NJ Transit apologizes for ‘less than satisfactory’ performance of River Line light rail

On Tuesday, the 3:44 p.m. southbound River Line departure from Trenton to Camden was canceled “due to mechanical issues,” the latest in a summer-long rash of problems on NJ Transit’s light-rail service. For months some trains have been running on Sunday schedules during peak weekday travel times.

That means 30-minute gaps between trains in the mornings and evenings, provided that there are no cancellations, which some riders say has complicated their trips to and from work.

NJ Transit has displayed the same River Line service alert for weeks, citing “continued operational challenges,” noting that the service is maintained and operated by “an outside independent contractor” and that it was working with the contractor to get improvements.

That’s a reference to Bombardier, a Canadian-German company that made the trains and was absorbed more than two years ago by Alstom, a France-based multinational railcar manufacturer that is under contract to provide new trolleys for SEPTA. “We apologize for the inconvenience,” NJ Transit says.

The River Line, which began operation in March 2004, serves 21 stops in Mercer, Burlington, and Camden Counties as it runs parallel to the Delaware River. In addition to people using the service to reach the state capital, Camden and the towns in between, some rely on it to commute to Center City Philadelphia — via a transfer to the PATCO High-Speed Line at the Walter Rand Transportation Center in Camden.

John Boyle, for instance, lives in Edgewater Park and typically commutes three days a week by bike and rail via the River Line and PATCO to his job as research director for the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia.

“The River Line has not improved,” said Boyle, who began noticing a flurry of cancelations early in the summer, especially in the evening. “Now that we’re on a reduced schedule, you might have to wait 45 minutes and get on a crowded train.”

Several times, Boyle’s taken NJ Transit’s 417 Express bus home from Center City instead — and because the transit agency does not honor River Line tickets on buses, he had to pay twice for his ride. The Sunday schedule also means that the last River Line train from Camden’s waterfront entertainment center stops running on Saturday nights by about 9 p.m., he said.

“Some of the contractor’s recent performance issues can be attributed to operator availability, as well as supply chain issues related to vehicle parts,” NJ Transit’s service alert says. “These light-rail vehicles are one-of-a-kind models that were custom-built to operate on the tracks we share with Conrail on the River Line. They can’t simply be replaced with other cars” and the parts are also custom to each vehicle.

NJ Transit did not respond to questions.

The River Line had an average weekday ridership of about 6,330 in 2019, according to NJ Transit statistics. In August 80.4% of the trains were on time, compared with more than 98% for the agency’s Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Line and Newark Light Rail service.

The light-rail line cost a little more than $1 billion to build. It has been criticized as being a waste of money over the years because of relatively low ridership, but also credited with helping economic development in river towns.