Kean: NJ Transit Rail Commuters Need Relief Now

Following yet another day of major service disruptions for commuters who rely on New Jersey Transit trains to get to work, Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean called for the agency to take immediate action to prevent future problems.

“I’ve heard from countless commuters that whenever they think things are as bad as they can possibly be on our rails, NJ Transit finds a way to prove them wrong,” said Kean. “After so many repeated failures to deliver safe and reliable service, there’s no more time for excuses from Transit’s management.

Commuters deserve to hear from the leadership at NJ Transit what contingency plans they can implement today to improve service.”

Just this week:

• commuters on a number of lines have continued to see their trains cancelled unexpectedly, leading remaining trains to be packed beyond capacity;
• a broken down train stranded 1,500 riders in packed cars for hours without power or air conditioning;
• failures of the Portal Bridge to properly close delayed rail traffic several times for more than an hour; and
• a derailment in the Hudson River tunnel has delayed NJ Transit trains by more than an hour this morning.

“While there are long-term infrastructure needs and legislative fixes that must be advanced going forward, there are day-to-day operational problems that NJ Transit can and must fix immediately,” added Kean. “They can implement better staff scheduling and accountability measures to ensure they have enough engineers on duty to drive every train, and they can improve maintenance to prevent trains from breaking down every other day. We’re not asking for a miracle, just for NJ Transit to do the job they should be capable of doing. Commuters deserve to know what steps NJ Transit is taking today to ensure safe and reliable commutes tomorrow and every day after that.”