The Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines was a railroad that operated in South Jersey in the 20th century. It was created in 1933 as a joint consolidation venture between two competing railroads in the region: the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Reading Company. History In the early 20th century, Atlantic City and the southern New Jersey seashore were major seaside vacation destinations for the Philadelphia area's wealthy and working class populations. The popularity of "South Jersey"'s seashore was made possible by rail transport which provided inexpensive and fast service between the Philadelphia area's population centers and shore points. There were two competing railroad companies connecting Camden and, by ferry, Philadelphia, with the South Jersey seashore. Competition was fierce and by its height in the 1920s competition between the West Jersey and Seashore Railroad (WJ&S), owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad, and the Atlantic City Railroad, owned by the Philadelphia and Reading Railway, was so intense that at one time both lines boasted some of the fastest trains in the world. Trains often raced one another so as to be the first to arrive at their destination. Racing was encouraged by the fact that in many areas, the two lines were only several hundred feet apart. On the Cape May lines, the trains were in sight of each other for 11 miles between Cape May Court House and Cape May. Over the last 5 miles into Cape May, the tracks were only 50 feet apart. On July 1, 1926, the Benjamin Franklin Bridge opened, spanning the Delaware River, connecting Philadelphia and Camden. Car, truck, and bus usage increased as the state built roads in the 1920s and 30s next to the railroads going from Camden to the shore, cutting into profits. On March 4, 1931, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) ordered the two companies to join their southern New Jersey lines into one company. The Consolidation Agreement decreed that the Pennsylvania Railroad had two-thirds ownership, and the Reading Company had one-third ownership. But the post-World War II rise of the automobile and the Atlantic City Expressway, built in the 1960s, along with the increase in air travel, not only caused people to abandon the railroad for their cars, but also to abandon Atlantic City for more exotic vacation destinations, such as Florida. By the late 1960s, the surviving former Camden and Atlantic City Main Line was reduced to a commuter service funded