River Line (Conrail)

"West Shore Line" redirects here. For the New York Central subsidiary, see West Shore Railroad.
For other uses, see River Line (disambiguation).
A map of the River Line and former River Line at its south end; the River Line comes from the northwest corner, and used to turn east through the tunnel and then south along the river.

The River Line was a Conrail rail line located between Jersey City, New Jersey and Selkirk, New York, United States. It ran along the west side of the Hudson Palisades and, after passing through a tunnel at Haverstraw, New York, along the west bank of the Hudson River. It was previously the New York Central's West Shore Railroad and Weehawken Branch. The River Line has since been split into several sections, following the 1999 division of Conrail assets between Norfolk Southern Railway and CSX Transportation.

The majority of the line is now the CSX River Subdivision, which runs from Control Point 2 (CP2) at the North Bergen Yard in North Bergen, New Jersey to Selkirk. The portion south of CP2, including the Weehawken Tunnel, is now part of NJ Transit's Hudson–Bergen Light Rail. Freight trains continuing south of CP2 now use the Northern Running Track, a portion of a former Erie Railroad line that has been upgraded to handle the traffic. At Selkirk, the River Subdivision ends at the Castleton Subdivision, with the Port Subdivision continuing towards Albany. The Castleton Sub was built in 1924 as part of a bypass for through freight trains around Albany.