An editorial on Philly.com today talks about expanding the Broad Street Subway into the Navy Yard.

This is certainly a project that has been talked about going back as far as the earliest days of the Broad Street Subway, but like many transit projects in Philadelphia (Arch Street Subway anyone?) it never quite came to be. Until now. Maybe.

Like many other areas of our fair city, the Navy Yard is seeing a resurgence. Tastykake is about to be a major new tennant. Urban Outfitters will find a home there as well. This is on top of the already 8,000 people who work there.

The author argues, and I believe rightly so, that it's the perfect time to talk about an expansion. The Obama administration is handing out money for major infrastructure projects. PIDC conducted a feasibility study last year with SEPTA and the DVRPCC, with the outcome that the expansion is something that could happen.

Frankly, there's no reason for it NOT to happen. If the Navy Yard is about to explode once more with corporate growth, it only makes sense to invest the money now to make it even more accessible.

Plus, it would bring us one step closer to an expansion that most definitely should happen one day, and that's an expansion across the river to Gloucester City, NJ. This would also make Gloucester City a vital transit link in the region, because within the next ten years the PATCO expansion to Glassboro and Millville will be starting with Camden, Gloucester City, and Woodbury. It would make jobs at the Navy Yard and South Philadelphia more attractive to South Jersey residents because they would be able to get into South Philadelphia without having to take PATCO into Center City or NJ Transit to 30th Street.

The Broad Street Subway hasn't seen a significant enhancement since the expansion to Pattison in 1973. The potential for explosive growth is there and it would be foolish to not try and harness it.