SJ rail line will not be operated by DRPA

A proposed commuter rail line between Glassboro and Camden won't be built or operated by the Delaware River Port Authority, officials said Wednesday.

The DRPA board agreed to pay $450,000 for work already done on an environmental as sessment, with assurances that it eventually will be reimbursed by NJTransit.

But future spending on the line remains uncertain because of the state's financial problems, and several DRPA board members questioned the wisdom of using DRPA money for a line that the agency won't build or run.

The funding questions on the proposed South Jersey light-rail line came a day after the Christie administration indefinitely suspended about 100 other state-funded road and rail projects.

Christie last month halted work for 30 days on a $8.7 billion rail tunnel between New Jersey and Manhattan to review budget concerns.

DRPA chairman John Matheussen said he remained optimistic the South Jersey rail line would proceed. Funding and logistics concerns about the North Jersey tunnel should not affect the local project, he said.

"I don't know that one has anything to do with the other," Matheussen said. "We don't think we have the same issues in South Jersey."

The proposed light-rail line would run 18 miles alongside an existing Conrail freight line through Glassboro, Pitman, Mantua, Wenonah, Woodbury, Deptford, West Deptford, Westville, Bellmawr, Brooklawn, Gloucester City and Camden.

The line would connect to PATCO and River Line trains in Camden, where passengers could catch trains to Philadelphia or Trenton.

Last year, then-Gov. Jon S. Corzine promised to provide $500 million for the $1.5 billion line. The money was to come from the Transportation Trust Fund, which is funded with gas-tax revenues and borrowed money.

The DRPA was counting on up to $9 million of that aid to pay for an environmental-impact statement required before work can proceed on the rail line.

But the transportation fund is almost broke, and NJTransit notified DRPA that it couldn't fund the work now.

NJTransit told DRPA it would eventually reimburse DRPA for the money it spends on preparation for the rail line, once the transportation fund is replenished.

With that assurance, the DRPA board Wednesday voted to use $450,000 to pay engineering consultant STV Inc. of Philadelphia for environmental work already done.

The environmental study could cost up to $9 million and take two years.

The DRPA is seeking bids for the environmental study, after the Christie administration objected to a no-bid, $8.9 million contract awarded in July 2009 to STV for the work.

DRPA chief financial officer John Hanson said Wednesday that "we are not contemplating any contribution to building it or operating it."

In the past few years, as the DRPA directed the process for selecting a route, arranging for environmental studies and laying the groundwork for possible federal funding, the agency left open the possibility that its PATCO subsidiary could operate the line.

Matheussen said Wednesday that would not happen.

"NJTransit is the more solid candidate to operate this," he said.

That prompted DRPA board member Robert Teplitz, representing Pennsylvania auditor general Jack Wagner, to ask, "Why spend our money if we're not going to operate it?"

And board member John "Johnny Doc" Dougherty said he worried the proposed rail line "could be like the FastShip or the tram," two earlier multimillion-dollar DRPA projects that failed.

"The jeopardy lies in whether the administration will honor the IOU," said Zoe Baldwin, the New Jersey coordinator of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a transit-advocacy group. "It would be incredibly shortsighted not to proceed with these projects that provide access to better job markets."

The rail-line vote came near the end of a long, sometimes-contentious meeting.

The board, under pressure to reform the agency's operating and government practices, put off decisions on two high-profile changes and rejected another.

The board tabled a proposal on banning political contributions by companies that do work for the DRPA. It asked its lawyers to come up with a plan that could survive expected legal challenges.

The board also postponed action on a proposal to create a new position of inspector general. Two influential local congressmen, Reps. Bob Brady (D., Pa.) and Rob Andrews (D., N.J.), last week asked the DRPA to install an inspector general to improve management practices.

The board narrowly rejected a proposal to prohibit former employees from working for companies that do business with the DRPA for two years after leaving the authority.

That could set up another conflict with Christie, who last month vetoed a less-stringent measure for not being restrictive enough.

DRPA chairman John Estey led the opposition to the proposal, saying he believed it would prompt "a mass exodus of our professional staff and hamstring our ability to recruit staff."

Estey was joined in voting "no" by Pennsylvania board members Robert Bogle, Robin Wiessmann and Frank DiCicco. Since a majority of each state's eight-member delegation is required for passage, the proposal failed.

At the meeting, there was a verbal dustup between Dougherty and two top-ranking DRPA staffers when Dougherty asked about rumors that a DRPA police officer had been prevented from "doing his job" in an unspecified encounter.

Dougherty said he had heard "strong rumors" that police chief David McClintock intervened "to take care of somebody you know." Dougherty said he'd heard chief counsel Richard Brown made a phone call "to keep a cop from doing his job."

Brown responded angrily that "any suggestion that anybody called the legal department for a favor is crap."

And McClintock stood up and told Dougherty to "get your facts straight."

The police chief said an arrest had been made by an officer who called the chief's office to inquire about possible legal challenges. He said "disgruntled employees" had mischaracterized the incident. And he accused Dougherty of going on TV where "you slammed me personally" with allegations of nepotism that were "absolutely false."

Dougherty, a Philadelphia labor leader, has called in recent months for the dismissal of Brown and Matheussen, and he has been an outspoken critic of DRPA management and financial practices.

In a break with tradition, the Camden-based DRPA will hold its next meeting in the evening, in Philadelphia, to make it easier for the public to attend.

The meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 20 at the Philadelphia Cruise Terminal, Building #3, 5100 S. Broad St.