(The following story by Thomas Barlas appeared on the Press of Atlantic City website on December 26.)
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — NJ Transit ridership set a record during the first quarter of fiscal year 2008, thanks in part to customers who would rather pay to ride a bus or train than to put gas in their vehicles.
NJ Transit officials say higher gas prices are causing travelers to forgo their vehicles in favor of public transportation.
Systemwide, NJ Transit ridership increased to 64.4 million trips, a jump of 3.2 percent over the same period – July, August and September – in fiscal year 2007. NJ Transit’s fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30.
Rail ridership jumped on five of NJ Transit’s rail lines, although numbers for the Atlantic City Line – which runs between Philadelphia and Atlantic City – were not available despite several requests by The Press of Atlantic City for the information.
However, some Atlantic City Line passengers – especially those who live in Philadelphia and its suburbs – questioned at the Atlantic City Rail Terminal recently said it’s more cost-efficient for them to pay train fare than it is to pump gas into their vehicles.
James McKenna, of Philadelphia, said paying $16 for a round-trip train ride costs less than the amount of gas his car would use for a round-trip to Atlantic City and its gaming halls.
“Am I saving a lot?” he said. “No. But a few bucks is a few bucks. It adds up.”
Another Philadelphia resident – 66-year-old retired saleswoman Marilyn Viviano – said she lives on a fixed income and taking the train means she doesn’t have to pay to park when she arrives in Atlantic City.
“Why pay all that money for gas, then?” she said.
Along with travelers trying to avoid paying high gas prices, NJ Transit officials said ongoing efforts to improve service and strong regional employment trends propelled ridership to the highest ever first-quarter level, with gains registered on rail, bus and light rail modes.
Ridership reached an average of 881,700 trips each weekday while weekend trips averaged 712,800. The weekend trip total was the highest for any quarter in the corporation’s history.
During the first quarter, customers took 40.6 million bus trips, 18.9 million rail trips and five million trips on the system’s three light rail lines.
“These results demonstrate that NJ Transit is providing the transportation services that residents demand in a way that benefits the customer, the environment and the economy,” said NJ Transit Chairman Kris Kolluri.
While passenger information for the quarter wasn’t available, the Atlantic City Line set another record for passenger trips during fiscal year 2007, breaking the previous fiscal year record by about 100,000 passenger trips.
Passengers took about 1.3 million trips on the line that stretches between the Atlantic City Rail Terminal and 30th Street Station in Philadelphia.
This marked the fourth consecutive year the line posted a ridership record, in part because of more marketing campaigns, partnerships with casinos to provide promotional incentives and targeting of some groups in Philadelphia who enjoy going to the gaming halls.
Also helping ridership is that riders are getting to and from their destinations more comfortably: NJ Transit has completed a year-long transition of replacing its Comet 3 passenger cars – which were built in 1990 – with more comfortable and mechanically reliable Comet 4 passenger cars, which were built around 1996.
The Comet 4 cars came from other NJ Transit lines that got newer cars, such as the deluxe bi-level coaches running on the Northeast Corridor Line between Trenton and New York City.