(The following column by Steve Dunham appeared on The Free Lance-Star website on November 2.)
FREDERICKSBURG, Va. — “The next stop is Newark Broad Street,” said the computer. Only it wasn’t. The next stop was Penn Station in New York City. We had just left Newark. For our entire ride from Montclair, the computer had been announcing the stations as though the train were going in the other direction. My friend Ted said it reminded him of a “Twilight Zone” episode.
During an October trip to New Jersey and New York City by train, I rode New Jersey Transit a lot as I traveled around visiting friends and family. Because I used to live in New Jersey, I had ridden New Jersey Transit trains hundreds of times, but on this trip I consciously compared it to my everyday mode of commuting, Virginia Railway Express.
Some VRE trains have a computer that announces the stops, and on rare occasions I have heard it announce the stops backward. My Columbus Day ride wasn’t the first time I’d encountered this problem on N.J. Transit, however, even though I don’t ride N.J. Transit all that often.
I’d say that VRE does a better job of on-board announcements, both automated and human. VRE’s train crews usually make intelligible announcements, whereas on N.J. Transit the announcements are often hard to understand.
VRE’s crews are friendlier, too, and the trains and stations are cleaner. However, N.J. Transit’s inferior cleanliness may be due to one of its advantages: It goes a lot more places than VRE does, and at all hours. N.J. Transit is a statewide agency, with rail and bus service to virtually every corner of the state, as well as to Philadelphia and New York City.
In level of service, N.J. Transit is vastly superior to VRE. Only a few N.J. Transit rail lines are limited to rush-hour service; most run seven days a week, from before dawn till after midnight, with service at least every two hours. On the line between New York City and Trenton, the weekday N.J. Transit trains run every half-hour.
It’s also easier to purchase a ticket on N.J. Transit. The only VRE stations where you can purchase a ticket with cash are Alexandria and Union Station (in Washington), though there are a few close-by vendors, such as Nader’s in Fredericksburg. Virtually every N.J. Transit station has a ticket vending machine that accepts cash, and you can always buy a ticket on board.
Another plus on N.J. Transit is step-up tickets. If you have a monthly ticket to Newark but want to go to Manhattan one day, you pay the difference in the one-way fare. On VRE, your only choice is to buy an additional full one-way ticket between the two stations. VRE has been promising step-up fares for years but has yet to offer them. Also, you can’t buy a ticket on board any VRE train, and special tickets, such as senior and student discounts, aren’t available at any VRE station, as far as I know. Instead, you have to go to outside vendors, such as Nader’s or the Commuter Stores in Arlington.
For travel to airports, N.J. Transit and VRE both have pluses and minuses. A transfer from VRE to Metro, costing less than $2, will take you to the main terminal of Reagan National Airport. Two free transfers–to a MARC train and then a shuttle bus–will take you to the terminals at Baltimore-Washington International. The service is reasonably convenient, but the VRE portion of the trip is limited to weekday rush hours.
N.J. Transit has a new station at Newark International Airport with frequent service, but the monorail that takes you the final mile or so to the terminals costs a hefty $5 each way. At least that seems like a lot to this parsimonious Yankee, but I suppose it’s cheap compared to a cab or airport limo.
Via connections with SEPTA, the Philadelphia-area transit system, you can use N.J. Transit to reach Philadelphia International Airport, paying an extra fare of a few dollars.
Just as there’s no good way to get to Dulles via VRE, you can’t easily get to La Guardia or JFK using N.J. Transit. Once you reach Manhattan, there’s no convenient public transportation to either airport–a surprising fact, and one reason so many New Yorkers fly out of Newark.
Finally, there’s the matter of other local transfers. Here, VRE wins hands down, at least where buses are involved. Your VRE ticket gets you a free ride on Metrobus, Alexandria Transit and other bus systems in Washington and Northern Virginia. On N.J. Transit every transfer costs extra, even from an N.J. Transit train to an N.J. Transit bus.
VRE does pretty well for a small but growing commuter system, and N.J. Transit does pretty well for a large transit system, but Virginia and New Jersey could learn a few lessons from each other.
(Steve Dunham of Spotsylvania County chairs the board of directors of the Virginia Association of Railway Patrons. Write him c/o Commuter Crossroads, The Free Lance-Star, 616 Amelia St., Fredericksburg, Va. 22401. Or e-mail literalman@aol.com.)