NEWARK, N.J. — The long wait for restoration of service on NJ Transit’s Atlantic City Line now has an end date.
NJ Transit has announced that service on the 68-mile line from Philadelphia to Atlantic City, N.J., will return May 24, 2019, almost five months after the date originally promised in August 2018, when the plan was announced to shut down the line to accommodate installation of positive train control. [See “NJ Transit director says Atlantic City service will return by Jan. 1,” Trains News Wire, Aug. 21, 2018.] Service was suspended Sept. 5, 2018.
Service on the “Princeton Dinky,” the 2-mile shuttle between the Northeast Corridor and the Princeton University campus, will also return on May 24. Both routes have been served by considerably slower bus service since they were shut down. Still without a scheduled return date is through weekday service to New York’s Penn Station on the Raritan Valley Line; since September, a train change has been required for riders on that route.
As 2019 arrived, Atlantic City Line riders had not been informed of a restoration date, then were told service would resume in the second quarter of 2019 [see “NJ Transit says Atlantic City, Princeton lines won’t reopen until spring,” Trains News Wire, Jan. 25, 2019].
The date was announced by NJ Transit Executive Director Kevin Corbett at a Wednesday night meeting with commuters in Cherry Hill, N.J., the second in a series offering passengers a chance to discuss their concerns with NJ Transit officials. The agency had been under pressure from Gov. Phil Murphy to set a date.
“I am pleased to see that the Princeton Dinky, which is so important to thousands of commuters, and the Atlantic City Rail Line, which is a key part of the life blood of the Jersey Shore, will be operating in time for Memorial Day weekend and the kickoff to the summer tourism season,” Murphy said in a statement.
