How it started
History
In the late 19th and early 20th century, Atlantic City and the South Jersey seashore were major seaside vacation destinations for Philadelphia area residents. 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:
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.
Competition was fierce, albeit peculiar: "although they met annually [in the 19th century] to set fares and rules for excursion traffic, they battled for passengers by offering faster trains, better equipment, and even bribes to Atlantic City hoteliers and cab drivers."
By its height in the 1920s competition was so intense that at one time both lines boasted some of the fastest trains in the world.
From Wikipedia’s article on Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2