Passenger Trains > NJ Transit will take years to fix

This story mentions furloughs of entire engineer classes at the end of Corzine's administration. Followed by deep cuts under Christie. Ten years later there are gaps in experienced staff.

Meanwhile, five trains were cancelled today due to PTC, no word on how many due to crew shortages.

https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/transportation/2018/08/12/nj-transit-problems-years-fix/956585002/

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There have been behavioral changes in the last week or so.

There are fewer weekend cancellations. On one Saturday in early July, 50% of the M&E Saturday trains were cancelled.

Yesterday evening, Monday morning's train cancellations were posted under the service alerts.

An NJT F40, the 4119, has been restored to service. It was in lieu of the cab car on the Montclair - Hoboken shuttle train. 

It still does not excuse an equipment-short agency for sending the MARC cars back. If anything, they could have been used to expand consists.  

An editorial in today's WSJ (extract below) indicates the real choice may be between "fixing" NJT and paying pensions and retirement to state workers. It will be interesting to watch this play out: 

If the first step to recovering from an addiction is admitting you have a problem, at least a few Democrats in New Jersey are sobering up. Behold recommendations last week by a bipartisan legislative commission to scale back public-employee benefits. Democratic Senate President Steve Sweeney convened the legislators and economists in February to examine changes to state spending and taxes. Mr. Sweeney worried that the new federal limit on the deductibility of state and local taxes will make it harder for Democrats to soak the wealthy to pay for unsustainable promises to workers.
Lo, the state’s pension and retirement health benefit liability is four times the size of its annual budget, and pension payments are forecast to double over the next four years.
“We want to make sure that government spending is efficient and effective,” said Sweeney. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/13/18 08:01 by hazegray.

The article is completely irrelevant to NJT. They are not a part of the state pension system and they are not state employees.  Rail side has railroad retirement. Bus side has their own 401K. I don't think 5 sick days per year is overly generous. The chuice is really between NJT and an overly subsidized highway system, with a gas tax that is still too low. 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/13/18 08:14 by joemvcnj.

Many execs in NJ Transit, the Port Authority, Turnpike Authority, North Jersey Water etc are in the state employee pension system, aren't they?  The NJT rail bargained employees are part of Railroad Retirement, but I don't think execs or bus people are.

The state employee systems interface, which is a chip for the governor and legislators. When a senior legislator or state employee wants to finish out their pension, the ability to move to a  $150,000-$200,000 authority job is a huge plus.  So, the governor and the legislative leaders discuss, and a job is created, like Drewniak's at NJ Transit.   Or the Port Authority's Paula Dow. So, even though there's no money for rank and file raises, a brand new $175,000 job plus assistants and benefits can be created.  Appointing a guy from the other party is an I-owe-U chip, and there are enough to go around for the big guys.

joemvcnj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The chuice is really between NJT and an overly subsidized highway system, with a gas tax that is still too low. 

I had an uncle who lived in NJ (Princeton) and often rode to NYC; he was always grousing to me about how Amtrak prices were far higher than NJT for an identical trip. 
I did a side by side coach ticket price comparison from Trenton to NYC and found that he was right; Amtrak prices were more than two and a half times higher than NJT. 
Given that, I wonder if NJT itself is also "overly subsidized"  -- I knew Amtrak mechanical managers who went to NJT because they got substantial pay increases. 

 

NJT's farebox recovery ratio for the NEC line is 80 - 90%. If you think NJT's fares should be doubled or tripled, let's see how much more subsidies we need to hand over to the socialized highway department to handle the displaced passengers. Amtrak fares are already uncompetitive. The Amtrak fare between New York and Newark $32. Is that what you want ? 

Looks like the other seven lines farebox recovery is between 20%-55%.  

https://transitism.wordpress.com/2015/06/27/data-dump-njts-farebox-recovery-rate-by-line/
A line with a low fare recovery rate requires high subsidies.  A line with a fare recovery rate of 100% breaks even and doesn’t require operational subsidies.

So who eventually makes up the difference in the lines' cost of operation?  Isn't that a subsidy? 



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/13/18 10:52 by hazegray.

Yes it is. If you are opposed to subsidies, then we'll have to shut all the systems down, because no one will ride them. Their subsidy is $250 million, less that what it was 10 years ago. While you're at it, close down all the non-toll highways.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/13/18 11:02 by joemvcnj.

Amtrak NE Regional gets you NYP-Trenton in 53-55 minutes, NJT about 95 minutes for most trains.  Amtrak gives you large comfortable seat that reclines and lots of legroom.  NJT gives you a rolling garbage can.  What's the difference worth?  To the average schmoe who just wants to get to Trenton cheap, not worth it.  If you're going to Trenton for business/gov't and it costs you an extra $20 is that worth it?  Would be to me, I'm going to friggin' Trenton I need some kind of compensation for that don't I?

Amtak's prices are substantially higher than NJT's price for serving the same stations on the same route is because Amtrak is trying to prevent commuters from taking away seats from passengers whose origin/destination are beyond NJT territory. Amtrak's prices aren't set to have a better fare-box recovery than NJT. This also applies to other places along the NEC where Amtrak "competes" against commuter railroads. Amtrak NEC's prices are set to appeal to traveling longer intercity destinations and purposefully sets a high price to dissuade the short commuter rides. Daily commuters will seek the lower cost option which for better or worse forces them on to the more utilitarian commuter trains.

davidlung79 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Amtak's prices are substantially higher than NJT's
> price for serving the same stations on the same
> route is because Amtrak is trying to prevent
> commuters from taking away seats from passengers
> whose origin/destination are beyond NJT territory.
> Amtrak's prices aren't set to have a better
> fare-box recovery than NJT. This also applies to
> other places along the NEC where Amtrak "competes"
> against commuter railroads. Amtrak NEC's prices
> are set to appeal to traveling longer intercity
> destinations and purposefully sets a high price to
> dissuade the short commuter rides. Daily commuters
> will seek the lower cost option which for better
> or worse forces them on to the more utilitarian
> commuter trains.

Not always the case with commuters.  Loads of them pay more on the Downeaster to go to Boston from Havehill, which is in MBTA territory.  And Amtrak used to have restrictions between NYP and Poughkeepsie, but they were dropped a few years back.  Apparently there's room on the the trains in both instances.  New Jersey might well be another story.

Doesn't Amtrak have monthly fares between Trenton and NYP?  I know they had commuter fares (unlimited rides for a month)  priced at about double NJT's monthly fare.

Amtrak cannot discount any fares, whatever they are called, at more than 50% the regular one way fare.

joemvcnj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The article is completely irrelevant to NJT. They
> are not a part of the state pension system and
> they are not state employees.  Rail side has
> railroad retirement. Bus side has their own 401K.
> I don't think 5 sick days per year is overly
> generous. The chuice is really between NJT and an
> overly subsidized highway system, with a gas tax
> that is still too low. 

Hazegray's post implies that there is a budgetary choice between funding the pensions of non-transportation public sector workers and investing more in NJ Transit.  You believe that it is a choice between NJ Transit and what you view as an overly subsidized highway system.  However, you have not provided any evidence that the Garden State's politicians or its residents agree that this is the trade-off.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/15/18 05:34 by RuleG.

In NJ, the public employee pensions have been screwed over by both parties and their union leadership. The unions have tremendous political power over both parties.

In contrast, the rail and bus unions, while effectively led, have little real power.

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