At 5:36pm tonight the Jersey Shore Commuters Club made its final westbound departure down the North Jersey Coast Line from Penn Station, NY, leaving New York City without out any membership-based extra fare commuter service.

NJ Transit, for numerous reasons including not wanting to mix the older club car with new multi-level equipment, is moving the club to a Bay Head to Hoboken run. Current members will now have to change trains in Newark to get to NYP. Thus many current riders today will be former members tomorrow. Hopefully riders on the new run south of the car's current destination of Long Branch will join and keep the club rolling.

We celebrated 75 years of continuous service this year under the PRR-PC-NJDOT-NJ Transit. Our old P-70 which the PRR rebuilt for us in Altoona 60 years ago is in the URHS colle tion though we've been told it will be scrapped. Who knows if our humble Comet coach will ever be considered preservation worthy?

We're rolling past Hudson tower now.

An era has ended. I wish the club the best in the new era.

Rob Davis
VP, Jersey Shore Commuters Club

It was a somewhat melancholy ride home tonight. Hopefully the club will prosper on the new route. But leaving Manhattan tonight, it seemed more like a passing than a new beginning.

For most of our members, the club car has been a convenience and a luxury. For others of us, it was those things but also a touchstone to a more rail-dependent era when the New York & Long Branch (today's North Jersey Coast Line) and other commuter routes into Manhattan boasted multiple subscription clubs.

I can say that my membership and minor leadership role both stemmed from a notion of preservation. Not museum preservation, but the effort to keep a tradition alive... a 75 year old tradition that had survived multiple changes in rolling stock, railroad bankruptcies and government commuter authorities.

We left from track 10 tonight at NY Penn Station. More than once I have educated members on why a station in Manhattan is called "Pennsylvania." My favorite departure tracks are 1-6 as these platforms can still be accessed by stairwells left over from the long gone, much mourned original Penn Station. Whether coming or going on these tracks, I felt a deeper sense of connection to past and the role of the private club car in NY commuting history.

The Hoboken route holds promise, and I hope this new chapter is a good one.

Rob