NJ Transit Dead in the Water

Service interrupted out of NY Penn. Again. Thinking of driving out to Mendham to take a dump on Christie's front steps.

^^^^This is one of my favorite posts of the year!

All for it, but save it for a day when he's in the state:

http://project.wnyc.org/christie/#where

catch22 said:
Service interrupted out of NY Penn. Again. Thinking of driving out to Mendham to take a dump on Christie's front steps.

Maybe wrap it an an NJ Transit schedule and light it for extra urgency.

Never one to recount how Christie wrecked our commuter system, I'll note again he's reduced NJT's subsidies from $309 million to $33 million. There's now way that isn't the root cause of equipment problems on NJT's end. And with NJT taking capital money to cover operating expenses, the log term time bomb is just being lit.

Besides having stolen the $2.7 billion meant for ARC for highway repairs, it seems almost $1 billion of the money spent on ARC was wasted. And Christie's solution to the most critical travel bottleneck in the US? Extend the PATH to Newark Airport, a $1.5 billion thank you to United for Newark improvements and providing since cancelled service to AC Airport after Christie forced the PA to take it over.

http://www.northjersey.com/news/1-2b-for-what-much-of-the-cash-spent-on-scrapped-plan-for-arc-tunnel-will-go-to-waste-1.1389339

This will duplicate existing service provided by the NE Corridor station, though it might hold some long term benefits for Lower Manhattan and Jersey City. It would arguably be worth it if it connected directly to the terminals, but it will hook into the monorail just like the NEC stop. As it stands, it's the lowest of the low in terms of desperately needed projects.

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/new-jersey/2015/09/8576479/nj-democrats-port-should-suspend-plan-15-b-path-extension?news-image

This will no doubt make you feel much less antipathy to our fine Governor, who's worked very hard to amass the worst transportation, and especially mass transit, record ever.

And I'll keep posting my brilliant mashup until someone shares my sense of hilarity..

Christie is a fraud

rags3 said:
Christie is a fraud

I am starting to run out of words to describe the man. I wonder if he is even aware of the extent of the real hatred for him in New Jersey. He is has only a single guiding principle and that is whatever will get him ahead. I have no doubt that he would have people murdered if that is what it took to advance his own interests.

catch22 said:
Service interrupted out of NY Penn. Again. Thinking of driving out to Mendham to take a dump on Christie's front steps.

Please post address, so I can send a Christmas card

And there's this...

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/07/16/nyregion/new-jersey-transit-board-approves-fare-increases-and-service-changes.html?referrer=

Fares on the agency’s network of trains, buses and trolleys will rise about 9 percent, on average, in October. The increase will add up to $40 to the price of a monthly pass for some commuters who ride trains to Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan.

dk50b said:
Never one to recount how Christie wrecked our commuter system, I'll note again he's reduced NJT's subsidies from $309 million to $33 million.

I'm glad fewer taxes are subsidizing your commute.

I dunno. The way I look at it, NJT does pretty damned well at moving a lot of folks in and out of NYC most days and keeping cars off of the roads. I am a daily commuter, and I would say that 95% of my trips in and out go reasonably well.

As with any fixed point transportation system (tied to specific rails and terminals only), any disruption is going to be a real problem because it is near impossible to re-route traffic, as you can with cars or boats, for example.

And given the ridiculous lack of support for mass transit by the State and Federal governments, NJT has been handed a pretty bad hand to play with.

That all said, NJT does a particularly poor job of handling the inevitable problems that arise from an aging infrastructure and fixed point transportation system. And this increases the frustration of commuters 100 fold.

lord_pabulum said:

dk50b said:
Never one to recount how Christie wrecked our commuter system, I'll note again he's reduced NJT's subsidies from $309 million to $33 million.

I'm glad fewer taxes are subsidizing your commute.

do you work from home? or are the taxes the rest of us pay subsidizing your driving commute?

Hahaha said:
And there's this...
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/07/16/nyregion/new-jersey-transit-board-approves-fare-increases-and-service-changes.html?referrer=
Fares on the agency’s network of trains, buses and trolleys will rise about 9 percent, on average, in October. The increase will add up to $40 to the price of a monthly pass for some commuters who ride trains to Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan.

no one likes a fare increase, but that's poor reporting. "some commuters" will pay another $40 a month? what's the average increase? Nine percent on a Maplewood-NYP monthly would be about $20 a month.

ml1 said:

Hahaha said:
And there's this...
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/07/16/nyregion/new-jersey-transit-board-approves-fare-increases-and-service-changes.html?referrer=
Fares on the agency’s network of trains, buses and trolleys will rise about 9 percent, on average, in October. The increase will add up to $40 to the price of a monthly pass for some commuters who ride trains to Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan.

no one likes a fare increase, but that's poor reporting. "some commuters" will pay another $40 a month? what's the average increase? Nine percent on a Maplewood-NYP monthly would be about $20 a month.

