The West Trenton Line is a proposed

NJ Transit New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit, and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey, along with portions of New York State and Pennsylvania. It operates bu ...

(NJT) commuter rail service that would be operated mostly on the

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. ...

Trenton Subdivision, connecting

West Trenton Station West Trenton station is the northern terminus of the SEPTA West Trenton Line. It is located at Grand & Railroad Avenues in the West Trenton section of Ewing Township, New Jersey, United States, however this address only applies to the southbou ...

Ewing Township, New Jersey Ewing Township is a township in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The township falls within the New York metropolitan area as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau. It borders the Philadelphia metropolitan area and is part of the F ...

with

Newark Penn Station Pennsylvania Station (also known as Newark Penn Station) is an intermodal passenger station in Newark, New Jersey. One of the New York metropolitan area's major transportation hubs, Newark Penn Station is served by multiple rail and bus carriers, ...

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.Raritan Valley Line The Raritan Valley Line is a commuter rail service operated by New Jersey Transit (NJT) which serves passengers in municipalities in Union, Somerset, and Hunterdon counties in the Raritan Valley region in central New Jersey, United States. Th ...

at Bridgewater and the

SEPTA The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) is a regional public transportation authority that operates bus, rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, and electric trolleybus services for nearly 4 million people in five coun ...

West Trenton Line The West Trenton Line is a SEPTA Regional Rail service connecting Center City Philadelphia to the West Trenton section of Ewing Township, New Jersey. With around 12,000 riders every weekday, it is the third busiest line in the SEPTA Regional R ...

at West Trenton. , NJT's estimate of the cost of creating a passenger line to West Trenton was $219 million. The project is still on the books, but no funding for the proposal has been secured to this date.

Former service

Historically, this was a property of the

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 ...

. This line carried the Reading's '' Crusader'' and ''Wall Street'' trains, which originally operated as through service from

Reading Terminal The Reading Terminal ( ) is a complex of buildings that includes the former Reading Company main station located in the Market East section of Center City in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It comprises the Reading Terminal Headho ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Communipaw Terminal The Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal, also known as Communipaw Terminal and Jersey City Terminal, was the Central Railroad of New Jersey's waterfront passenger terminal in Jersey City, New Jersey. The terminal was built in 1889, replacing ...

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

long distance trains such as the ''

Royal Blue Royal blue is a deep and vivid shade of blue. It is said to have been created by clothiers in Rode, Somerset, a consortium of whom won a competition to make a dress for Queen Charlotte, consort of King George III. Brightness The ''Oxford E ...

'' to

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, ''

Capitol Limited (B&O train) The ''Capitol Limited'' was an American passenger train run by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, originally between New York City and Grand Central Station in Chicago, Illinois, via Union Station, Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Pittsburgh. Fo ...

'' to Chicago and the ''

National Limited The ''National Limited'' was the premier train of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) on its route between Jersey City, New Jersey and St. Louis, Missouri, with major station stops in Washington, D.C., and Cincinnati, Ohio. (Buses took passen ...

'' to St. Louis traveled on this line as well. The Philadelphia-Newark service, like many former Reading and CNJ lines, was eventually subsidized by

and

New Jersey Transit New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit, and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey, along with portions of New York State and Pennsylvania. It operates bu ...

. In the early 1980s, SEPTA began cutting back its diesel-powered lines in preparation for the opening of the electric-only

Center City Commuter Connection 250px, The ASCE plaque in Jefferson Station 250px, City plaque in Jefferson Station The Center City Commuter Connection, (CCCC) commonly referred to as "the commuter tunnel", is a passenger railroad tunnel in Center City, Philadelphia, Penns ...

. Through service from Philadelphia to Newark ended on July 30, 1981; SEPTA continued service on its electric

, with a connection to a once-daily, weekday-only West Trenton-Newark shuttle using Budd Rail Diesel Cars. This service ended on December 3, 1982, when the NJ Transit shuttle made its final trip due to poor ridership and a budget deficit. The trip served 290 daily passengers and cost $319,000 annually to run. The three stops discontinued were Belle Mead, Hopewell and West Trenton. New Jersey Transit retained operating rights over the line.

Proposal

Presently, the route is owned by CSX Transportation; all station platforms have been removed except at West Trenton, which is currently used by the

, a SEPTA commuter service to Philadelphia which also operates on the Trenton Subdivision. Additional track would be added to the existing right-of-way as part of the plan. A second track would be installed between the Sunnymeade Road grade crossing and

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. ...

, where the West Trenton Line diverges from the Lehigh Line, for a distance of 2.8 miles. A second track would also be installed between Pennington – Hopewell Road Bridge and the Belle Mead station for a distance of 10 miles. Track would also be restored on the Reading Connector, an abandoned railroad right-of-way that ran between Port Reading Junction and the Raritan Valley Line. According to a 2007 plan, there would be 14 daily trains, five peak trains in each direction, one morning outbound train to West Trenton, one evening inbound train to Newark, and one midday train in each direction. Travel time would be 80 minutes from West Trenton to Newark. There would be an estimated 2,660 daily trips on the restored line. 13.1 acres of land would be acquired for a West Trenton rail yard. Communities along the rail line, such as Hopewell Township, have supported the planned restoration of the line.

Proposed new stations

* West Trenton (Connection with SEPTA West Trenton Line service) *

I-295 Interstate 295 is the designation for several Interstate Highways in the United States: *Interstate 295 (Delaware–Pennsylvania), a bypass of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania * Interstate 295 (Florida), a beltway around central Jacksonville * Interstate ...

/ Hopewell (Township) * Hopewell (Borough) * Belle Mead *Hillsborough Trains would continue along the Raritan Valley Line from Bridgewater to Newark Penn Station.

References

External links

* {{New Jersey Transit Rail NJ Transit Rail Operations Proposed railway lines in New Jersey