Shuttle buses are an important fill-in option for the parts of South Jersey other public transit can't reach. Good to see some of these routes thrive.
With fictional but science-based Mars missions topping the weekend box office, wealthy celebrities signing up for private rocket rides, driverless cars being tested on real roads, and high-speed bullet trains making city-to-city travel easy all over the developed world (except, regrettably, the United States), the lowly shuttle bus is hardly the most glamorous form of travel.
But the shuttle is one of the most useful and accessible forms of public transportation, especially in places that aren't heavily populated enough or job-rich enough to support traditional rail-line extensions or even regular, 'round-the clock bus service.
One local success story among shuttle-bus routes is expanding, and that's good news. The Salem County Community Shuttle, which started in 2013, has just added service to the Gateway Business Park in Oldmans Township.
In Salem County, it takes a proverbial village to get riders to where the jobs are. The shuttle's sponsors include the Mid-Atlantic States Career and Education Center, the county freeholders, NJTransit, the Pascale-Sykes Foundation, Salem City and Penns Grove (the bus travels trough both towns) and the Salem and Penns Grove Ministeriums.
This shows forward thinking by all of the stakeholders, since employment clusters for Salem County residents have moved northward and eastward to the Interstate Route 295 corridor in Oldmans and the adjacent Logan/Woolwich areas in Gloucester County. For example, the new Gateway stop will serve such companies as Mullica Hill Cold Storage, J.E. Berkowitz Glass, Goya Foods and National Freight Industries.
Shuttle service also counters an anti-employment trend that developed throughout America in the last recession: Young people are waiting longer before getting driver's licenses, and delaying the purchase of costly cars and insurance. With no public transit, these new job-sekers can be virtually unemployable.
MORE: Study: NJ teens waiting to get driver's licenses
Even in Gloucester County, where there are more NJTransit routes and greater close-to-home employment options, an east-west shuttle that launched June 1 is being lauded. Like the Salem operation, the Pureland East-West Community Shuttle has multiple backers. It runs from the Pureland Industrial Park in Logan to Winslow Township in Camden County.
Across South Jersey, we dream not of personal rockets, but of days ahead when commuter trains go to Glassboro, Vineland and Mount Laurel; Route 55 is completed to the shore; and Routes 42, 76 and 295 are no longer an all-hours congestion nightmare. Meanwhile, shuttles ease the pressure of connecting workers to job sites. Kudos to all who support them and keep them running.
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