Vineland Secondary

Vineland Secondary
Overview
Status	Active
Owner	CSAO
Locale	South Jersey
Termini	Pavonia Yard, Camden Millville
Connecting lines	Salem Secondary Penns Grove Secondary Winchester and Western Railroad
Service
Type	Freight rail
System	CSAO
Operator(s)	CSX, NS, CSAO
History
Commenced	1853
Technical
Line length	37 miles (60 km)
Number of tracks	1
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Route map Show interactive map Legend River Line to Trenton Pavonia Yard River Line to Walter Rand TC PATCO to Broadway Lanning Square PATCO to Lindenwold South Camden Camden Beltline/Beesley Point Secondary [1] Newton Creek Grenloch Ind. [1] Gloucester City Siding Little Timber Creek Big Timber Creek Westville (future Crown Point Road) Branch to Wheelabrator Gloucester incinerator Red Bank Avenue Broad Street Lake/Stewart Lake Woodbury Penns Grove Secondary Salem Secondary Woodbury Heights Woodbury Heights Vehicle Maintenance Facility (proposed) Mantua Boulevard Sewell Mantua/Pitman Pitman North Glassboro Glassboro station (pre-1971) Bridgeton branch Glassboro Vehicle Maintenance Facility (proposed) Glassboro–Camden Line to Glassboro (2028) Newfield [2] Former line to Atlantic City [1] Out-of-service continuation to Winslow [1] Winchester and Western Railroad Vineyard Ind. to Bridgeton [1] ↓Conrail Milville Industrial [1] F&S Fresh Food, Vineland [3] Milville Rail Yard Winchester and Western Railroad Manumuskin Industrial [1] This diagram: view talk edit Show route diagram map

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 Port of Camden. At Woodbury it junctions with the Salem Branch and Penns Grove Secondary, and continues to Millville, passing through namesake Vineland. ^{[4] [5]} At its southern end it connects to the OmniTRAX-owned Winchester and Western Railroad. The line is used exclusively for freight, however, the northern portion is planned to be used for the proposed Glassboro–Camden light rail line. ^[6]

History

The West Jersey Railroad (WJ) was granted its charter by the state on February 5, 1853 to build a line from Camden to Cape May. The line was built with the backing of the Camden and Amboy Railroad from Camden to Glassboro, with the first 8.2 miles of the line using the abandoned right-of-way (ROW) built by the Camden and Woodbury Railroad to Woodbury.

In 1896 the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) consolidated all its railroads and several smaller properties in southern New Jersey into the West Jersey and Seashore Railroad (WJ&S). In 1932, the PRR and Reading Company (RDG) merged their southern New Jersey railroad lines into one company, the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines (PRSL). The line was electrified between 1906–1949. ^[7] In 1968 New York Central Railroad was merged into the PRR becoming Penn Central, which was bankrupt by 1970. The last passenger train ran on February 5, 1971. ^[7]

The line came under the auspices of Conrail. Following the purchase and division of Conrail it was designated part of the South Jersey/Philadelphia Shared Assets Area, becoming known as the Vineland Secondary. In 1995, Conrail refurbished the Vineland Secondary and the connected Millville Running Track.

The original station house Glassboro station was restored in the 2010s.

In 2012, New Jersey Department of Transportation determined the ROW should be preserved and could expect expanded future use. ^[8] In 2019, level crossings through Vineland were upgraded or eliminated. ^[9]

See also

• List of New Jersey railroads
• List of New Jersey railroad junctions
• Class III railroad

References

1. "NEW JERSEY'S RAILROAD NETWORK" (PDF). Government of New Jersey . Retrieved 15 August 2024.
2. "1 Rena St · 1 Rena St, Newfield, NJ 08344". Google Maps.
3. "F&S Fresh Foods · 500 W Elmer Rd, Vineland, NJ 08360". Google Maps.
4. "South Jersey Regional Rail Study" (PDF). South Jersey Transportation Planning Organization. 2002. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 19, 2022. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
5. "Whatever happened to Millville train service by 2019?". Press of Atlantic City. 15 April 2016. Retrieved April 21, 2016.
6. "Rail and Road To Recovery" (PDF). Clean Water Action. Retrieved March 25, 2021.
7. Gambardello, Joseph A. (February 12, 1999). "The End Of The Line For A 1906 Landmark Conrail Has Decided To Tear Down The Five-story Westville Building. It Was Erected As A Power Plant". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on January 1, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2013. Electric service on the line ended in 1949 when the state banned the use of wooden passenger cars, Schopp said. The last passenger train – a diesel-powered Budd – ran from Millville to Camden in 1971.
8. "Non-Passenger Rail Right-of-Way Assessment for Preservation" (PDF). Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission. 2013. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
9. Smith, Joseph P. (July 16, 2019). "Conrail closing Vineland rail crossing". The Daily Journal (New Jersey) . Retrieved April 3, 2021.