Wayne Piersanti, president of the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Cape May, attests to the railroad’s impact on the tourist industry. You have to intercept people before they get into town,” Macrie said. “We need to work closer with the city of Cape May. Macrie believes Cape May’s rail line will cushion the city’s traffic malaise. Now, the influx of 21st century tourism has strained the city’s limit on parking spots and caused a burden on city fathers to find a solution. A town with a 19th century street plan only had to deal with horses, buggies and pedestrians a century ago. Its economical and an efficient way of moving people in and out of the city.”Ĭape May’s traffic woes are the stuff of legend. “We hope the city would be more cooperative for using train. We believe that’s a good solution for alleviating traffic and congestion problems down there,” Macrie said. We carried a large number of people last year. Macrie hopes the train service depended upon by many past generations will remedy a modern problem: increased traffic in Cape May. Operating in the Cape May Seashore Lines are eight Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines Budd cars, circa 1950 two P-70s, circa 19 and a West Jersey and Seashore GP9 #700, circa 1955.įor just $8 for adults and $5 for children, passengers can board the train at the 4-H Fairgrounds and travel to Cape May round-trip. “It’s like we’re re-inventing the wheel,” Macrie said of the current train service. As president of Cape May Seashore Lines, he reintroduced passenger train service to Cape May County, a marriage of conveyance and tourism.īesides the 4-H Fairgrounds and Cape May, the rail line has train stops in Cape May Court House, the county seat and commercial hub, and Cold Spring Village, a historical recreation of a 19th century hamlet. Macrie rose through the railroad hierarchy, working as a track supervisor and a qualified engineer. This time, the trains are part of a local short line railroad, Cape May Seashore Lines.įounded in 1984, Cape May Seashore Lines, owned by New Jersey Transit, is licensed to operate passenger rail service between Tuckahoe and Cape May, a 27-mile distance.Ĭurrently, the railroad provides service from the 4-H Fairground north of Cape May Court House to Cape May, a distance of 13 miles, after the restoration of the Cape May Canal Bridge reopened passenger rail service to Cape May on June 12, 1999.Ĭape May Seashore Lines CEO and president, Tony Macrie, began his railroad career as a track laborer for a Pennsylvania railroad. Then, for almost two decades, train tracks sat vacant and unused while the shore town tourist industry flourished just miles from the very tracks which created them in the first place.īut now the sound of train whistles once again echo off Cape Island, as refurbished trains again bring tourists to Cape May. The rails carried freight to Tuckahoe until 1983. And this progress was the death knell for passenger train service to Cape May.īy 1981 all service to Cape ended. During the 1920s, when automobiles became popular and affordable, railroads saw a deterioration in passenger volume. The age of train travel competed steadily with the automobile. In 1933, the Atlantic City and West Jersey and Seashore merged and became the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines. ![]() ![]() Stations like Tuckahoe, Cape May Court House and Cape May were the most used. Train stations today mostly non-existent or shells of their former selves were once cluttered with passengers switching trains, boarding and disembarking. For many a summer wayfarer, buying a ticket to Cape May was the only way to travel. The South Jersey Railroad followed in 1894, connecting Camden, Tuckahoe, Woodbine, Dennisville and Cape May Court House.īy the turn of the 20th century, the Atlantic City Railroad and the West Jersey and Seashore railroad competed for passengers, racing to Cape May on tracks set miles from each other. In 1863, the Cape May and Millville Railroad became the inaugural rail line to link Camden, Millville, Woodbine, Cape May Court House and Cape May. ![]() Urban-weary city slickers caught their first glimpses of summer cottages, whaling vessels and white, sandy beaches because of a burgeoning 19th century railroad industry that birthed several barrier island towns and communities on Cape May County’s coast. Steam locomotives chugged past pine forests, salt swamps and seaside villages, bringing restless Philadelphia passengers to Cape May. takes a look at the Seashore Lines - its history, current presence and potential future.īefore the dawn of the automobile age, railroad tracks ran through mainland Cape May County. ![]() Local News One Answer to Cape May’s Parking Woes?ĭuring last month’s National Geographic Traveler Magazine on-line forum, many respondents proposed rail service as one possible solution to Cape May’s parking and congestion problems.
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