Petition To Ban Rush Hour Bicycles on RiverLINE Trains

I had a chilling experience on the 5:14 northbound RiverLINE train this evening.

Per my normal routine I boarded with my bicycle a Cooper St/Rutgers Station in Camden. I board there due to the proximity of the BF Bridge and to avoid the awaiting crowd at Walter Rand Transportation Center where PATCO riders from Philadelphia board.

Approximately 150 passengers including two bicyclists boarded the train at Walter Rand, amid the crowd I heard that there was a petition circulating to ban bicycles on rush hour RiverLINE trains. About 20 people signed the petition, most of them standees! There was another bicyclist in the car was in the middle of this petition melee, I felt real sorry for him.

Furious and feeling a bit like a target I managed to give the petition author my card. I said "call my office" he said "Oh yeah you know I will".

I want to lay out the real problem here, NJ TRANSIT assigns a 2 car train to this train which carries a huge chunk of 5 PM Philadelphia workers. Why is this not a 4 car train?

A 4 car train would solve the problem, the petition guy wants outside bike racks which are not permitted by the Federal RR Administration because he feels that NJT would never hook on two more cars.

Banning bikes is a scapegoat solution, let's head the petition off at the pass, I urge everyone to contact NJ TRANSIT customer service saying that you greatly appreciate rush hour bicycle access to the RiverLINE.