(The following story by Jennifer Moroz appeared on the Philadelphia Inquirer website on February 3.)
PHILADELPHIA — Saying contractors need more time to work out bugs, NJ Transit announced yesterday that the opening of the Camden-to-Trenton light-rail line, already a year behind schedule, would be delayed again until March 14.
Last week, officials were saying the River Line was still on target to begin service Feb. 15.
“It is absolutely clear to me that the system will not be ready to run reliably on Feb. 15,” NJ Transit executive director George Warrington said in a statement. “I won’t force them out of the gate when I know it will result in unreliable service and disappointed customers.”
Officials said the delay was due largely to malfunctioning gates at grade crossings. Contractors have been testing the 34-mile, $1.1 billion line for months.
During that time, the system’s problems have become abundantly clear to local residents, who have been blocked by gates that close when no train is in sight and gates that remain closed well after a train has passed.
System errors caused the gates to swing shut into the “fail-safe” position, NJ Transit officials said.
They said problems remained at about a dozen of the 52 crossings, mostly in Burlington County towns in the middle of the line.
Harsh weather has also delayed testing, officials said.
The contractor – the Bechtel Corp.-led Southern New Jersey Light Rail Group L.L.C. – has increased manpower and testing.
“They have concurred that it’s a doable schedule,” NJ Transit spokeswoman Lynn Bowersox said.
When the service does open, it won’t be on the regular schedule. Officials plan to start by running trains every 30 minutes. The regular schedule – every 15 minutes during weekday peak hours and every 30 minutes during off-peak hours and weekends – would begin after about two months.
“They’re just not ready for it now,” Bowersox said. “The contractor needs to prove they can reliably provide the 30-minute schedule first.”
A full run on the line, which will cost $1.10 one way, is supposed to take just more than an hour. Bowersox said the contractor had been unable to stay on schedule for a full day during dry runs.
Under its contract with NJ Transit, the rail group – hired to design, build, operate and maintain the line for 10 years – must prove about a week’s worth of reliable service before the line opens, Bowersox said. The agency will likely seek compensation from the rail group for the delays, she said.
Some observers said the delay would be worth it if it meant better service.
To get commuters to change their customary travel patterns, NJ Transit has to offer an attractive – reliable – alternative, said Don Nigro, president of the Delaware Valley Association of Rail Passengers.
“They don’t want those travelers to be disappointed, because if they’re disappointed, they might not want to come back,” he said.
The agency will need them to come back. Critics have characterized the Whitman-era project as a boondoggle, a train driven more by politics than transportation needs. Ridership in the first year is projected at 2,850 passengers a day.
“After all of the time, effort and money invested in this project, I made a judgment that, out of the box, this has to be right,” Warrington, who joined the agency in 2002, said in an interview. “I’m not going to do this until it’s right.”
When officials broke ground in 2000, service was anticipated to begin in 2002. Then it was summer of last year, and summer turned to fall. In November, NJ Transit officials set the Feb. 15 date.
Several local residents who have watched the new German-made railcars swish past on test runs have seen firsthand that the system is far from perfect.
Cinnaminson Police Lt. Jay Gunn recently confronted a closed gate at a crossing in his hometown of Palmyra. So he tried the next crossing up. And then the next.
All three were closed. But no train was coming.
Another time, a gate almost crashed down on his car.
“I was kind of shocked,” Gunn said.
Last month, at the crossing near the Burlington-Bristol Bridge, the gate swung open and closed for more than half an hour, backing up traffic. That problem appears to have been fixed, said Bob Stears, spokesman for the Burlington County Bridge Commission, which owns the span.
“Hopefully in another month… they’ll be able to figure it all out,” he said.
Howard Menaker, a spokesman for the Light Rail Group, said more testing was not the only reason for the delay, but he would not be more specific.
Signs that the service was not ready were vividly apparent to Scott Brady, who has been waiting for it to open since he moved to Delanco in May.
As of late last week, he noted, the agency had no schedule available. When he asked ticket agents for information, he said, he got blank stares.
“Nobody is a week or two away from the opening and still doesn’t have a clue,” said Brady, a transportation planner who works in Philadelphia and plans to use the line as part of his commute. “These things are usually planned well in advance.”
NJ Transit’s Bowersox said the lack of marketing had nothing to do with the decision to delay the opening. Officials had planned all along to begin a $750,000 advertising and information campaign only after the service launch, she said.
But although the opening has been delayed, the agency will stick to its marketing schedule. On Feb. 13, mailers will be sent to more than 80,000 homes along the line. On Feb. 15, a Web site, www.RiverLine.com will be activated. And that week, NJ Transit will begin distributing wallet-size guides featuring a system map with connecting bus and rail information.
The agency said it would begin handing out schedules the week of Feb. 23. Less than a month after that, according to the new plan, passengers will finally be able to board.
NJ Transit officials said they had built in a few extra days to make up for unforeseen setbacks. This opening day, they say, should stick.
“I have learned that there are never guarantees relating to anything,” Warrington said, “but I am confident that this is doable.”