New shuttle connects Phila. and Camden riverfront

Visitors to Philadelphia will be able to catch a ride to the Camden waterfront for a $2 round-trip fare under a service that kicked off yesterday.

The "Waterfront Connection" shuttle will leave from the Independence Visitor Center at Sixth and Market Streets every half hour and cross the Ben Franklin Bridge to make stops at the Adventure Aquarium and Battleship New Jersey on the other side of the Delaware River.

The effort is funded by the two Camden destinations, which are hoping to lure tourists from Philadelphia's Center City attractions. The South Jersey Transportation Authority is providing the "Waterfront Connection" bus and its driver.

"This is an unprecedented event where we're really, truly trying to bridge the gap between the Camden waterfront and Philadelphia and create one destination, one region," said Greg Charbeneau, executive director of Camden's Adventure Aquarium.

That may seem a tall task for a single shuttle bus with about half the capacity of a traditional city bus. But officials representing the four main partners in the project all appeared relieved to bring to fruition an idea years in the making.

"Our visitors constantly ask about transportation over the bridge," said Christine Keates, general manager of the visitor center in Philadelphia. "Historically, we've not been able to give them an easy transportation route."

Current transportation across the river includes a ferry that picks up visitors on the Philadelphia side at Penn's Landing, charging $6 per adult. But Keates said Penn's Landing often was too far away for visitors touring the historic landmarks near the visitor center.

Patricia Egan Jones, chairwoman of the Battleship New Jersey Board of Trustees, said a shuttle was a key component in the decision to move the battleship to Camden in the late 1990s.

"We needed to bring the Philadelphia tourists to this side of the waterfront," Jones said.

The Delaware River Port Authority charges a $4 toll for cars to cross bridges from New Jersey into Philadelphia. The shuttle, which seats about 26 persons, will pay $4 like any other vehicle to come back across the bridge, said Sharon Gordon, SJTA spokeswoman.

"Anything that moves people around the waterfront is good for the entire region," said Port Authority spokesman Ed Kasuba.

The Port Authority, which also runs the ferry, remains stalled on a $57 million aerial tram that was proposed as a waterfront connector. Though about $15 million was used in starting the project, only $25,000 is allocated for it in this year's capital budget.

But for Charbeneau, a potential boon for business has finally arrived. He said conversations about a shuttle dated to 2004, before the reopening of the aquarium.

Of the 833,000 tourists expected to pass through the Philadelphia visitor center in July and August, he said, it would take only a fraction to make the shuttle a success.

"If all goes really well and we can attract 1 percent of that 833,000, we would be pretty happy," he said. "We have pretty conservative goals."

The daily shuttle will begin and end its day in Philadelphia, with its first stop at 10:30 a.m. and the last at 6:15 p.m. It will pick up visitors in Camden after making the 15-minute trip across the river. It will run through Sept. 7.

As media members and opening-day mascots exited the bus outside the visitor center yesterday after giving the shuttle a test run, a family of four - a couple and their grandsons - hopped on.

Asked if they were looking for a bus that toured Philadelphia, John Burwell, 56, of Texas, said "no."

He was there for the shuttle across the bridge, which he had read about online.

"If you didn't have this, I probably wouldn't have gone over there," he said, citing some safety concerns about Camden.

It's a long way to 1 percent of 833,000, but the Waterfront Connection already had attracted its first four passengers.

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