Seems accurate enough to me. They included the 9% rate increase.

And, for what it's worth, $20 per month can mean a lot to some people. And, with repeated delays and overcrowding, any increase seems like salt in the wound.

Hahaha said:

ml1 said:

Hahaha said:
And there's this...
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/07/16/nyregion/new-jersey-transit-board-approves-fare-increases-and-service-changes.html?referrer=
Fares on the agency’s network of trains, buses and trolleys will rise about 9 percent, on average, in October. The increase will add up to $40 to the price of a monthly pass for some commuters who ride trains to Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan.

no one likes a fare increase, but that's poor reporting. "some commuters" will pay another $40 a month? what's the average increase? Nine percent on a Maplewood-NYP monthly would be about $20 a month.

Seems accurate enough to me. They included the 9% rate increase.
And, for what it's worth, $20 per month can mean a lot to some people. And, with repeated delays and overcrowding, any increase seems like salt in the wound.

I'm not saying it doesn't mean a lot to some people. But it is indeed poor reporting, designed to make the increase seem even more than it is. Is the average NJ commuter really paying $450 a month for a rail pass? I doubt it.

I will be at $390 a month from Morristown. Folks in Denville or Dover are over $420 I believe.

It is still a better deal for me than driving to the City every day. And better for the environment.

mfpark said:
I will be at $390 a month from Morristown. Folks in Denville or Dover are over $420 I believe.
It is still a better deal for me than driving to the City every day. And better for the environment.

People don't like to hear this kind of thing, but the increases haven't been outrageous over time. It's just that NJT hits you with it once every 3 or 5 years and it seems like a huge bite all at once. When MTD started in 1996, the monthly from Maplewood was $125. After a 9% increase it will be approximately $227. The average annual increase over 20 years works out to be 3%.

average annual inflation rate since 1996? 3%

http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/historical-inflation-rates/

True. My big problem is that my income has not kept up with inflation. That is not NJT's fault.

mfpark said:
True. My big problem is that my income has not kept up with inflation. That is not NJT's fault.

But neither has NJTransit's service. THAT, though, is it's fault.

ml1 said:

lord_pabulum said:

dk50b said:
Never one to recount how Christie wrecked our commuter system, I'll note again he's reduced NJT's subsidies from $309 million to $33 million.

I'm glad fewer taxes are subsidizing your commute.

do you work from home? or are the taxes the rest of us pay subsidizing your driving commute?

If you mean taxes used for road maintenance and you don't drive then yes, ml1, you are subsidizing my commute - thank you

lord_pabulum said:

ml1 said:

lord_pabulum said:

dk50b said:
Never one to recount how Christie wrecked our commuter system, I'll note again he's reduced NJT's subsidies from $309 million to $33 million.

I'm glad fewer taxes are subsidizing your commute.

do you work from home? or are the taxes the rest of us pay subsidizing your driving commute?

If you mean taxes used for road maintenance and you don't drive then yes, ml1, you are subsidizing my commute - thank you

Such entitlement... tsk...

If you look beyond the dollars in your pocket, and consider the benefits of having more commuters on trains, we all subsidize each others' commutes.

How many people fit on the average NJT train into Manhattan? And what would the roads look like if they all had to drive instead?

So, you're welcome.

Not to mention the increased value of all of our homes because of the (mostly convenient) train service.

I am a supporter of good public transportation and Christie is a typical short-sighted pol. There was an interesting thread about public transportation recently here

Steve said:

mfpark said:
True. My big problem is that my income has not kept up with inflation. That is not NJT's fault.

But neither has NJTransit's service. THAT, though, is it's fault.

I've been commuting by train for 25 years. To be honest, there are aspects of the commute that are better than they were in the past. The double deckers are less crowded, cleaner and more comfortable. I like to be able to buy my tickets by app. The trains aren't more likely to break down or be late than they ever were in the past. NJT's communication when there are problems has been bad for as long as I've been commuting, so not like that's anything new.

and it still beats driving.

Could it and should it be better? Absolutely. But until we decide as a country that rail transportation is important, and it's a priority to upgrade the Northeast Corridor, the tunnels, and the stations, I'm not sure what we can expect from NJ Transit regarding better service.

I've only been commuting on NJTransit for less than 10 years and it seems that NJ Transit has been noticeably less reliable post-Sandy. These last three years seem to have been worse than the years prior. This degradation includes the instances when there are equipment shortages and failures due to the loss of rolling stock.

eta: While the whole app-based ticket purchasing and electronic communication is nice, I don't think that it should be considered in the context of the commuting service in that those options simply didn't exist years ago and they are merely trying to keep up with the times. I would suspect that many tech folks would criticize NJ Transit's use of technology (both in terms of when it commenced using it as well as substantively).

lord_pabulum said:

ml1 said:

lord_pabulum said:

dk50b said:
Never one to recount how Christie wrecked our commuter system, I'll note again he's reduced NJT's subsidies from $309 million to $33 million.

