New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill wants to make the long-discussed Glassboro-Camden Line and other South Jersey transit projects top priorities as negotiations begin for how state funds will be spent in the coming fiscal year.
Sherrill, a Democrat who began her term in January, said in recent visits to the region that she wants to improve transit in South Jersey, but has not laid out specific plans to fund such projects.
“We’re working to lower transportation costs by modernizing our transit system,” Sherrill said onstage at a New Jersey Chamber of Commerce event in Atlantic City on Tuesday. “World-class transit is essential to our economy.”
“Including across South Jersey,” she was sure to add.
Danielle Currie, a treasury spokesperson, said funding for South Jersey transit projects is a “key priority” for Sherrill, but the details will be released as budget negotiations progress for the 2027 fiscal year, which begins in July.
An administration official provided The Inquirer with a list of the governor’s priorities for South Jersey transportation. The priorities give a sneak peak into where Sherrill might push for improvements or ensure funding continues to flow as she warns the state needs to be careful with its spending.
Here is a look at what is under consideration.
Pushing the GCL forward and improving the River Line
Sherrill wants to prioritize advancing pre-construction work for the Glassboro-Camden Line (GCL). The GCL is an 18-mile-long light-rail transit line that has been proposed for decades.
The plan would bring passenger transit to an existing corridor used by freight trains between Glassboro and Camden. The route would go through a dozen communities, including Deptford, Woodbury, and Gloucester City.
The project took a step forward in 2022 when it was awarded $200 million for preliminary engineering and design, project management, and land acquisition. But it remains an open question how the project will come to fruition with an approximately $2 billion price tag.
The Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey (CCSNJ) has long supported the GCL “as a vital new transit connection for the region,” said Hilary Chebra, the chamber’s director of government affairs. But residents who live along the route have spoken against the project.
Another priority for Sherrill is modernizing equipment on the River Line light-rail to increase reliability, as the train cars have not been rebuilt in more than 20 years. This effort launched before Sherrill began her term, when NJ Transit unveiled the first redone car in early January.
Supporting the Walter Rand Center and improving buses
Sherrill wants to ensure the Walter Rand Transportation Center overhaul advances to the construction phase. The project is underway and seeks to modernize the major bus transit facility in Camden.
It is unclear what funding would be needed for this project in the coming fiscal year, since former Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy in 2021 announced the start of a $250 million project to redo the decades-old facility.
Dan Keashen, the Camden County spokesperson, said the renovation is in its design stage and moving forward.
“We probably are looking towards the next couple of months for a groundbreaking,” he said Friday.
The center was named after a late state senator from Camden. It links Philadelphia and Camden County by PATCO, Burlington County and Trenton through the River Line, and much of the rest of the region through NJ Transit bus routes.
Sherrill has spoken about wanting to replace old buses, and her office said South Jersey will “receive its fair share” of them.
Zooming out, her administration wants to create a “total transportation plan” to improve mass transit across the region as part of its funding priorities. It is too early to know what that means, but her transition team suggested exploring the possibility of creating rapid bus transit in South Jersey that connects places like the Rand Transportation Center, the Vineland Transportation Center, the Atlantic City Train Station, and Atlantic City International Airport.
And as South Jerseyans struggle with access to public transportation, some municipalities, like Camden, have turned to microtransit. The South Jersey chamber secured $5 million in federal funds to bring a microtransit pilot to the region, which is expected to launch this summer. The federal funding would support the program for 18 to 24 months, and Chebra called for state funding to support and expand the program in a recent Trenton budget hearing.
At a CCSNJ event last month, Sherrill said there has been a lack of investment in South Jersey transit over the years. She expressed support for both the rapid bus idea and microtransit.
“I think our first step is bus rapid transit and making sure we beef up the lines here,” she said.
“There’s also the microtransit routes that we’re working on, that last mile that sometimes can be so hard for people to get to the job, education, and businesses that they need to get to,” she added.