(The Associated Press circulated the following story on April 18.)
CAMDEN, N.J. — A new light rail transportation system in South Jersey is attracting just one-quarter of the original ridership estimates after being open for a month, according to a published report.
Some 1,500 individuals are using the River Line on weekdays for roughly 3,000 total trips. On weekends, those figures have climbed to 2,500, or about 5,000 round trips, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in Sunday’s editions.
When the line was first proposed, a 1996 study projected 5,600 riders would take the train on an average day, resulting in 11,200 trips — figures that were criticized at the time as too low to justify a rail system.
“We’re pretty encouraged by the numbers,” NJ Transit spokeswoman Janet Hines told the newspaper. “By the end of the year, we are looking to reach 5,900 passenger trips. That was what we’ve been stating all along. We’ve only been up and running for 30 days … As people realize the benefits, we’ll see more riders.”
Some say the River Line is already helping aid economic development in South Jersey.
Dolly DeFreitas, who works at a Riverton pastry shop, said breakfast business is steady on weekday mornings. She and a neighbor are now hoping to open a farmers’ market nearby.
“There was so much conflict about this before,” she said. “Neighbor was against neighbor. But it’s been a relief that it’s been so positive so far.”
The new Camden-to-Trenton light rail line’s past is about a decade’s worth of political contention over its $1.1 billion cost and construction delays.
Ahead of it are the answers to questions about whether a new commuter rail line slicing through an area that’s losing population can find enough riders to justify its cost and help boost the towns along its way.
Some, like Dan Fleischer, 71, say the River Line is worth it.
“People prefer it to the bus,” he said. “It’s about half an hour to Camden by bus because it goes all over, but only 12 minutes by train.”
The 34-mile line has 20 station stops. It takes slightly more than an hour to go from the Camden waterfront to Trenton.