I'm glad fewer taxes are subsidizing your commute.

do you work from home? or are the taxes the rest of us pay subsidizing your driving commute?

If you mean taxes used for road maintenance and you don't drive then yes, ml1, you are subsidizing my commute - thank you

lord_pabulum, I haven't commuted for 10 years. Mrs. dk commutes to Hoboken, which thanks to the diversion of most travelers to Penn Station remains, for the time being, a bastion of decent service. I'm glad you recognize that everyone pays the cost of your driving, along with everyone who uses a private vehicle. Driving is the most highly subsidized activity in America, with about 50% of the cost of maintaining the road network paid by user fees. In 2010, the year covered in this article, that totaled $78 billion nationwide, though some put it closer to $100 billion when all costs are included.

http://usa.streetsblog.org/2013/01/23/drivers-cover-just-51-percent-of-u-s-road-spending/

http://vault.sierraclub.org/sprawl/articles/subsidies.pdf

Although transit riders pay a lower portion of their costs, transit's overall subsidies are dwarfed by highways. Federal expenditures are $8 billion, so being generous the total could be $13 billion. I can't find the numbers for NJ, but a Wisconsin study found everyone hands $780 to drivers a year, and $50 to commuters.

http://usa.streetsblog.org/2011/12/12/transit%E2%80%99s-not-sucking-the-taxpayer-dry-roads-are/

To reward the people who do the most environmental damage and penalize the ones who provide a net benefit seems perverse. Under Christie's reign, commuters have seen the largest fare (tax) hikes in history, while the slashed subsidies you (I think) applaud will inevitably lead to tremendous declines in the quality and frequency of service. With NJT now heavily dipping into its capital budget to make up for the lost funding, the system's infrastructure will take a nosedive.

Easily forgotten is that the bus ridership is twice that of rail. The median income of bus riders is well below that of rail commuters, meaning an outsized impact of fare hikes and service cutbacks for nondrivers who depend on the bus to get to work. If jobs go out of reach, social costs obviously become much higher.

http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/15/03/04/nj-transit-s-plan-to-close-80m-budget-gap-fare-hikes-and-service-cuts/

Meanwhile, NJ drivers have been artificially insulated from the true costs of their actions, to the point that the Transportation Trust Fund is on the verge of bankruptcy. That's what $5 billion in borrowing and no gas tax increase in 27 years buys everyone. Preventing a tax hike was the only reason for cancelling ARC, a foolhardy one shot theft setting the stage for commuting armageddon and forfeiting $18 billion in increased property tax revenue and continuing loss of competitiveness to NY as it completes massive transit upgrades.

Once again I apologize for the lecture, but the huge value of decent transit service and reliable access to higher paying NY City jobs makes higher transit subsidies well worth it. At the same time, it's unconscionable that our road network will soon see a halt in maintenance and improvements because drivers are an undeservedly protected special interest.

The chickens aren't just roosting in Maplewood back yards, and when they come home to roost on the our collapsing transportation system the state's economy will take an enormous hit.

Great great post, DK! Thanks!

Recently, nj.com published an article about the transit lines that come closest to breaking even. http://www.nj.com/traffic/index.ssf/2015/08/which_nj_transit_bus_or_train_routes_come_closest_to_breaking_even.html#incart_river

I ride the NE Corridor for most of my commute and found this tidbit interesting:

"On the rail side, to no one's surprise, the busy Northeast Corridor line is king, where fares from 32.2 million passengers covered 88 percent of the cost to operate those trains in 2014."

Also:

"While some motorists may fume that they are subsidizing the rest of the cost, a study by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group released in May found that drivers also are subsidized, unless they use a toll road.

The report cited Federal Highway Administration statistics from 2012 that said drivers paid 48 percent of the cost of road maintenance and construction through gas taxes and other fees. General taxes paid 42 percent and the remaining 10 percent were covered by highway revenues. Local roads are paid for through municipal and county property taxes."

Word on the street is that NJT is all tangled up in Amtrack's centenary wire again. I've seen both 90 (earlier) and 60 (currently) minute delays being thrown around. Still about two hours before I normally would head home, so no idea what it's really like.

PATH (33rd) and Waterway (Pier 11/WFC) are cross honoring.

A W E S O M E !!!

As I was writing that post NJT posted to Twitter that delays are 30 minutes. So maybe it's getting better? Maybe they're lying? Maybe everyone's confused? Maybe we're just living in a computer simulation? (Least likely of those would be that it's getting better, amirite?)