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Gov. Phil Murphy campaigned for the State House eight years ago on a promise to fix New Jersey’s transit system. He called NJ Transit a “national disgrace,” and blamed his predecessor Chris Christie for not investing in the system used by more than 170,000 weekday rail riders.
But as Murphy wraps up the final year of his last term in Trenton, NJ Transit is in even worse shape than when he took office.
Equipment issues tied to the agency’s aging train fleet have caused chronic delays and outages in and out of Penn Station in the last year. Service got so bad that Murphy gave NJ Transit commuters a week of free rides as an apology. Meanwhile, NJ Transit implemented a historically high fare hike that left a bad taste in riders’ mouths.
And now, the system’s problems are poised to become even worse as soon as Friday at midnight, when NJ Transit’s locomotive engineers could walk off the job in the state’s largest transit strike since 1983.
“Murphy promised to fix NJ Transit if it kills him,” said Talia Crawford, advocacy and organizing manager at the Tri-State Transportation Campaign. “Riders aren’t seeing any changes.”
“More funding needs to go to transit, and we’re hopeful that the next governor prioritizes public transportation and fixing the system for New Jerseyans,” she said.
The on-time performance rate on NJ Transit’s Northeast Corridor line fell to 75% last June, even lower than any month during 2017’s “summer of hell,” when issues with the interlockings at Penn Station caused chronic delays.
Service has improved slightly over the last year. NJ Transit officials blame many of their issues on equipment owned by Amtrak, which is responsible for the Hudson River train tunnels as well as Penn Station. New Jersey officials have over the last year said overhead wires that power trains into Penn are faulty — but Amtrak officials blamed old equipment on NJ Transit’s fleet of trains.
Representatives for Murphy declined to comment directly, and deferred questions to NJ Transit.
“One of the first orders of business under the Murphy administration in 2018 was an order of 113 new multilevel rail cars that, if not for the pandemic, most – if not all – would likely be in service today,” said NJ Transit spokesperson Jim Smith.
When Murphy entered office, the Garden State’s railroads also faced a funding crisis. Until last year, the problem persisted without a long-term solution. Then, Murphy passed a corporate tax that would help bring NJ Transit out of a deficit. The agency — after not raising its fares a single time under Murphy — authorized a whopping 15% fare hike to further plug its financial hole.
The corporate tax got “NJ Transit out of a billion-dollar hole,” said Crawford. “There have still been major commuter rail issues, like from last summer.”
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Laura, from Brooklyn
Do conductors really have no way to reach NYPD directly through MTA systems of communication?
Answer
Train operators and conductors don’t necessarily have a direct line to the NYPD, but their radios do connect directly to the subway’s rail control center, where all the system’s service is managed. NYPD and MTA security officials are stationed at the rail control center, and can help organize police responses to crimes or other emergencies.
The latest NYC area transit headlines
The separation of powers on the Queensboro Bridge. Starting Sunday, cyclists and pedestrians will each get their own dedicated lanes on the busy crossing, bringing an end to years of bitter conflict. The Queensboro Bridge has grown far more popular among bike riders in recent years, with the city counting 2.1 million cyclist crossings in 2024, up from 1.2 million in 2019.
Other new bike lanes. The MTA on Monday unveiled a set of fully accessible cyclist and pedestrian paths on the stretches of the Triborough Bridge that connect Randall’s Island to the Bronx and East Harlem.
Swift indictment. A grand jury has indicted a Brooklyn man accused of robbing and sexually assaulting a motionless man — who was later determined to have died that night — on a subway on April 27.
A safer Conduit. The city’s Department of Transportation is kicking off a community-led effort to redesign the 3-mile Conduit corridor in Brooklyn and Queens, one of the city’s most dangerous roadways.
The busker elite. More than 50 musicians and groups auditioned this week for a chance to be a sanctioned performer in the MTA’s Music Under New York program, which is now celebrating its 35th year.
More Newark woes. The Federal Aviation Administration ordered a ground stop at Newark Airport last Sunday due to a shortage of air traffic controllers. This came after repeated equipment malfunctions in recent weeks caused employees at the facility to go on trauma leave.
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