Quote:
Originally Posted by Busy Bee
Yeah, why futureproof when you can just build another half-assed DMU line?
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Because the PRSL alignments are mostly at grade. See e.g.
Gloucester City,
Westville,
Woodbury,
Wenonah,
Sewell,
Pitman, and
Glassboro for examples on the Glassboro line alone! PATCO, by contrast, had the advantage of building along the previously grade-separated PRSL Main Line which was significantly easier to convert into a subway extension.
On top of that, the Glassboro route is -- and will remain -- an active Conrail alignment, called the Vineland Secondary, meaning that it will have to manage both passenger and freight activity.
Ultimately, my sense is that what's needed is a connection between these routes and Regional Rail, but you need to justify electification before that can happen -- and you need to show the ridership market is there before you can electrify the system. You should be thinking of South Jersey potentially being more like Boston, where the success of MBTA's commuter network is precisely what justifies its electrification, as Alon Levy points out, and less like a subway than the one-off that PATCO was.