philduba.com

New Rail Service to Philly?

Posted On June 5, 2006 9:16 AM By Phil in Transportation

Yesterday there was an article talking about expanding NJ Transit rail service from Trenton to Philly to give Central Jerseyans access to Philly. How's this for an idea, give South Jerseyans some access too!! Here would be my specifics:

• Either expand the light-rail or create new push-pull routes over the following lines:
  • Maple Shade/Moorestown/Mount Holly line, reclaiming the righ-of-way out to Pemberton
  • The line which runs through Belmawr, Runnemede and ends right before the turnpike, reclaiming its right-of-way down to almost where 168 and 42 meet.
  • Glassboro line including it's branching out to Vineland and Bridgeton, reclaiming right-of-way as needed
  • Branch the AC line down to Cape May, maybe also branching to Wildwood
• Expand PATCO service up I-295 to Burlington and/or Florence Township/Mansfield areas.
• Create a new Light-rail line down the median of Rt. 70 all the way to Medford

Overall, the mass-transit/rail-service of South Jersey into Philadelphia is inadequate at best. The only way to truly provide adequate service is to allow for transfers, similar to the NJT/PATH transfer in Newark, in Camden. If implemented PATCO would have to increase its Camden/Philly trains as most people would be commuting to Philly, not Camden. It'll probably never happen, especially since Moorestown blocks all, but just look at the map and see where these lines run and you can see they'd definitely benefit the region as a whole.