A $40 million train station in Pennsauken will open Monday to link the River Line and the Atlantic City Rail Line.
The multilevel Pennsauken Transit Center, near Derousse Avenue west of River Road, will allow direct transfers between trains on the east-west Atlantic City line and the north-south River Line.
The first train through the station is scheduled to be a Philadelphia-bound train from Atlantic City, due in at 5:39 a.m.
Ceremonies to mark the opening will be held Monday, but details are still being finalized, NJ Transit spokesman John Durso Jr. said.
The Pennsauken connection will provide additional access for area residents to 30th Street Station, Atlantic City, and the River Line's service between Camden and Trenton.
NJ Transit's bus Route 419 also will serve the station.
The station has a 200-foot platform with a 60-foot canopy along the light-rail River Line, and two 300-foot-long, high-level platforms have been built on either side of the elevated Atlantic City line tracks, with stairs and elevators connecting the levels.
Parking for 280 vehicles has been built in front of the station.
Federal stimulus funds are paying for the project.
NJ Transit officials hope the station will boost ridership on the lightly traveled Atlantic City line, which operates from Philadelphia with stops in Cherry Hill, Lindenwold, Atco, Hammonton, Egg Harbor City, and Absecon.
The River Line, which opened in 2004, makes 21 stops in towns along the Delaware River, including the new station.
Schedules for Atlantic City Line stops at the transfer center are at www.njtransit.com/pdf/rail/upcoming/R0090.pdf. River Line schedules are atwww.njtransit.com/pdf/bus/upcoming/T0343.pdf.
Would be nice if posting pictures was as easy as posting text!
I was looking forward to this....a Ridewithmehenry trip from North Jersey or Port Jervis to Atlantic City with an easy, workable connection at Pennsauken. However, with half hour or more waits for ACL trains and vice, versa, this great project does nothing, is virtually useless. There is no across the platform connections! To be effective, to be viable, there has to be a five minute connection and be cost effective for the traveller. At this juncture it is just a multi million dollar structure.
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Are you certain you are using the new schedules? I tried their website itinerary planner twice, and both times came up with 9 - 11 minute cnnecting times, which are probably appropriate.
You are right, Dave, for connections to Philadelphia 30th St. But if you wanted to go to Atlantic City, there a just missed (3 minutes) connection on one train, and a wait of almost a half hour on another....either they advertise they make convenient connections and make those connections, or they shouldn't advertise the convenient connections at all. But, 9 to 11 minutes is not bad in non commuter hours.
I asked for Trenton Light Rail Station to Atlantic City and Atlantic City to Trenton Light Rail Station. The routings were not via 30th Street, but were all NJT via the new station. This was on NJT's website's Itenerary Planner window. For weekdays. Possibly the problem you are illustrating is on weekends? I will have to try that.
I tried again last night and got connections at Camden to PATCO! But I also broke it out by line, RL Trenton to Pennsauken Center and Pennsauken Center to AC. And the waits were long and the trains few..
Try again today. I used the NJT Itinerary planner and got the connections at Pennsauken directly, without even asking, so they probably changed the website to suite the new schedule just after your trial. The schedules did change with the opening of the new station or a day later. But most of the day (weekdays) the River Line runs every 20 (or 15?) minutes, so I do not see how a long wait is possible. Just take the right River Line train to connect with the admittadly much fewer Atlantic City train. The connections are planned for Trenton to Atlantic City. Trenton to 30th Street Penn probably requires longer waits.
daveklepperNJ Transit officials hope the station will boost ridership on the lightly traveled Atlantic City line, which operates from Philadelphia with stops in Cherry Hill, Lindenwold, Atco, Hammonton, Egg Harbor City, and Absecon.
I don't love the the use of the term "lightly traveled" w.r.t. the AC line. Compared to what? The North Jersey Coast Line? Sure. But, ridership is roughly equivalent to Amtrak's Keystone service. Is that "lightly traveled", too?
It's really too bad that there can't be through service from NYP to AC via the Riverline. It's extra bad that you can't buy a through ticket - even though it's all NJT. (am I wrong on this one? I am just guessing.)
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
oltmanndIt's really too bad that there can't be through service from NYP to AC via the Riverline
I just tried NJT's transit planner. It won't even route you onto the AC line with connection at Pennsauken. It wants you to take the bus from Camden if you plan a NYP to AC trip.
Don't use the transit planner. Use the Itinerary planner and specificalliy say Trenton Light Rail to (or from) Atlantic City
herewith:
Trenton Lt. Rl. Sta. Pensa. Ar. Pensa,Lv. ACRail Sta.
8:12 9:02 9:20 10:35
12:57 13:47 14:05 15:21
16:12 17:02 17:08 18:28
17:12 18:02 18:08 19:28
18:27 19:17 19:33 20:46
19:57 20:47 2 1:05 22:18
daveklepper Don't use the transit planner. Use the Itinerary planner and specificalliy say Trenton Light Rail to (or from) Atlantic City
Not weird. Who besides railfans and cheapskates would want to change vehicles twice to go from NY to AC? 2:20 Trenton-AC plus 0:50 NY-Trenton, altogether over three hours? The direct NJT bus does it in about two hours? No change of vehicles, and the bus is comfortable for a bus. You and I would do it, but not the average traveler. I suspect the big users of the interchange station will be people living between Cherry Hill and AC that work in Trenton and now drive, and ditto people who live on the River Line and work in AC and now drive. Not many people working or living in NY, Newark, Camden, or Philly will use it.
There is a glich in the NJT website program: You have the choice of picking transportation by rail, bus, or light ral, or any and all of the three. But if you pick rail, light rail is excluded! So if you pick rail for NY or NWK to AC, any of the plannes will route you via SEPTA and 30th Street. If you pick any and all of the three, it will route you via bus. In my opinion, a separate catagory for light rail is unnecessary and stupid. Light rail should be included in rail.
That is the real problem. And it probably impacts other origin-destination pairs, including use of Newark and Hudson-Bergan Counties Light Rail.
As I see it, light rail falls on the spectrum somewhere between streetcars and rapid transit. Consequently, I would link it with the bus option on NJT's website. Besides, as pointed out in an earlier post, using the Camden-Trenton line to get from Newark to Atlantic City is only for the diehard railfan, not your average rider.
Supose I said I wanted to go from New York Penn Station to Bloomfield by rail. The current planners, both itinerary and trip planning would tell me I cannot. And when I give up and say all, it will direct me to the direct Port Authority bus to Bloomfield. What I want to do is go by rail. Which is easy, NJT train to Newark and the City Subway (Newark Light Rail) to the last stop.
Light rail is rail and should be included in rail in my opinion. People who opt for rail do not wish to ride buses but are willing to ride light rail as well as heavy rail. The ride quality on NJT's light rail lines is equal to that of its commuter lines and cannot be equalled overall on a bus trip.
The spectra of investment and of passenger carrying capacity, in which you are absolutely correct., has nothing to do with passengers' choices for transportation.
In NY - AC, NJT is thorwing away business to either SEPTA or Amtrak. But not much business as you point out and as I pointed out earlier.
Yes, using NJT's website for planning often leaves a lot to be desired and is in effect no help at all! When I do my Ridewithmehenry plans, I use the trip planners, itinerary planners, and schedules to frame out what I want to do. Then, I just take apiece of paper an pencil and write schedule sequences,etc. until something emerges as being workable. This is especially needed because I can't mix light rail and train nor bus to make things work out. Reading schedules and plotting on paper is often more accurate as to what has to be done.
Also note that on the lines from Hackettstown, Dover, MOrristown Gladstone, Summit, and Montclair-Boonton stations to Hoboken the fares shown are higher than those posted in timetables because, as one NJT website officer explained, they show the fare as if one were to go changing trains at Sec. Jct. Of course, no one who rides from these points to Hoboken would be going through Sec. Jct. So, yes, the website can be cumbersome and wrong.
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