Cabin fever, increasing as the lockdown/quarantine dragged on, had started to rear its ugly head. We finally decided that the greatest risk in going out was being close to others, especially those not wearing masks. Even though many of the days this spring were sunny, the fact that rail services were running at reduced frequencies, as per notices in the press, took away some of the impetus to get out my camera and go somewhere.
NJ Transit’s light rail lines began running a modified Sunday schedule in late March/early April, but that made little difference in service levels on the River Line between Trenton and Camden. While normal frequencies were every 15 minutes in rush hours, the base headway of 30 minutes continued to be operated 7 days per week. Of course I had photographically covered almost every inch of the line since its opening in 2004, but most of my slides had never been digitized. I could have spent my time during this period doing that tedious work, but being out linesiding would be much more fun. And I felt there would be little risk of infection, as few were riding and most of the rail line operates through areas that are hardly crowded.
Here are some facts and figures about the River Line, with some details taken from Al Fazio’s epic volume, River Line – Southern New Jersey’s Interurban Railway. And interurban railway it is, as despite not be operated electrically, it reflects many interurban features, and more importantly, feels like an interurban when riding.
It runs for 34 miles from the Pennsylvania Railroad station (now Amtrak) in Trenton to Camden, over a route that can be partly charac
