He's sick of the traffic, the flooding, the crazy drivers. After 20 years, Ebert, 61, is ready to be saved from his car.

And NJ Transit's new River Line, which is scheduled to begin running next Sunday, might be what he's been waiting for.

"I'm looking forward to being able to get on, read the paper or listen to music, and get off without having to drive through all that traffic every day," said Ebert, a financial analyst.

With just a week left before the Camden-to-Trenton light-rail line is scheduled to start service, many who live and work in the region are weighing how - and whether - South Jersey's first new mass-transit offering in 35 years could make their travels easier, shorter or cheaper.

For Ebert, the decision to hop on the train was easy. He lives and works along the 34-mile line, and the train will deliver him literally to the doorstep of his office on the Camden waterfront.

For others, the decision to break current travel patterns may not be so obvious.

Those are the people whom NJ Transit needs to persuade to boost ridership on a billion-dollar train that has been plagued by controversy and delays, and that in the end, critics say, few people will use.

Even the current transit chief has criticized the line, conceived during the administration of former Gov. Christie Whitman, as a poor use of coveted transit dollars. Including debt payments, the line will cost taxpayers $1.1 billion.

Advocates argue that in the long term, the returns will be huge: an economic rebirth of dying river towns.

But the short-term outlook, transit officials acknowledge, is dismal: Riders are expected to make 5,700 daily trips on the line in the first year of service, 9,550 fewer than North Jersey's Hudson-Bergen light-rail line, and 27,300 fewer than the PATCO High-Speed Line between Philadelphia and South Jersey.

Boosting those numbers means overcoming some serious barriers. Transit officials are marketing a line that could have been the perfect commuter vehicle for Trenton Statehouse workers, but that stops a mile short of the capitol complex. And it could be a great way to herd people to and from evening concerts or baseball games in Camden, but provides only limited late-night service because freight trains have rights to the track overnight.

NJ Transit is counting on an introductory one-way fare of $1.10, good for at least a year, to lure riders.

The agency also has begun pushing the service not just as a pipeline for people along the Delaware River corridor, but also as a connector for the region. For example, the River Line schedule was synchronized with NJ Transit's Northeast Corridor line, which connects Trenton and Manhattan.

And to promote the line's use to get to and from Philadelphia, officials are offering a special transfer fare of $1.85 that includes a ride on the River Line and a connection to Center City by a NJ Transit bus.

"All of these things are to make the River Line attractive, to encourage people to ride the system," said NJ Transit spokeswoman Penny Bassett-Hackett. "It really does open up the state to them."

The prospects have some people thinking.

David Salkin of Center City said he was always looking for cheap ways to get to New York. He figures that once he reaches Camden, he can take the River Line, then transfer in Trenton to catch the train into New York's Penn Station.

"It's somewhat inconvenient to change vehicles so many times, but the price is right, and if it's comfortable and timely, I would definitely use it," said Salkin, 40, owner of Millennium Coffee. "If they promoted it properly here in town, I think other people would, too."

If it means getting off the bus, Keith Sadler is all for it. The truck dispatcher recently rode home to Beverly from Pennsauken on the No. 419, which runs parallel to the River Line. The bus had to detour because of bridge work in Camden.

"This bus is always late," said Sadler, 34. "I can't take this."

Of the train's $1.10 fare, which is 75 cents less than the bus ride, he said: "You can't beat it."

Transit officials estimate that commuters such as Sadler will account for 65 percent of trips taken on the line during its first year. Some, such as Don Johnson of Palmyra, have no use for the train to get to work or school. But Johnson, a retiree, said he would ride it "for fun, if nothing else... . Go to Trenton for lunch, that type of thing."

Johnson also leads youth trips to the Statehouse as part of a program to promote the democratic process. And the rail line, he said, could come in handy for that, too. When told that the line doesn't quite make it to the Statehouse, he paused. "Hmm, that's a liability."

For some, so are the train's hours. The first trains leave around 6 a.m. - precisely the hour Barry Banta, a construction worker, has to be at work.

"I might take it home, but it won't run early enough to get me to work on time," said Banta, 43, of Burlington City.

Shirley Bailey, 60, of the Cramer Hill section of Camden, said she, too, would stick with the bus. The reason: she lives about 14 blocks from the nearest train station at 36th Street in Pennsauken. The River Line doesn't come close enough. "I'd have to catch a bus to get back home," she said.

Ted Bross, who lives in Haddonfield and works at Princeton University, doesn't have that problem. He has a car, and can drive from his home to a park-and-ride lot in Pennsauken. From there, he can take the River Line to Trenton and transfer trains to get to Princeton, where he works at the university in information technology.

It's not the most direct route, but the way he figures, it's worth a test run. As it is, it takes 50 minutes on a good day to drive to work, and as long as three hours on a terrible day.

"The driving is killing me," said Bross. "If I can keep this to less than an hour and a half, then the transfers won't bother me... . I'm going to give it my best shot."