(The following article by Joe Malinconico was posted on the Newark Star-Ledger website on June 10.)
NEWARK, N.J. — For the first time in 25 years, NJ Transit is changing the design of its printed train schedules to make them easier for riders to read and handle.
The new timetables, which will be available at train stations starting next week, put all weekday trains on one page, with inbound schedules at the top and outbound at the bottom. In the past, timetables for some NJ Transit rail lines were printed in a booklet format that required riders to turn pages to check trains at various times.
The new schedules also feature horizontal shading that is supposed to make it easier for passengers to scan the list of trains stopping at a particular station and improved information on connections to other forms of mass transit.
NJ Transit executive director George Warrington said the agency will save $150,000 a year by printing the new schedules in-house.
In other business yesterday, NJ Transit’s board of directors:
— Approved a $1.7 million security test project in which video cameras would be installed in 50 buses on routes in South Jersey.
The federal Department of Homeland Security is paying for the cameras, which will provide video surveillance that can be monitored live as well as recordings that can be reviewed later on.
Officials said the video equipment will be used to improve security for customers and drivers and also will provide records that could be used to verify injury claims.
The 50 buses basically handle routes between Atlantic City, Camden and Philadelphia, serving numerous towns in the southern part of the state. Those routes were chosen to meet the requirements of the federal grant, officials said.
Over all, NJ Transit has more than 240 bus routes and more than 2,000 buses.
# Voted to spend another $1.9 million to continue its engineering studies on the Monmouth-Ocean-Middlesex rail proposal, also known as MOM.
NJ Transit is considering three different routes for new rail service to Ocean and Monmouth counties, with all three options starting in Lakehurst.
One option would connect to the Northeast Corridor at Monmouth Junction in Middlesex County. The other alternatives two would connect to the North Jersey Coast Line at either Red Bank or Matawan.
The costs, according to preliminary estimates would be $860 million for the Monmouth Junction route, $730 million for the Matawan option and $600 million for the Red Bank alternative.
The study, on which NJ Transit had previously committed spending $4.8 million, is supposed to be completed by the end of this year.
— Took a preliminary step toward improving the boarding platforms at Newark Penn Station, a project estimate to cost $85 million.
The board approved a $3.4 million study of the platform that handles Raritan Valley line trains on track 5.
The project would extend the platform to handle longer Raritan Valley line trains. It also would feature renovations of the roof drainage systems, canopies, waiting areas, signs, lighting, doors and windows.
Construction is not expected to start until next year.