Southern Railroad of New Jersey

Southern Railroad of New Jersey

SRNJ locomotive 1801 at Winslow Junction, NJ. In the center is a trestle for the Beesley Point Secondary line of Conrail Shared Assets Operations
Reporting mark	SRNJ
Locale	South Jersey
Dates of operation	1991–
Predecessor	Conrail
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Length	71 miles (114 km)
Headquarters	Winslow, New Jersey

The Southern Railroad of New Jersey (reporting mark SRNJ) is a small short-line railroad company based in Winslow, New Jersey. The railroad operates freight trains in two areas in Southern New Jersey. In the Winslow area, trains operate between Winslow Junction and Pleasantville, and between Winslow Junction and the Winslow Hot Mix asphalt plant in Winslow Township. In Salem County, the company operates on the Salem Branch between Salem and Swedesboro.

JP Rail, Inc., a Pennsylvania corporation doing business as SRNJ, operates tracks in the Winslow area that originally belonged to the New Jersey Southern Railroad, and which were later acquired by the Central Railroad of New Jersey (in the 1880s) and subsequently Conrail (1976) and the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT; 1984). SRNJ acquired operating rights to the 15.5 miles (24.9 km) Winslow-Vineland route, known as the Winslow Branch, from The Shore Fast Line, Inc. (SFLR) in 1991. (SFLR, a freight carrier, is not to be confused with the Shore Fast Line, an interurban passenger railroad that was operated by the Atlantic City and Shore Railroad from 1907 to 1948.)

In the 1991 transaction SRNJ also obtained rights from SFLR to operate freight trains on 30.7 miles (49.4 km) of the Atlantic City Line owned by New Jersey Transit, from Winslow to Pleasantville; and took ownership of several short sections of connecting branch lines and junctions.

The Salem-Swedesboro route, known locally as the "Salem County Branch Line," was originally part of the Salem Railroad (later the West Jersey and Seashore Railroad), and subsequently became the Salem Secondary Track on the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines (PRSL). PRSL was acquired by Conrail in 1976, and the Salem branch was sold by Conrail to the Salem County government in 1985. SRNJ contracted with the county in 1995 to take over operations on the 18.6 miles (29.9 km) route (plus a one-mile spur in Salem) from the West Jersey Railroad Co. which was awarded the initial contract by the county in 1988. Between 2009 and 2012 U.S. Rail Corporation operated the Salem line. In 2012 the county reassigned the contract to SRNJ.