The Trenton Times published the following article on November 4, 2013. To read the full article, click here.

The River Line continues to increase in ridership and cost as it approaches the end of its first decade

By Matty Hammond/For The Times
on November 04, 2013 at 6:30 AM, updated November 04, 2013 at 6:35 AM

FLORENCE — Andre Tucker gratefully sank onto a bench on the Florence Rail Station platform. After a 10-hour day as a maintenance and utilities worker at IFCO, an industrial maker of wooden pallets on nearby Dultys Lane, Tucker was ready for home.

Tucker, like many local workers, was getting there using the 9-year-old NJ Transit River Line, a 34.5-mile rail system connecting Trenton and Camden with 21 stops, including three stops in Trenton and one in Bordentown by the Delaware River.

And the next morning, at 6:21 a.m., he would board another River Line train headed back to work. In three years at IFCO, the Trenton resident has never once commuted another way.

“It’s just too easy,” he said. “It’s about all you could ask for.”

In operation since March 2004, the River Line was designed to get cars off the highways and provide low-cost travel for commuters in Mercer, Burlington and Camden counties. It was also intended to spur business growth along the Route 130 corridor through Burlington and into Trenton, where many towns had seen declines in industrial and retail activity.

Since then, major development projects have broken ground near River Line stops in Trenton, Bordentown and Florence, as well as Camden and Cinnaminson, and local leaders credit the line with making such growth possible.