GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP, N.J. — Trains traveling the Atlantic City Rail Line to and from Philadelphia are one rail closer to chugging to a station stop here, the Press of Atlantic City reported.
State, municipal and rail officials announced at a news conference Tuesday that NJ Transit, the operator of the line, has agreed to provide more than $40,000 to fund a study to further explore the potential for a train station and supporting area of development in the western part of the township.
The idea of creating such a hub has been tossed around for more than a year, with mostly universal support.
NJ Transit and the Regional Planning Association – a not-for-profit, tri-state planning organization specializing in urban design, land use and transportation planning – will assist the township in planning the hub, which would be located between Pomona Road and Genoa Avenue, near the Route 30 corridor.
NJ Transit Executive Director George Warrington and the other officials lauded the idea as consistent with the governor’s desire for so-called smart growth. Among other things, smart growth advocates concentrating development around a central source of transportation.
Galloway Township Mayor Chuck Endicott called the plan “a great opportunity for Galloway Township.”
Endicott and the others said the rail station would provide residents of the immediate area a less environmentally intrusive source of transportation to their jobs in Atlantic City or Philadelphia, and would benefit the township financially from the business generated by train riders passing through.
State Sen. William Gormley and Assemblyman Frank Blee, both R-Atlantic, said the location is the perfect spot for such a project because of the availability of land in that particular area. They called the location unlike any other in the state.
“If it’s going to happen anywhere in New Jersey, it’s going to happen there,” Gormley said. “This is the right site and the right circumstances to make it work.”
The study is expected to take 90 days and will include analyses of financial costs and impacts, and planning for such things as pedestrian connections to and from the station as well as between the station and the neighborhood.
Meanwhile, the officials said they will continue to look into expanding the line’s frequency of service and to better facilitate rail service for residents of Cumberland County, from where unemployed workers could travel to the booming Atlantic City casino industry, they said.
The officials said one of the primary aims of the study will be to determine the cost of developing the hub. It is not yet clear who would pay for the rail station.