Cape May County Chamber of Commerce hosts panel discussion on transportation
CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE — “South Jersey has been ignored for many decades,” said Kris Kolluri, an executive with the state’s top transportation organizations.
“Only government could mess this up for so long,” added state Sen. Michael Testa, noting that none of the bus routes from Vineland to Atlantic City coincide with the riders’ work shifts.
Transportation in the southernmost counties of the Garden State was the featured topic July 23 during the Cape May County Chamber of Commerce’s monthly membership meeting at the Avalon Links Restaurant.
Testa, R-Cape May, Cumberland, Atlantic, moderated a panel discussion between Kolluri, president and CEO of New Jersey Transit and executive director of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, and Stephen F. Dougherty, executive director of South Jersey Transportation Authority.
“This is really an all-star lineup,” Testa said.
Kolluri was appointed to lead NJ Transit on Jan. 16, 2025, by then-Gov. Phil Murphy, making him responsible for the country’s largest statewide public transportation system.
Testa said the system provides “more than 944,000 weekday trips” on “over 250 bus routes, three light rail lines, 12 commuter rail lines and, through the agency’s Access Link, para-transit service.”
“No small task, folks,” he told attendees.
Testa said there “has been a sea change since Kolluri was appointed president.”
“Prior to Kolluri, I would refer to NJ Transit as ‘North Jersey’ Transit,” Testa said.
Kolluri spearheaded the Oct. 1, 2025, launch of a pilot program that featured two express weekday roundtrips providing direct service between the Vineland Transportation Center and the Atlantic City Bus Terminal.
NJ Transit partnered with the South Jersey Transportation Authority to launch this pilot shuttle service connecting the urban centers.
Kolluri said that micro-transit is the future for southern New Jersey transit, noting that “we need to fundamentally rethink our approach to how much money we spend trying to solve one problem while not addressing 100 problems.”
But he said there needs to be a reasonable goal.
“South Jersey needs to be less focused on asking for a $4 billion train that will never happen,” said Kolluri, noting that the focus needs to be on connecting South Jersey neighborhoods to important places, which is more “cost-effective.”
He opined that it might not even be run by NJ Transit and, “that’s OK, too.”
“I actually think we need to go to a private sector. In fact, Jersey City did that,” Kolluri said.
He added that the public needs to get past the notion that buses are only for poor people.
“We need to do a better job of taking brand new buses, community sector buses, private sector buses that makes people feel like they are being moved in a respectable, thoughtful, clean way,” Kolluri said. “We need to think about this in a nontraditional way.”
Kolluri noted that the FIFA World Cup “was sold as a mass transit event” but “the exact opposite happened.”
He said that was an important lesson that he learned that changed his mind about solving the transportation problem, noting that he now believes we need to meet people where they are located.
“I’ve come to now understand much more very, very specifically that mass transit is part of the solution, not the solution. It’s not appropriate for every community because some communities just want to be car-centric,” Kolluri said.
Dougherty discussed the progress of the all-electronic tolling program on that Atlantic City Expressway that was launched in January 2026.
“It’s gone a lot better than we ever thought,” he said.
Dougherty noted that July 4 weekend realized the most traffic in the past 16 years.
“For us, we want to have a road that costumers want to ride on. … We want it to be as pristine as possible,” he said.
In October, the South Jersey Transportation Authority will break ground on a $300 million project to widen the Atlantic City Expressway from mile marker 31 to mile marker 44, adding a lane in each direction.
Dougherty noted that a traffic jam can totally ruin all the fun that families have on their trip to the Jersey shore.
“We want the last part of their trip to be just as good as anytime they spent walking on the boardwalk, being on the beach,” he said.
Although it is “a big commitment,” Dougherty said he is confident that the expansion is going to get people moving more efficiently and quickly than ever before.
Testa asked Dougherty about recent developments at Atlantic City International Airport.
Dougherty recalled receiving a call at 4 a.m. May 1 informing him that Spirit Airlines ceased operations at ACY.
“Seventy six percent of customers flying out of ACY flew Spirit,” he said.
In one day, Dougherty said the SJTA secured Breeze Airways, which picked up 40 percent of that 76 percent gap left in the wake of Spirit’s departure.
In addition, the airport now offers American Airlines Plus services, which enables travelers to be screened by TSA at ACY and then transported by bus directly to a gate inside Philadelphia International Airport’s secure area to catch their flight without being re-screened.
“By the end of the year, we are going to be in all of the markets that Spirit was in,” Dougherty said.
He also talked about South Jersey Connects, a pilot program that was launched June 1, funded by a $5 million grant. It offers a free regional shuttle service that connects residents of Gloucester, Salem and Cumberland counties to jobs, health care, food and other services in southern New Jersey.
“With Kris’ commitment and our partnership, it’s only going to get better,” Dougherty said.
Kolluri urged the business group’s members to use the free shuttle service.
“You can’t say we are in a transit desert and not use it,” Kolluri said.
Testa noted that, to him, transportation “is a nonpartisan issue.”
“This is a spark of the discussion. This is the beginning and not the end,” he said.
By JENNIFER HANS/For the Star and Wave
