The announcement last week that diesel light-rail trains would run again over a Conrail freight line was good news for commuters looking to beat gas prices, as well as homeowners who - amid a real-estate downturn - appreciate that nearby transit could boost property values.

Both the state Planning Commission and state Office of Smart Growth were on target in recommending the link with Glassboro, which would serve Rowan University and connect in Camden to PATCO and River Line trains.

Woodbury Mayor Robert Curtis noted that his town, with its 1883 train station, and others were "the original transit villages." Indeed, Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron points out that reviving the rail line through older town centers such as Woodbury, Gloucester City, and Pitman "could spread Collingswood-style revival deep into Gloucester County."

For Rowan, university president Donald Farish sees it as a case of back to the future, since rail "is the way people used to get to campus."

Officially adding the rail line to the governor's $2 billion mass-transportation plan doesn't make it a done deal, of course. But it moves the project from concept - where it has languished for more than a dozen years - into the planning stage.

Corzine has pledged $500 million for the state plan, which also provides for highway improvements, upgrading existing rail service to Atlantic City and in North Jersey, and creating a second rail tunnel under the Hudson River to New York. Much of the additional funding would come via the federal government, which should look favorably on a $1.3 billion rail project that would benefit the environment, ease traffic congestion, and spur economic development in the region.

At the same time, the governor's plan smartly acknowledges that - in the short term - something must be done to ease traffic jams along nearby Routes 42 and 55. The proposed addition of express bus lanes on these highly congested roads means that motorists also have a big stake in seeing the transportation plan to fruition.