The Salem Branch is a rail freight line in the southwestern part of

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

in the United States between the

Port of Salem The Port of Salem is a shallow-draft (16 feet) port in the vicinity of the Salem River Cut-Off on the Salem River in Salem, New Jersey in the United States about east of the Delaware River and about from the Atlantic Ocean. It was re-designated ...

and Woodbury Junction where it and the Penns Grove Secondary converge with the

Vineland Secondary The Vineland Secondary is a rail line owned, operated and maintained by Conrail Shared Assets Operations for the use of CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway. It begins at Pavonia Yard in Camden and heads south, with a spur serving the ...

, approximately south of

Pavonia Yard Pavonia Yard is a Conrail Shared Assets Operations (CSAO) rail yard in Camden, New Jersey. The yard begins just north of where the Vineland Secondary tracks cross the Cooper River near the intersection of State and Federal Streets, and continu ...

in Camden. Ownership of the line changes at Swedesboro. The northern section is part 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 busine ...

Delaware Valley The Philadelphia metropolitan area, also known as Greater Philadelphia and informally called the Delaware Valley, the Philadelphia tri-state area, and locally and colloquially Philly–Jersey–Delaware, is a major metropolitan area in the Nor ...

South Jersey/Philadelphia Shared Assets Operations and known as the Salem Running Track; it is leased to the

Southern Railroad of New Jersey The Southern Railroad of New Jersey is a small short-line railroad company based in Winslow Township, New Jersey. The railroad operates freight service in two areas in Southern New Jersey. In the Winslow area, trains operate out of Winslow Junc ...

(

reporting mark A reporting mark is a code used to identify owners or lessees of rolling stock and other equipment used on certain rail transport networks. The code typically reflects the name or identifying number of the owner, lessee, or operator of the equip ...

SRNJ). The southern portion is owned by

Salem County Salem County is the westernmost county in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Its western boundary is formed by the Delaware River, and it has the eastern terminus of the Delaware Memorial Bridge, which connects the county with New Castle, Delaware. ...

and operated under contract by

SMS Rail Lines SMS Rail Lines is a shortline railroad based at Pureland Industrial Park in Bridgeport, New Jersey. The company handles all freight car delivery to businesses located within the industrial park. It also operates lines in Morrisville, Pennsylvani ...

(

SLRS).

Route

The Salem Branch is located within

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...

and Salem counties. The line begins in Woodbury at a junction with the Penns Grove and

Vineland ''Vineland'' is a 1990 novel by Thomas Pynchon, a postmodern fiction set in California, United States in 1984, the year of Ronald Reagan's reelection.Knabb 2002 Through flashbacks by its characters, who have lived during the '60s in their youth ...

secondaries. It passes through West Deptford, Clarksboro/

East Greenwich East Greenwich is a town and the county seat of Kent County, Rhode Island. The population was 14,312 at the 2020 census. East Greenwich is the wealthiest municipality within the state of Rhode Island. It is part of the Providence metropolitan s ...

Woolwich Woolwich () is a town in South London, southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was mainta ...

, Swedesboro, Pilesgrove,

Woodstown Woodstown (, IPA: �bˠalʲəˈnˠaˈkɛl̪ʲə is home to a historic settlement measuring 1.5 km by 0.5 km, located on the southern bank of the River Suir, about 5.5 km west of Waterford City in the southeast of Ireland. This sit ...

, and Mannington. After crossing

Fenwick Creek Fenwick Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of the Salem River in southwestern New Jersey in the United States.Gertler, Edward. ''Garden Sta ...

Salem Salem may refer to: Places Canada * Salem, Ontario, various places Germany * Salem, Baden-Württemberg, a municipality in the Bodensee district ** Salem Abbey (Reichskloster Salem), a monastery * Salem, Schleswig-Holstein Israel * Salem (B ...

, a spur continues to the

. The line also bridges Oldman's Creek and Raccoon Creek.

History

The Salem Branch was built at different times by different companies affiliated with the

West Jersey Railroad The West Jersey and Seashore Railroad (WJ&S) was a railway company in the U.S. state of New Jersey with a connection to Philadelphia. It was formed through the merger of several smaller roads in May 1896. At the end of 1925 it operated of road ...

. The oldest section was built by the Salem Railroad, which was incorporated on March 14, 1856. Construction was completed in 1863, stretching from

Elmer Elmer is a name of Germanic British origin. The given name originated as a surname, a medieval variant of the given name Aylmer, derived from Old English ''æþel'' (noble) and ''mær'' (famous). It was adopted as a given name in the United State ...

, and leased to the West Jersey Railroad on January 1, 1868. The Swedesboro Railroad was incorporated in 1866 and built a line from Woodbury to Swedesboro, a distance of . This line opened in October 1869. In 1883, the

Woodstown and Swedesboro Railroad The Woodstown and Swedesboro Railroad was a railway company in the United States. It was incorporated in 1871 to build a line between Woodstown, New Jersey, and Swedesboro, New Jersey. Work eventually went forward in 1882 with the backing of Wes ...

built a line from the end of the Swedesboro Railroad to Riddleton Junction on the Salem Railroad, east of Salem. Through the Salem Branch Railroad (1886–1887), the West Jersey constructed an additional of main line track in the vicinity of Salem. On May 4, 1896, the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad ( reporting mark PRR), legal name as 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. At its ...

