(The following story by Lawrence Ragonese appeared at NJ.com on May 15.)
MORRISTOWN, N.J. — NJ Transit has trimmed the number of stops on weekday rail service on the Morris & Essex Line in Morris County by an average of 17.5 percent, almost cutting in half the stops at the Mount Tabor station in Parsippany, county officials have complained.
As of this week, eastbound weekday stops were cut by 16.8 percent while westbound stops have been reduced 18.2 percent, said county transportation officials, who were miffed the changes were made without notifying county or local officials or most train riders.
“As fuel costs are rising and more people are considering mass transit, they cut stops and do it without discussions with customers,” said Morris County Freeholder Gene Feyl. “That’s not right.”
County Transportation Director Gerald Rohsler said the changes were noticed by his staff during a review of the new NJ transit schedule that went into effect May 11. The service reductions are occurring during off-peak hours, he said.
Affected are schedules at the Dover, Denville, Mount Tabor, Morris Plains, Morristown, Convent Station, Madison and Chatham stations.
Freeholders William Chegwidden and John Murphy asked questions about the effects of the service cuts on students who use the trains during off-peak hours and whether there is adequate parking at other stations to pick up the slack for cuts at Mount Tabor.
“Those are good questions, ones we might have asked and tried to resolve if only NJ Transit had asked for our advice,” said Feyl.
NJ Transit spokesman Dan Stessel said the changes in service are a result of a long overdue assessment of the Morris & Essex line service. He explained that since 2001 there had been a 40 percent increase in ridership on the line to New York City, using the Midtown Direct service. At the same time, there had been a 30 percent reduction in ridership to Hoboken.
A typical weekday on the Morris & Essex line during the last quarter of 2007 showed an average of 55,350 trips taken, with 36,150 to New York, 9,150 to Hoboken, 7,200 to local stops and 2,850 to Newark.
“We are working to balance the needs of ridership throughout the system, to put the trains and seats where they are most needed,” said Stessel. “Since 9/11 there has never been a re-distribution of service on the M&E.”
Stessel said cuts were made only in off-peak service and stressed an extra peak-use Midtown Direct train has been added on weekdays to help commuters get to work.
County officials said the biggest impact will be on non-commuters. At the Dover station, for example, there used to be trains departing towards New York or Hoboken daily in the mornings at 10:03, 10:25, 10:31 and 11:00. But that schedule has now been trimmed to offer just three departures at 10:03, 10:08 and 11:00 a.m.
“You used to be able to go from Mount Tabor to Chatham every half hour. But now it’s down to every hour,” said Rohsler.
Walter Krich, director of the county Department of Planning, Development and Technology, questioned the timing of the cuts at a time when government is trying to entice people to get out of their cars and use mass transit.