Declining Atlantic City Train Draws Loyal Commuter Crowd

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More people than you might guess get up every weekday at the crack of dawn and drive, walk or take a bus to the Atlantic City rail terminal to wait for the 6:40 am train to Philadelphia. At the station, they greet fellow commuters and ask them about their weekend plans or chat about what they watched last night. On the train, they welcome kindred commuters who board at Absecon or Egg Harbor City and share their day-in, day-out slog to work and back. Ridership on the Atlantic City-Philadelphia train line – one of the nation’s oldest – has been steadily declining in line with casino closures in Atlantic City that mean fewer visitors are coming to the faded resort town. But passenger numbers on the rail line are not down as much as bus-passenger numbers, according to South Jersey Transportation Authority data, and that may reflect the small but loyal commuter train crowd. Train passenger numbers have fallen 5.1 percent through August this year, compared to a decline of 10.4 percent in bus passengers, according to SJTA’s numbers.

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AC’s New Overlord and Bleak Budget News For All Of NJ – Tuesday’s Roundup

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Atlantic City has a new overlord: Jeff Chiesi. The Press of Atlantic City says he is a close ally of Governor Chris Christie. Chiesi will be the man tasked with disappearing the city’s $100 million budget hole by wielding his not-insignificant powers to cut jobs and union contracts. Oh, and maybe to sell the water authority. The outlook on the budget for the entire state of New Jersey took a turn for the worse too yesterday after credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s lowered its rating for the garden state, citing worries over its ballooning pensions and planned tax cuts.

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Ride-Sharing and Healthcare – Monday’s Roundup

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What happens when ride-sharing services move in to cash-strapped South Jersey municipalities? A whole lot of fines, drivers for Uber told the Press of Atlantic City. The drivers say they are being unfairly targeted by Atlantic City and other towns that need to offset diminished revenues. Meanwhile, NJ Spotlight has a look into something that is called ‘value-based’ healthcare. Apparently, more and more doctors in New Jersey are having their payments tied to the long-term health of their patients – sounds too sensible to be true, but since the Garden State has one of the most expensive healthcare systems in the country, here’s hoping it works.

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South Jersey Images of the Week, Nov. 12

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It was a big week in national and local news, with a general election and a state takeover of Atlantic City. While there was a lot of relief that the campaign period ended, we wrote about some of the interesting ballot questions and the results from referenda that include everything from changing the way of choosing a school board (Linwood) to introducing liquor licenses (Ventnor). The following day the state decided to take over Atlantic City and we wrote about the – still up-in-the-air – consequences of that decision. The weather, meanwhile, was mostly fantastic and there were some great photos taken of fall foliage and wintry sunsets. Maybe next week we’ll have some amazing shots of the super moon.

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More Election Fallout, Gas Tax Fallout and Happy Veterans Day – Friday’s Roundup

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Election Day + 3 and we’re still sifting through the detritus. A excellent piece of data visualization work by NJ.com can show you how your town–and other towns across the state–voted in the presidential race. Spoiler alert but the inner-ring suburbs went red in Atlantic County, which overall went blue. Anyway, it’s kind of fascinating for fans of the North Jersey-South Jersey game too. Maybe the lines are more complicated than we thought. Also, it’s Veterans Day.

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Pipelines and Takeover Questions – Thursday’s Roundup

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PennEast

A $1 billion gas pipeline that investors hope will bring cheaper gas to South Jersey from Northeastern Pennsylvania has been delayed by federal regulators after late route changes. It’s not clear how the hold-up will affect the pipeline’s construction. It was scheduled to come online in the second half of 2018. Folsom, Atlantic County-based South Jersey Industries has invested $200 million in the project (that’s more than 20 times what they’re spending on their new Atlantic City office) and they’ve been touting it as a big deal to their shareholders. The pipeline has come under fire from environmental groups along the route between Luzerne County, PA and Mercer County, NJ.

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Liquor Licenses, Longport Libary and Trouble in Trenton – Wednesday’s Roundup

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It’s been a bat*hit crazy 24 hours around here – leaving aside the presidential election, there will be some major changes as a result of ballot questions locally and there are a lot of questions to ask about local races that were much closer than anyone anticipated. The biggest onshore news was that Ventnor said YES to liquor licenses and Longport said NO to being part of the county library system. And Atlantic City almost voted in favor of school vouchers. You can see some of our election coverage here. The other big news was of course the state’s decision to take over Atlantic City.

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State Takeover Means Higher Taxes & Who Knows What Else?

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We were in Trenton today to follow what went down at the meeting of state officials tasked with deciding whether or not to take over Atlantic City. Two things were decided in quick succession – so quick, in fact, that most people in the room missed them – and that may or may not have been deliberate, you decide:
1. The state approved Atlantic City’s 2016 budget with one change
2. The change was to raise property taxes in the city (which as we know is already gasping after the tax rate has doubled in five years)

The state’s local finance board then voted unanimously to execute the state’s power to take the reins in Atlantic City, but took the option of bankruptcy off the table, meaning that the state has to turn the city around without filing for court protection from its creditors. When pressed by the press, the bureaucrat now in charge of Atlantic City, Tim Cunningham, said that he wasn’t sure exactly what new powers he has or what he will do.

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South Jersey 2016 Election Results Live Blog

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We will be live blogging and covering election results in South Jersey as they come in – with a particular focus on Atlantic County and our local ballot questions. (function() {
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Rep. Frank LoBiondo Really Doesn’t Want To Comment – Tuesday’s Roundup

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If you didn’t vote already, watch the amazing video below from the Inquirer’s Amy Rosenberg, asking Rep. Frank LoBiondo (up for reelection) to comment on why he decided to vote for Trump – after just recently making a big song and dance about how he could not possibly vote for Trump. U.S. Rep Frank LoBiondo, R-New Jersey, refusing to explain why he changed his mind and voted for Donald Trump after all. #oops pic.twitter.com/NccquAmMI1
— Amy S. Rosenberg (@amysrosenberg) November 8, 2016

 

There’s some other news today too, in among all the election coverage. You should read this from The Atlantic City Press on how the state again rejected Atlantic City’s recovery plan. Tomorrow in Trenton the state’s Local Finance Board will be deciding what bits of Atlantic City’s government and assets it would like to take control – we will be covering it on Twitter so you can follow us there @route_40 from about 11am.

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