Atlantic City Line

The Atlantic City Line is a commuter rail line operated by New Jersey Transit that runs for 67.9 miles between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Atlantic City, New Jersey with 7 intermediate stops. The current iteration of the line began service in 1989 between Atlantic City and Lindenwold, with service extended into Philadelphia in 1996. Originally Amtrak operated the Atlantic City Express on the line, which ran from Atlantic City to points north and south of Philadelphia along the Northeast Corridor. This service was discontinued in 1995 due to poor ridership, leaving New Jersey Transit commuter rail as the only remaining passenger operations on the route. The Atlantic City Line is unique when compared to other New Jersey Transit operations, as it is the only commuter rail line that doesn't serve the New York City metropolitan area, is the only former Reading Company Line operated by New Jersey Transit, and is the only remaining ex-Reading diesel line still in passenger service.

Route description
The Atlantic City Line originates from 30th Street Station on the west side of Philadelphia and follows the electrified Northeast Corridor for its first several miles, passing through Zoo Interlocking and the North Philadelphia station, although not making any stops. At Frankford Junction, the Northeast Corridor turns to the north, while the Atlantic City Line branches off to the southeast. This is also where electrification on the line ends.

After leaving the Northeast Corridor, the Atlantic City Line crosses over the Delaware River on the historic Delair Bridge. This moveable bridge was originally constructed as a swing bridge, but was later converted to a vertical-lift bridge in order to widen the navigation channel under the bridge. The swing span remains today but is no longer functional; the lift span does continue to operate for marine traffic and delays to Atlantic City Line trains have been common during bridge openings due to the fact that the bridge frequently gets stuck in the raised position and needs to be manually lowered. Immediately after crossing the bridge trains make their first intermediate station stop at the Pennsauken Transit Center. This is the newest station on the line, and opened as an infill station to provide a transfer between the Atlantic City Line and the RiverLINE Light Rail service between Camden and Trenton, as the two pass directly over each other here. The next station after Pennsauken is Cherry Hill, which is another infill station although this one is older, having been built in 1994. It was intended to be a suburban park-and-ride for New Jersey residents commuting across the river into Philadelphia, however after the station opened expansive commercial development occurred in the surrounding area and the space that was originally station parking is now largely occupied by shopping malls and other retail space. This has resulted in lower ridership at the station, and proposals for the station to be closed have been made on more than one occasion during budget crises.

A short distance south of Cherry Hill, the Atlantic City Line joins up with the PATCO Speedline rapid transit service running between Center City Philadelphia and Lindenwold. The two lines officially join at Haddonfield and run together down to Lindenwold, but only PATCO trains make the intermediate station stops except for Lindenwold itself, which is the terminus of the rapid transit line and the only transfer point between the rapid transit and the Atlantic City Line. With the demise of the suburban park-and-ride at Cherry Hill, Lindenwold has taken over this function with more than one expansive parking facility and multiple local bus connections feeding into both the Atlantic City Line and the PATCO. South of Lindenwold, the Atlantic City Line passes through the towns of Berlin and Waterford, and makes a station stop between the two towns at Atco station. This is the third and oldest infill station on the line, and was built upon by Amtrak in 1989 to combine operations of the former Reading Company stations that were located in the downtown areas of Berlin and Waterford respectively. The former Reading Depot in Berlin remains standing today as a local history museum, while the depot in Waterford has been demolished. Historically, additional stations were located in Waterford Works and Ancora to the south, but these stops were closed in the Reading days due to low ridership and didn't survive into the New Jersey Transit era.

South of Ancora, the Atlantic City Line passes through Winslow Junction, which is a large three-way interlocking between the ex-Reading Main Lines to Camden (now abandoned), Philadelphia (today's Atlantic City Line), and the Seashore Lines to Cape May, Wildwood, and other destinations. The Seashore Lines have been abandoned for passenger service except for a tourist train in Cape May, but limited freight service does continue, operated by the Southern Railroad Company of New Jersey. An interlocking tower also remains at Winslow, though it has been closed with all movements controlled remotely. Between Winslow and Absecon, the Atlantic City Line traverses a long straightaway and also encounters the highest speed limits on the entire independent portion of the line (excluding the Northeast Corridor between Philadelphia and Frankford). The line passes through the towns of Hammonton, Mullica, Egg Harbor City, Cologne, and Pomona, with station stops in Hammonton and Egg Harbor City. Absecon is the second-to-last stop on the line and is the southernmost stop on the New Jersey mainland. South of Absecon, the Atlantic City Line passes through a large area of wetlands and then crosses over the Intracoastal Waterway onto the Atlantic City barrier island and into the Atlantic City Rail Terminal, where trains terminate. It should be noted that immediately before entering the terminal, the line crosses the Brigantine Connector at a grade. This is unusual because the Brigantine Connector is technically considered a limited access highway, as it is a spur route connecting the Atlantic City Expressway with the eastern terminus of US Route 30 and the approaches to the bridge onto Brigantine Island. The grade crossing at this location is one of the only examples of a railroad crossing a limited access highway at a grade anywhere in the United States (most other examples are in rural locations on freight-only lines).

Operations
As of 2023, the Atlantic City Line operates 12 daily round trips between Philadelphia and Atlantic City, providing six trains in each direction. The Atlantic City Line is the only New Jersey Transit line that doesn't have consistent clockface service throughout the day, with departures scattered at uneven and inconsistent intervals.

Because the vast majority of the line is not electrified, all trains operating on the Atlantic City Line are diesel powered, normally running with single-level Comet coaches and a GP40PH-2B locomotive. The fact that trains are diesel powered limits them to 30th Street Station as a western terminus, as diesel trains can't serve Suburban or Jefferson stations, despite those two stations being more centrally located, due to the fact that they are underground. New Jersey Transit trains originate from the lower level at 30th Street station, which is shared with Amtrak. Although the station has the appearance of being underground, it is actually just covered by the upper level platforms and tracks serving SEPTA Regional Rail located above, and is open to the outside air on both ends. This means that Atlantic City Line trains usually operate with the locomotive facing towards Philadelphia, since concerns about smog or exhaust building up in the station are minimal. However, the Atlantic City Rail Terminal has the station building directly behind the end of the tracks, so trains generally operate with the locomotive facing away from the terminal building there. There is no real rhyme or reason as to which tracks train depart from, as there are universal crossover switches and interlockings between all 9 tracks on both the north and the south sides of the station. It should be noted though that because the station is rather quite busy with Amtrak traffic, Atlantic City Line trains never layover in the station–all trains that arrive into Philadelphia quickly change ends and return to Atlantic City, unless the equipment needs to be swapped out.

The Atlantic City Line is colored dark blue on timetables and maps, and its symbol is a lighthouse in reference to the Absecon Lighthouse located in Atlantic City which is the tallest lighthouse in the state of New Jersey.

Station listing
Milage for the Atlantic City Line is measured from northwest to southeast. All milage values reflect the distance from 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. There are six total fare zones for the Atlantic City Line, but because the line is physically disconnected from the rest of the NJ Transit rail system, the prefix "AC" is used to denote Atlantic City Line zones and distinguish them from the zones in North Jersey which also use the same numbers.