NY Times bashes River Line

[psct29]

Yes, I also agree with the masses that Heavy Rail would have made much more sense for this line, and light rail projexts in Essex and Union Counties should have been built long before this. But we have what we have now and we have to make the best of it. If the River Line does fail, it will set back ALL rail projects in NJ. In fact I think now NJT's first priority should be to now push the line right to the state capitol building (and possibly Mt. Holly as well despite the NIMBYism prevailing in Burlington towards LRT in the interior of the county)

[Irish Chieftain]

Like I was saying before...how about clearing the heads and considering whether or not the the Bordentown Secondary needs passenger service in the first place? I always thought it did, myself. Would it have been better to have trains run from Trenton to Philly on this line? From Hoboken to Camden? From NY Penn to Camden (electrified)? Other rail lines that NJT continues to operate happen to serve less-populated areas than the US 130/I-295 corridor. Is nothing better than something?

[Irish Chieftain]

Well...looks like a lot of the regulars on Subtalk got to use the River Line on its inaugural day of operation, and things started off on a positive note. Were it not for the FRA getting in the way of shared operation between these vehicles and freight trains, one of the minuses would be out of the way, but that's just the way things are in this country right now...

[Zeke]

Can a F-40 and Comet set run over the river LINE. If so maybe it will revert back to heavy rail in the future. To me it would be great to go from Hoboken to Bordentown to my sisters place, one seat ! I think this DBOM (Design Build Operate Maintain) stuff was just an end run around the NJT operating unions.

[JLo]

The River Line is a political animal. It is not a transit project as much as it is a redevelopment project for the Delaware River towns. In fairness, a large portion of the $1 billion (which hasn't even been fully) should have been from the general fund, not transit's budget. All that aside, I would expect that the line will eventually generate a fairbox return that is better than the ACL's. As of now, the ACL serves fewer passengers than are projected for the River Line's initial start up, despite the ACL being in service for over 20 years.

[chuchubob]

"Can a F-40 and Comet set run over the river LINE? - Zeke

Commuter rail equipment could run from 36th Street Pennsauken to Roebling and maybe to Bordentown if it could negotiate the sharp curve upon diverging from the Camden & Amboy. Maybe also to Hamilton Ave.
Definitely NOT to Trenton (Clinton Ave) or Rand Center in Camden.

[EDM5970]

NS ran an office car special as far north as Hamilton Ave. maybe six months ago, so the curve in Bordentown should not be a problem for commuter equipment. The street running in Camden and the roller coaster into the Trenton station would be impossible for standard equipment.

You know the old quote about some of the Colorado narrow gauge lines, "curves so sharp that you had to put a hinge on a jackass to get him around"? That came to mind getting out of Trenton yesterday. I think the center of the longer cars would bottom out on some of the vertical curves as well.

Now, IF they had left the hill track in place, and come in on old track three in Trenton, they could have used conventional equipment. That option would have precluded getting to the Camden Waterfront and eventually to the State House in Trenton, as shown on the maps in the stations.

[ryanov]

Camden is a destination. If you are travelling from north Jersey on the NEC (or anywhere else for that matter) to south Jersey on one of the 400 buses, you save a lot of time eliminating Philadelphia, as well as a lot of cost.