Walter Rand Transportation Center is the major River LINE station serving the city of Camden, and transfer point to the PATCO High Speed Line, the main frequent way (although Sunday service is poor at half-hourly) for Passengers to cross the Delaware River and reach Downtown Philadelphia. The station area is also the major bus hub for South Jersey NJ Transit Buses many of which continue across the Ben Franklin Bridge, shared with PATCO into Downtown Philadelphia. The PATCO $1.40 rail fare is cheaper than the one-way bus fare of $2.20.
The station itself is located midblock, just after trains curve north (coming from Trenton) after crossing Broadway (ceremonially named Black Lives Matter Blvd), so the platform can be on a straightaway. The station is located just after Camden-bound trains transition much slower street and median running to the rest of the way to Waterfront, instead of as a conventional railroad that continues all the way to Trenton. This means that the track area around the platforms is not railroad ballast but is tracks depressed in concrete, although the station is on a private Right-Of-Way. The rest of the River LINE stations north of here (except the Trenton Transit Center terminus) have ballast under the tracks like a normal railroad station, not like a Light Rail Station. The station contains two tracks for the line that is double-tracked in this area.
The platforms each have the normal single River LINE station shelters in the middle of each platform with exits and pedestrian grade-crossings at each end. The Camden Waterfront-bound platform is directly alongside the driveway of the drive-thru of what was a very suburban feeling CVS pharmacy before it closed in 2019 and is now a Dollar General Store (without a drive-thru). There are no exits directly to this street, but a walkway leads south from the southern end (technically Trenton-bond end, the line curves to enter the station) of the platform to Dr. Martin Luther King Blvd and to a triangular public parking lot (not free but paid parking administered by the Camden Parking Authority).
Exits from the Trenton-bound platform consists of a sidewalk from the northwestern (Waterfront-bound) end of the platform that leads along the tracks to the grade-crossing of Federal Street, this includes a diamond crossover to allow trains to short-tern at Walter Rand Transportation Center. Towards the eastern end of the platform is a walkway that leads to the Northwest corner of one of the PATCO station entrances. At the southeastern (Trenton-bound bound actually) end of the platform is another walkway to another PATCO entrance, and sidewalk that curves around with the tracks. These lead to sidewalks across Broadway and the main entrance to the Walter Rand Transportation and the other PATCO station entrance.
When I visited the station in September 2024 the connection to PATCO was poor. The secondary entrance to the PATCO station (not through the Walter Rand Transportation Center) next to the River LINE platforms were surrounded by construction fencing and the entrance was closed to the public. This made the transfer less convenient with passengers having to cross a busy street, with barricades in lots of places, even though lots of buses stop along this street, including all weekend bus service.
Photos 1-4: March 31, 2005; 5-8: September 15, 2011; 9-13: September 1, 2024;
Cooper Street / Rutgers University 