving rail freight travelling between the Port of New York and New Jersey in northeastern New Jersey and points to the south and west. It is the site of Manville Yard.
...
to a junction with the Philadelphia Subdivision in Philadelphia proper. This new subdivision included the New York Branch between the northern end at Port Reading Junction and West Trenton, shared operation with SEPTA between West Trenton and , a single parallel track between Woodbourne and Neshaminy Falls, and then three other former Reading lines: the New York Short Line, the Low Grade Branch, and the
Richmond Branch
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States
* Richmond, London, a part of London
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, California, ...
. Diesel service north of West Trenton ended on August 1, 1981.
The Conrail split in 1999 saw the Trenton Line pass to
CSX Transportation
CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...
, which renamed it the Trenton Subdivision. Growing congestion and the need to implement positive train control (PTC) led to SEPTA and CSX undertaking the West Trenton Separation Project in 2015. This project built a new third track between Woodbourne and , fully separating the Neshaminy Line and the Trenton Subdivision. SEPTA activated PTC on the West Trenton Line on October 24, 2016.