(The following article by Jennifer Moroz was posted on the Philadelphia Inquirer website on March 12.)
CAMDEN, N.J. — The gates at grade crossings are no longer swinging shut at random. And over the last two weeks, the trains have been running on schedule at least 95 percent of the time.
Glitches that have bedeviled NJ Transit’s controversial $1.1 billion River Line are in the past, officials said yesterday. Nothing, they insisted, could get in the way of the agency’s opening the new Camden-to-Trenton light-rail line to the public on Sunday.
“We’re ready,” said Joe North, general manager of light-rail operations for NJ Transit.
North, who has spent four months in South Jersey preparing for the launch, spoke as he led a media tour of the Camden Light Rail Complex, adjacent to the line’s 36th Street Station. In the next few days, North said, “we want to exercise the system every minute we can.”
In what officials described as a state-of-the-art control room, two men hunkered down before a row of computer screens filled with green and red lines – a linear representation of the entire 34-mile length of track. Mouse in hand, each kept an eye on the switches and signals and the red lines showing where the trains were. Meanwhile, TV cameras kept an eye on the actual track, where the sleek, new Mercedes-engine-powered railcars were in their last few days of testing.
When they’re not doing test runs, the 20 railcars, each with a capacity of 190, are in “the shop” next to the control room, where yesterday workers inspected their underbellies.
When the line does open to the public, riders can “expect a very safe and on-time train,” said Pat McWilliams, manager of train operations for the Southern New Jersey Light Rail Group, the contractor on the project.
Until recently, the train was neither completely safe nor on time. Early last month, NJ Transit chief George Warrington delayed the launch of the service, already a year behind schedule, for another month. Originally, it was supposed to begin service Feb. 15. But gates were malfunctioning at grade crossings, slamming shut when there was no train in sight, and staying closed for no apparent reason.
Yesterday, officials said the trains were officially ready to roll. Tomorrow, mayors and dignitaries plan to ride the train from Trenton to Camden as part of an inaugural ceremony and champagne christening to be presided over by Gov. McGreevey. The following day, the train’s doors open to the public at 6 a.m.
The service is expected to draw 2,850 round-trip passengers each day during its first year and bring in $2 million in revenue; officials estimate it will cost $20 million to operate in the first year.