Now officials on both sides of the Delaware River are considering two proposals to bring Gloucester County into the region's mass-transit loop, linking the fast-growing county to Center City.

One idea is to extend SEPTA's Broad Street line south to the former Navy Base, and then across - or under - the Delaware River.

The other proposal, further along and widely considered more realistic, would extend the High-Speed Line from Camden into the heart of Gloucester County.

If either proposal pans out, Eagles fans could hop a train in Deptford to get to Lincoln Financial Field. Philadelphia students could have a direct line to Rowan University in Glassboro. Commuters could read a book instead of staring at the license plate ahead of them on their way to Center City.

The goal is to get travelers out of their cars and away from the traffic jams radiating from the notorious interchange of Route 42 and Interstates 76 and 295 - the state's ninth-most congested.

"Getting into Gloucester County is an absolute necessity," said New Jersey Transportation Commissioner Jack Lettiere, who is chairman of NJ Transit. "We all know we have to get there."

When and how that happens, though, is not clear. Both proposals are in the early stages, and both face obstacles. Similar plans have been considered before, but nothing ever materialized.

Cost is high on the list of hurdles. The proposals' backers say no one agency can afford what would be a more than $1 billion project, so cooperation among agencies is key. So, too, is proving need - and public support.

That could be what separates a proposal from the dozen or so other transit ideas on the table for the greater Philadelphia area, such as the Schuylkill Valley Metro, and hundreds of others across the nation. Each is vying for dwindling federal transit dollars. In the past, the federal government has paid for up to 80 percent of new transit projects, with local agencies kicking in the other 20 percent. That formula is shifting to 50-50.

"There are too many projects, too many good ideas," said Donald Shanis, assistant executive director for transportation planning for the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, at a transit conference in Philadelphia last week. "We need to narrow them down. We know we can't afford them all."

Shanis, whose agency plays a big part in the decision-making process, said extending the High-Speed Line into Gloucester County probably topped the list of projects in South Jersey.

Many say the proposal to extend the Broad Street line into South Jersey would be too costly, especially if it involved building a tunnel under or a bridge over the Delaware River.

The nearest bridge, the Walt Whitman, was not designed to carry the load of a mass-transit line, according to the Delaware River Port Authority, which operates the span. Its sister, the Ben Franklin Bridge, which carries the High-Speed Line, was.

Philadelphia Councilman James Kenney, who introduced the proposal at a City Council meeting in May, said his main goal was to bring mass transit to the business park at the former Navy Base.

"I figured while we're doing it, while we have a hole in the ground, let's maybe look at having a regional project that could potentially alleviate congestion in South Jersey," he said. "Obviously, something like that is a huge undertaking, but as a region, we should think big."

Kenney said he was organizing hearings and meetings on the proposal. One meeting will be with officials at the port authority, which operates PATCO and is behind the plan to extend the High-Speed Line into Gloucester County. The bistate agency has spent $440,000 - and recently authorized an additional $180,000 - to study the South Jersey proposal and a new transit route to serve Philadelphia's waterfront.

That service, either a trolley or rail line, would connect to existing public transit in Center City and run along Columbus Boulevard's median from Spring Garden Street to Pier 70 near Tasker Street. The line could be extended to the former Navy Base later on.

Port authority officials have homed in on two alignments for the proposed South Jersey connection, based on meetings with local officials and reaction from four public hearings. Under one scenario, the High-Speed Line would be extended along existing railroad rights-of-way through town centers to Glassboro.

Based on current travel patterns, STV Inc., the Philadelphia consultant leading the study, predicted that such a line might draw 21,000 to 31,000 fares a day - five to seven times the 4,200 daily boardings reported by the new Camden-to-Trenton light-rail line through Burlington County.

Officials also are considering running the line down the median of Route 55. Early estimates suggest that the line could draw 17,000 to 27,000 fares a day. Both alignments would end at Glassboro, with the possibility of an extension to Millville in Cumberland County.

State Sen. Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester), who heads the Gloucester County freeholder board, said he favored neither proposal. It would make a lot more sense, he said, to run a line down notoriously clogged Route 42 - and through the population centers of Gloucester, Washington, Monroe and Winslow Townships.

"This is where the congestion is. This is where your population is," Sweeney said. "It only makes sense to invest your dollar where the congestion is being created."

The chief executive officer of the port authority, John Matheussen, who has agreed to add Sweeney's proposal to his agency's study, said any new service into Gloucester County would be modeled on the High-Speed Line, which has no grade crossings and is elevated or depressed as it passes through towns.

It is more costly than at-grade construction; preliminary estimates suggest the Route 55 alignment from Camden to Glassboro could cost up to $2.3 billion, while running the line along the rights-of-way could cost up to $2.7 billion. But officials said communities involved were concerned about safety issues at grade crossings.

Such fears played a part in killing plans to bring light rail to Gloucester County in the 1990s. The service instead went to Burlington County.

That River Line will end up costing state taxpayers $1.1 billion, with no help from the federal government. That's in large part because transit officials could not justify a need for the service, now widely promoted as an economic-development project to revive the river towns than as a solution to a transportation problem.

But there is a transportation need in Gloucester County, officials insisted, pointing to the traffic jams.

"It might take quite an effort, quite a while to get this off the ground, but I think we'll get there," Lettiere said. "It has to happen."