(The following article by Joe Malinconico was posted on the Newark Star-Ledger website on June 29.)
NEWARK, N.J. — Beverly Harnen wants just one thing in exchange for the extra $16 she’s going to have to pay for her monthly rail ticket starting Friday.
“Why can’t they get my train to run on time?” asked Harnen, who takes the Northeast Corridor line to Trenton. “They want us to pay these higher rates and my train’s always late.”
As NJ Transit prepares to increase fares an average of 11.5 percent Friday, its passengers seem to be raising their expectations. Complaints about the increase in fares accompany even routine customer criticisms of the bus, train and light rail services.
“I do not regard two people on duty at ticket booths at the 8th Avenue end of (New York) Penn Station during the rush hour as good, or even acceptable service,” said David Speedie, who commutes from Montclair to Manhattan. “But it is often so. Perhaps a part of my $30-a-month fare hike can be applied to that — but I doubt it.”
NJ Transit already has plans for Speedie’s money.
Transportation officials say they need the $48 million from the fare increase to help cover the costs of service improvements made over the last three years, including the dozens of new trains added to the schedule, the opening of the massive Secaucus Junction station and improvements on 47 bus routes around the state.
In addition, officials said mass transit riders will enjoy benefits in the next couple of years from the purchase of 200 bilevel rail passenger cars, 300 new buses, renovations at the Newark Broad Street, Metropark and Trenton train stations and new commuter parking at the Edison station.
In the short term, in conjunction with the fare hike, NJ Transit will allow folks with monthly rail tickets to use those passes on buses and light rail lines that are the same price or less.
“Any time customers are asked to pay more, they’re going to expect something in return,” NJ Transit spokeswoman Lynn Bowersox said. “We believe we deliver that value with solid performance and many, many improvements in service.”
Many mass transit riders, however, dismiss high-cost projects like the $609 million Secaucus Junction, saying those big-ticket items have no impact on their own travels.
For example, a recent notice about the impending fare hike annoyed bus rider Tom Schopper.
“Nice to be reminded about how we get to pony up even more money to pay for the Secaucus rail transfer station that we don’t get to take advantage of,” Schopper said.
Schopper wants NJ Transit to increase the number of rush-hour buses running on the No. 194 line between the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan and a park-and-ride on Route 23 in Wayne.
NJ Transit spokesman Ken Hitchner said the agency is considering adding more service to that route, but that there likely would not be any changes for at least several months.
Almost 400,000 people a day use NJ Transit rail and bus lines. The agency runs about 700 trains and 13,000 buses daily, in addition to the Newark City Subway and two light rail lines in Hudson County and in South Jersey between Camden and Trenton.
Under the fare hike, monthly tickets for locals buses, the subway and the light rail lines will stay the same.
Transportation activists and rail watchdogs say NJ Transit should not take too much of the blame for the hike.
“They’re taking a beating because the Legislature has lacked the will to come up with adequate funding for them,” said Damien Newton, New Jersey director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign.