There’s a train coming to Gloucester County!

It doesn’t matter that there are at least 1,865 (1,866 now) folks belonging to a group who don’t want a train.

Never mind that “a number of big rail systems lose between about “a buck” and “$5 a pop” according to a Bloomberg article from a few years ago.

And forget the arguments about transit saving energy and reducing pollution. The CATO Institute proved that untrue several years ago writing, in part:

Nor are claims that transit saves energy and reduces pollution true. In 2016, transit used about 10 percent more energy per passenger mile than the average car and only slightly less than the average light truck. Both transit and cars emit about the same amount of greenhouse gases per passenger mile. People who care about energy or climate change would do better to drive a plug‐in hybrid than to take transit.

Certain South Jersey politicians, all of the Democrat persuasion, have argued a Gloucester County light rail train will boost economic development. Untrue! Again from the CATO Institute:

The latest argument for transit is that it promotes economic development. While some studies have found that heavily used transit lines can influence property values, research published by the Federal Transit Administration has shown that this is a zero‐sum game: Higher property values in one part of a city are balanced by lower values elsewhere. Not only does transit not promote overall economic growth, the high taxes required to subsidize transit may actually slow growth down. Data from more than 300 urban areas show that the regions that grew fastest in the 2000s were ones that had spent the least on transit in the 1990s, while the regions that spent the most on transit in the 1990s were among those that grew the slowest in the 2000s.

Despite all these commonsense reasons not to build a new light rail train, similar to the Camden to Trenton River Line that I have watched more than one drug deal take place on, South Jersey politicos are moving forward with pushing to get a Camden to Glassboro train built.

Don’t believe me? According to the Courier-Post – the online version, I’m still looking for my actual paper that I pay $60/month to have delivered to my neighbor’s doorstep – “The plan for a light rail extension between Camden and Glassboro has chugged along for two decades but may accelerate with $200 million in funding from the South Jersey Transportation Authority.”

Make no mistake, that’s $200 million taxpayer dollars!

And that $200 million is only for “preliminary engineering design and project management through bonding, though no financing has been implemented.”

The Courier-Post reports:

The 18-mile passenger line would run from Glassboro to Camden, where it would connect with other rail and bus services. Its cost estimate is between $1.6 billion and $1.8 billion.

The project would use existing Conrail track in Pitman, Sewell, Mantua, Deptford, Wenonah, Woodbury Heights, Woodbury, Westville, Brooklawn and Gloucester City.

Some track would have to built where none exists, such as into South Camden from the Walter Rand Transportation Center in the city's downtown area.

Over $1 billion for an unneeded and mostly unwanted train!

The Courier-Post article goes on to quote the Delaware River Port Authority’s (DRPA) CEO John T. Hanson:

DRPA officials called the recently released environmental impact statement a “significant milestone” in a long-proposed project.

“The GCL will effectively extend the Philadelphia-Camden metropolitan area,” said John T. Hanson, the DRPA's CEO.

There is a reason I moved back to Jersey from Philly, and there is a reason when I moved back to Jersey from New Mexico I chose Gloucester County. I don’t want to be an extension of the Philadelphia-Camden metropolitan area.

I like Gloucester County’s rural feel. I like the fact that the only train I have to deal with is an occasional freight train. I like the fact that Interstate 295 is wider than the New Jersey Turnpike in Gloucester County. I even like the fact that only one bus runs through my town, only once an hour at most and that the bus is almost always empty when it passes through town.

I didn’t move to Gloucester County so I could have to deal with a train stopping traffic. I didn’t move to Gloucester County so I could listen to a train go through town, if I wanted that I would move near the PATCO High Speed Line in my native Camden County.

In my opinion this train is all about helping Camden and has nothing to do with helping Gloucester County. Recently, it was announced that the Walter Rand Transportation Center in Camden, one end of the Glassboro-Camden light rail route, is getting a $250 million overhaul.

The three representatives of New Jersey’s 5th Legislative District, state Senator Nilsa Cruz-Perez, Assemblyman William Spearman and Assemblyman Bill Moen all said in a statement the overhaul will benefit “all of Camden County.” No mention of Gloucester County.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that part of the $250 million in improvements to the Walter Rand Transportation Center are for the proposed Glassboro-Camden light rail. Did the Senator and Assemblymen even consider what the light rail will do to Westville, Woodbury, Wenonah and Mantua? All towns they represent in Trenton.

The light rail route was proposed in 1996 and former Governor Jon Corzine in May of 2009 announced it was to be completed in 2019, since it still isn’t here I suspect there is still time to stop this ill-conceived waste of taxpayer dollars. To stop this train you are going to have to vote. Ask those running for state Senate, Assembly and even Commissioner (formerly Freeholder) how they feel about this train.

Don’t think this train, if it does eventually get built, is going to stop in Glassboro. The Conrail tracks go all the way to Millville. So, pay attention Cumberland County. You could be next!

This whole thing brings new meaning to “It’s like a train wreck, you know it’s going to be ugly but you have to look.”