(The following article by Joe Malinconico was posted on the Newark Star-Ledger website on January 21.)
NEWARK, N.J. — On the Northeast Corridor, Steve Angelo’s morning train broke down. He made it into New York Penn Station 90 minutes behind schedule.
On the Raritan Valley Line, Greg Storey endured a 40-minute delay after the brakes on a train became stuck.
On Midtown Direct, Kathy Hamm said her train was late for the 14th day in a row.
All of this came yesterday morning, the same morning newspapers carried the news of NJ Transit’s impending 15 percent fare increase.
“I’d be embarrassed to demand more money at the same time my failures were popping up so prominently and so often,” said Storey, who commutes from Roselle Park.
Timing is everything, and January — when weather-related breakdowns and delays almost become routine — may be the worst possible month for NJ Transit to announce a fare increase.
Last January, for example, the railroad had more delays than any other time over the past two years — almost 10 percent of its trains were more than six minutes late.
A recent spate of service disruptions has left NJ Transit’s 110,000 rail customers a little more exasperated and a lot less likely to tolerate any talk of a fare hike.
“We pay too much now for the service we receive,” said Matt Wagner of North Plainfield, who says he has been on four trains that broke down in the last two weeks.
“By charging more, are all the problems on the Raritan Valley Line going to magically cease?” Wagner asked NJ Transit in an e-mail. “Are trains going to start operating according to the schedule? Will NJ Transit start refunding ticket prices for every day the train is late?
“Will you start reimbursing the salaries of passengers for the hours of missed work? Even Domino’s doesn’t charge for your pizza if the delivery man is late.”
Running a railroad gets a little more complicated than delivering pizza, and the only time NJ Transit has ever given systemwide refunds to its customers was July 2003.
Transit officials probably would have preferred rolling out the fare hike at a time of year when the trains are more likely to be on time. But the agency had little choice: It needed to get the process going so it could hold public hearings in time for the new fares to take effect at start of next fiscal year, in July.
State officials say NJ Transit, which also serves about 250,000 bus passengers and 18,000 light-rail customers, needs the $60.6 million the fare hikes would generate to balance its $1.4 billion budget for next year.
For most rail commuters, fares would rise about 13.3 percent, but weekend and off-peak-hours passengers, who pay discount rates, face increases as high as 30 percent.
Acting Gov. Richard Codey has called on NJ Transit to whittle away at the fare package before it comes to a vote in April.
Transit officials said they were not sure whether yesterday’s breakdowns on the Raritan Valley Line and Northeast Corridor were the result of cold weather. They did not blame the problems on a shortage of money.
On the Northeast Corridor, a train’s compressor failed, cutting off the train’s power. As a consequence, 19 other trains ended up being delayed anywhere from 10 to 46 minutes, NJ Transit spokeswoman Penny Bassett Hackett said.
On the Raritan Valley Line, the train with the stuck brakes stalled nine other trains an average of 30 minutes.
“These were incidental incidents,” Hackett said. “A lack of money or maintenance were not the causes of these mechanical problems.”
Over the past several days, three trains broke down on the Raritan Valley Line. For Northeast Corridor riders, yesterday’s delays came on the heels of similar problems on Wednesday, when a frozen Amtrak switch at New York Penn Station disrupted the morning rush hour.
“We can certainly understand our customers’ frustrations,” Hackett said. But, she said, 94.6 percent of the trains in December were on time.
“The railroad has been generally running on time,” she said.
Of course, the worst of winter hasn’t hit yet. Riders figure more delays are coming.
“Even though I’ve come to accept it, I don’t think it’s acceptable,” said Angelo, who first realized his express train, due to arrive at New York Penn Station at 7:34 a.m. yesterday, was having problems when it made an unscheduled stop in New Brunswick.
After a brief wait, he and the other riders were guided onto another train, one going in the opposite direction. At the first stop, at Jersey Avenue, they all got off and switched to the third train of their commute. It took them back but made stops along the way, including one at Metropark station where they were delayed about 10 minutes when a door jammed, Angelo said.
Angelo said he made it to New York at about 9:10 a.m.
“When these things happen at the same time they’re asking for a fare increase, it’s not going to be terribly well-received,” Angelo said.