(PRR) consolidated its southern New Jersey operations under the West Jersey & Seashore Railroad (WJ&S). In 1931, New Jersey's public utility regulators ordered consolidation of PRR and

Reading Railroad The Reading Company ( ) was a Philadelphia-headquartered railroad that provided passenger and freight transport in eastern Pennsylvania and neighboring states from 1924 until its acquisition by Conrail in 1976. Commonly called the Reading Railr ...

(RDG) South Jersey operations. The PRR bought two-thirds of RDG's stock, and the consolidation,

Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines The Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines was a railroad that operated in South Jersey in the 20th century. It was created in 1933 as a joint consolidation venture between two competing railroads in the region: the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Rea ...

(PRSL), became effective June 25, 1933. Passenger service on the Salem Branch ended December 30, 1950. PRSL was acquired by Conrail in 1976, including what had been known as Salem Secondary Track. Following the division of Conrail in 1999, it was designated part of

Conrail Shared Assets Operations Conrail Shared Assets Operations (CSAO) is the commonly used name for modern-day Conrail (reporting mark CRCX), an American railroad company. It operates three networks, the North Jersey, South Jersey/Philadelphia, and Detroit Shared Assets Are ...

. The southern of the line and the Glass House Spur to the

was sold by Conrail to

in 1985,Salem County Planning Board, Salem, NJ (June 2012)
"Salem County Traffic and Transportation Plan Element."
p. 21. which in 1988 leased the line to

Pioneer Railcorp Pioneer Lines (formerly Pioneer Railcorp) was a holding company for a number of American short-line railroads. Other subsidiaries offered locomotive and freight car leasing to its own railroads and to third parties, and also freight car cleaning ...

subsidiary West Jersey Rail Company in 1988 to operate.ICC (1995-10-10). "JP Rail, Inc., d/b/a Southern Railroad Company of New Jersey--Notice of Exemption--Operation of Salem Branch Rail Line in Salem County, New Jersey." Finance Docket No. 32700. . In 1995 operations of the Salem County Branch Line were assumed by SRNJ. In 2009 U.S. Rail Corporation took over operations. In 2012 the county reassigned the contract to SRNJ.Salem County, New Jersey (2012-02-01)
"Re-Assignment of Contract for Operating the Salem County Branch Line for the County of Salem."
/ref> In Woodbury, SRNJ maintains a yard and connection with Conrail along with a connection to the Swede Industrial Track. They also maintain a yard in Swedesboro to SMS Rail Lines and the Salem Running Track. In 2018, SRNJ leased the section of the Salem Secondary between Swedesboro and Woodbury from Conrail, with an interchange with Conrail established in Woodbury. Effective June of 2022, SMS Rail Lines has taken over the lease of the line south of Swedesboro.

Rehabilitation and upgrades

Line condition has been rehabilitated due to funding from various county, state, regional, and federal funding appropriations since the county takeover. Much of its infrastructure is antiquated and allows for maximum speeds of . A 2010

New Jersey Department of Transportation The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) is the agency responsible for transportation issues and policy in New Jersey, including maintaining and operating the state's highway and public road system, planning and developing transport ...

(NJDOT) report anticipated increased port and freight activity in

South Jersey South Jersey, also known as Southern New Jersey, comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is located between Pennsylvania and the lower Delaware River to its west, the Atlantic Ocean to its east, Delaware to its south, ...

. In 2011, the

South Jersey Port Corporation South Jersey Port Corporation (SJPC) is an independent public port authority which operates the ports along the eastern banks of Delaware River in the Delaware Valley region of southern New Jersey in the United States. Based in Camden, SJPC was ...

, Conrail, and Salem County received $18.5 million in federal money to partially fund rail infrastructure improvements for the Salem County Branch Line and a new link from the Penns Grove Secondary to Port of Paulsboro, and retrofitting of the

Delair Bridge The Delair Bridge is a railroad bridge with a vertical-lift section that crosses the Delaware River between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Pennsauken Township, New Jersey, just south of the Betsy Ross Bridge. The two-track bridge is part of Co ...

, the most downstream rail crossing of the Delaware River and crucial link between the national rail network and ports at

, Paulsboro and Camden. With the federal appropriation and local matching funds, $1.55 million will be used for upgrading trackage from Swedesboro to

, expected to be completed by 2015, and $3.5 million to replace the trestle at Oldmans Creek, to be finished by 2014. Train speeds will be improved to . Prior to 2013, NJDOT had deemed various project work along the Salem Branch eligible for future state funding. In 2012, the

(SJPC), Conrail, and Salem County sought another $21 million in federal or NJ state grants in order to complete all needed upgrades for the Salem County Branch Line. NJDOT's 2013 Rail Freight Assistance Program approved 90 percent funding for $2,250,000 for rehabilitation of the Salem Shortline Running Track through Mannington Township, Pilesgrove Township, and

. In November 2017, a project to improve rail access at the end of the line in the

was begun. Upgrades to the Port continues as of 2022.

Notes

References

* * *

External links

CSAO South Jersey
* {{cite web , last = Evans , first = John , title = Salem County Railroad , work = Railroad Series , publisher = Salem County Watchdog , url = http://www.salemcountywatchdog.com/page.asp?ID=3816 Transportation in Salem County, New Jersey Transportation in Gloucester County, New Jersey Rail infrastructure in New Jersey Conrail lines Delaware River Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines lines South Jersey Port Corporation