Sweeney and State Sen. Donald Norcross (D., Camden) said the rail line would boost the towns along its route and ease traffic for Philadelphia-bound drivers on heavily traveled Routes 42 and 55.
The line's anchors would be Rowan and Rutgers-Camden, Norcross said.
Not long after the 9 a.m. DRPA meeting, he and Sweeney traveled about a half-mile to Rutgers-Camden, and spoke to the Rutgers University board of governors in favor of Gov. Christie's controversial plan to merge Rowan and the Camden campus under the Rowan banner.
Norcross' brother George E. Norcross III, the South Jersey Democratic Party power-broker who also is chairman of Cooper University Hospital in Camden, has been a driving force behind the proposed consolidation.
The $1.6 billion light-rail line would run alongside a Conrail freight line through Glassboro, Pitman, Mantua, Wenonah, Woodbury, Deptford, West Deptford, Westville, Bellmawr, Brooklawn, Gloucester City, and Camden.
It would connect to PATCO and River Line trains at the Walter Rand Transportation Center in Camden, where passengers could catch trains to Philadelphia or Trenton.
The first leg of the line, from Camden to Woodbury, could be operational in about five years if financing is available, the DRPA officials have said.
But that's a big if.
The DRPA has said it won't pay to build or operate the line, and NJ Transit has not committed to paying for it, either.
NJ Transit will pay for the environmental-impact study approved Wednesday, and the DRPA will oversee that work.
The study will be done by STV Inc., an engineering and architectural firm headquartered in Douglassville, Pa. It will take about two years.
