(The following article by Richard Pearsall was posted on the Cherry Hill Courier-Post website on February 16.)
CHERRY HILL, N.J — NJ Transit is considering train service between Atlantic City and Newark, which could help South Jersey residents commute to New York City.
The new train would run on the Northeast Corridor and the Philadelphia-to-Atlantic City line NJ Transit has run since 1989.
The new line also would open a new route to the casinos for patrons from North Jersey and New York.
“I would love it. It would be much more convenient,” said Margo Silk, 52, of Moorestown, an event coordinator for the Rutgers Alumni Office in Camden. She now drives 25 miles to Hamilton Township in Mercer County to catch a train to New York City.
To get from Newark to Atlantic City, NJ Transit would follow the Northeast Corridor through New Brunswick and Trenton to Philadelphia, where it would connect with the Atlantic City Line to go east.
The first stop on that line is Cherry Hill, at the edge of the former Garden State Park racetrack site.
If NJ Transit is serious about making Cherry Hill a commuter station, Silk said, “it needs to think about parking,” which she said is a persistent problem at the Hamilton station.
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Once virtually unlimited, parking near the Cherry Hill station is now constricted by a new shopping center that includes Home Depot and a number of other large stores.
Just how serious transit officials are about the Newark-to-Atlantic City service remains to be seen.
“It’s on our strategic list,” said Dan Stessel, a spokesman for the state mass transportation agency. The idea is under study and the agency is “interested in pursuing it. But there is no timetable,” he said.
In May 2003, NJ Transit Executive Director George Warrington said the agency was studying the possibility of linking the South Jersey light rail line, then under construction, with the Atlantic City line by means of a transfer station where the lines intersect in the Delair section of Pennsauken.
“I’m a lot more interested in that link than I am in extending service to Newark,” said Jim Sproles, 55, of Riverside, a stop on the River LINE, which began service in March.
The link at Delair is still under study, Stessel said Tuesday, noting that connecting the light rail line to the rest of the system is a worthwhile objective regardless of the fate of the Newark proposal.
NJ Transit has not determined the exact configuration of a Newark route or the equipment to be used, Stessel said.
Trains could go directly from Newark to Atlantic City by heading east at the Frankford Junction in the northeast part of Philadelphia.
Or they could proceed on to 30th Street Station in Philadelphia and back before heading east.
Should NJ Transit use the diesel trains run on the Atlantic City line to expand service to Newark, northbound passengers would have to switch trains there to travel on to New York City.
Only electric-powered locomotives are allowed to travel through the tunnels to Manhattan.
But NJ Transit has long been interested in buying trains that have both diesel and electric capability, said Douglas Bowen, president of the New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers. And this route would give the agency just one more reason to pursue that option.
“Trying to entice people to and from Newark is nice,” he said, “but New York is the big draw.”
Bowen said that many questions remain about the Newark-to-Atlantic City service, but he described the proposal as “serious enough” from an executive director who “knows both ends of the state.”
Warrington is a former Voorhees resident and general manager of the SEPTA mass transit system in eastern Pennsylvania.
Among the commuting options now available for people who live in South Jersey and work in Manhattan are Greyhound buses from Mount Laurel and train service on the Northeast Corridor from Trenton. The train is accessible either by taking the River LINE to Trenton or by driving to the park-and-ride station in Hamilton.
Round-trip bus tickets from Mount Laurel to New York are $36, with monthly passes available for $320.
The train from Hamilton to New York costs $20.10 for a round trip, with a monthly pass available for $281.
A round trip from Philadelphia to Atlantic City costs $13.20, with a monthly pass available for $185.