The Pennsuauken Atlantic City Line Station is the newest station on the Atlantic City Line and opened as an infill station on October 14, 2013 to provide a direct Atlantic City Line ↔ RiverLINE connection. This new station connects passengers on the Atlantic City Line to the rest of the NJT Rail System via the RiverLINE hybrid DMU line. This rail line, anywhere except North America would just be a normal railroad branch line, not a route with a complex can't run after 9:00pm agreement with a freight railroad so CSX can service its customers overnight. This diesel "light rail" line uses Stadler GTW diesel railcars, common on branch lines in Europe. No track connection exists at this station with the Atlantic City Line on a high embankment preparing for the Delair Bridge across the Delaware River to join the Northeast Corridor. The opening of this station finally allowed through NJT Rail ticketing from Atlantic City Line stations to all other NJ Transit destinations, with these rail tickets honored for the extremely cheap RiverLINE trip (just $1.80 as of 2024) for the 43 mile ride.
From 2004 until this station opened in 2013, passengers trying to get from the rest of the NJT Rail system to the Atlantic City Line, could take a convoluted trip via the RiverLINE to Downtown Camden for a transfer to PATCO before reaching the Atlantic City Line at Lindenwold. Taking an all-rail trip required stopping at Philadelphia-30th Street Station starting with the rail lines reopening in 1989, with a non-timed transfer required after 1995 when the New York City to Atlantic City via Philadelphia-30th Street Station Amtrak-operated Atlantic City Express was discontinued and replaced by through NJ Transit Rail service into Philadelphia.
The Atlantic City Rail Station itself consists of two side platforms for the two-track line located on an embankment. The station is along the southern side of the station parking lot, with the RiverLINE platform starting right as the tracks cross under the Atlantic City Line tracks at the southern end of the RiverLINE platform and just west of the end of the Atlantic City Line platform. This also makes this stop the only non-terminal station on the Atlantic City Line to have more than one platform. This station at some point in time was electrified (including over the Delair Bridge) with the steel remains of what once held up catenary lines visible through the station.
These two high-level platforms are canopied for about one car length with Red Roofs at their western ends, the rest of the platforms are exposed to the elements. At these western ends is where the platforms little waiting shelters are, complete with benches and modern DepartureVision TV Screens listing all departures. From these little waiting areas a staircase and elevator lead down to street level, the elevator to the Philadelphia-bound platform unexpectedly includes an intermediate floor labeled Mezzanine that I can't figure out any practical use floor, it's just an intermediate landing of the staircase up to the platform. The Atlantic City-bound platform lacks this landing.
Passengers arrive at street level in a wider covered entrance from the Philadelphia-bound platform at what looks like a three-level station. The Atlantic City Line platforms lower landing leads to a covered walkway that leads around the southern end of the station platforms, under the wider than necessary bridge over the RiverLINE tracks before arriving at this station entrance. This path is enclosed in a way that feels like you might be on an elevated footbridge, although you are still at ground-level before reaching the elevators/staircases up to the Atlantic City Line platform. The entrance leads out to the station's adjacent bus loop, and exterior doors leading into passenger restrooms (I forgot to check to see if they were open when I visited the station in 2024). It's a very short walk up the ramp to the RiverLINE's single side platform for its single-track in this area.
Artwork unifies the Atlantic City Line rail together with all platform windscreens, and all windows along the enclosed staircases/elevator shafts having digitally printed glass that is Where the Pennsauken Waters Flow, Digitally Printed Glass by J. Kenneth Leap. This is an impressive art installation that includes lots of elements based on the history of the local area including representations of various types of trains overlayed with text of the stations name, along the platform windscreens. In the core of the station tell more of a story, with historical photographs and even a Poem my Jersey Girl by J. Dunbar Hylton, MD 1884, a doctor, poet, and Pennsauken resident. This includes a Victorian Area silhouette of a feminine presenting figure overlooking the station's parking lot.
The rail station is along the southern side of the station site that includes a shared RiverLINE-Altantic City Line 268 space parking lot beneath the platforms embankment. The River LINE platform is along the eastern side of this parking lot.
Photos 1-87 September 1, 2024;
Philadelphia-30th St 
Cherry Hill