Reporting mark | CMSL |
---|---|
Locale | Cape May County and Atlantic County, New Jersey |
Dates of operation | 1984–present |
Predecessor | Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines |
Track gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
Length | 27 miles (43 km) |
Headquarters | Tuckahoe, New Jersey |
Website | capemayseashorelines.org |
Cape May Seashore Lines (reporting mark CMSL) is a short line railroad in southern New Jersey. It offers two excursion services; a 30-mile round trip between Richland and Tuckahoe, and a 14-mile round trip between Rio Grande, Cold Spring Village, and Cape May City. The track is owned by New Jersey Transit and leased to CMSL. Connections are provided with Conrail's Beesley's Point Secondary, owned jointly by CSX and Norfolk Southern, at the north end in Tuckahoe. Tony Macrie has been president of CMSL since he formed the railroad in 1984. The CMSL website has a statement regarding the suspension of Cape May service due to damage done by theft: "Customer Notice: Rio Grande – Cape May City service is suspended due to the high volume theft of track material; specifically, tie plates and track spikes, along with the destruction of crossties, over a considerable distance of the Cape May Branch. These unconscionable and heinous acts of vandalism have caused extensive damage to the track structure, rendering the rail line impassable by any type of train movement. The Seashore Lines is actively exploring solutions to remediate this situation of ruinous proportions."
CMSL operates both freight trains and excursion trains.
The line to Cape May was built in 1863 by the Tuckahoe and Cape May Railroad, and operated by the Philadelphia and Reading Railway's Atlantic City Railroad and later Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines (PRSL). At one time, the rail line that both excursions travel on was known as "The Steel Speedway To The Shore." Eventually it became part of Conrail, which ended passenger service on the line in 1981, ended freight service on October 10, 1983 and sold the line to New Jersey Transit as their Cape May Branch.