Southern Railroad of New Jersey
The Southern Railroad of New Jersey is a small short-line railroad company based in Winslow Township, New Jersey. The railroad operates freight service in two areas in Southern New Jersey. In the Winslow area, trains operate out of Winslow Junction to either Pleasantville or the Winslow Hot Mix asphalt plant in Winslow Township. In Gloucester County, the company operates on the Salem Branch between Swedesboro, New Jersey and Woodbury, New Jersey.
Ownership history
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 and subsequently Conrail and the New Jersey Department of Transportation. SRNJ acquired operating rights to the Winslow-Vineland route, known as the Winslow Branch, from The Shore Fast Line, Inc. in 1991.In the 1991 transaction SRNJ also obtained rights from SFLR to operate freight on 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, and subsequently became the Salem Secondary Track on the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines. 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 route 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, which ended in 2022.