NJ Transit Train Delays Hit a Record After the Governor's Pledge to Fix Them

(Bloomberg) -- New Jersey Transit commuter trains have hit their worst on-time and reliability records in the 18 months since Governor Phil Murphy promised to overhaul the nation’s second-biggest commuter railroad.

For the 12 months ended in March, 90% of peak trains departed or arrived on schedule. That’s the lowest average among 16 years of such data on NJ Transit’s website. Trains also broke down more frequently than ever from the July start of the fiscal year through March, records show.

Commuters face even more inconvenience. The agency through 2020 is testing federally mandated emergency braking, a project that caused unprecedented disruption last year as locomotives were sidelined for software installations. And for 12 weeks starting June 17, at least 5,000 daily Manhattan commuters will have to take a ferry or another railroad to cross the Hudson River to accommodate track work at Pennsylvania Station.

Murphy, a Democrat who took office in January 2018, has made some strides on a promise to turn around NJ Transit’s safety and reliability issues in the wake of eight years of budget cuts by his Republican predecessor, Chris Christie. But the most maddening troubles, crowding and lateness, continue to plague riders seeking to avoid some of the nation’s most congested roads.

“I have not seen any kind of a sense of urgency,” said Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, a Democrat from Teaneck who co-led 15 months of investigative hearings on the agency’s financial, safety and operations troubles. “It’s taking them too long.”

For the fiscal year that starts July 1, Murphy says he’s increasing the NJ Transit budget subsidy by more than $400 million -- though the net increase is just $25 million after accounting for other funding sources that were cut.

Siphoned Funds

Since 1990, governors from both parties have redirected more than $8 billion from NJ Transit’s capital-improvement funds for operating costs, staving off unpopular fare increases. Murphy, 61, a retired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. senior director, has criticized the practice, though he budgeted $971 million in such transfers for this fiscal year and next. Still, Murphy says a turnaround is among his highest priorities.

“The process of turning around NJ Transit will not be achieved overnight,” Matt Saidel, a Murphy spokesman, said in an email. “He remains proud of the substantial steps the administration has taken to restore service and reliability to the agency, including a top-to-bottom audit of the agency’s operations, a renewed commitment to customer service and experience and an historic state investment of over $400 million in the proposed FY2020 budget.”

Critics say it’s not enough.

“After the result of the audit came out in October, we haven’t heard anything from the administration or NJ Transit about what they’re going to do,” said Janna Chernetz, the New Jersey policy director for the New York-based Tri-State Transportation Campaign, which supports mass transit. “Are they implementing any of the recommendations? Are they throwing out any of the recommendations?”

Murphy in December signed NJ Transit legislation designed, in part, to expand the board of directors to include riders and people with transportation experience, but all members aren’t in place yet.

“The governor looks forward to continuing to work with legislative leaders in order to stand up a full board that represents the interests of all New Jerseyans, in order to provide a transit experience that our residents and commuters deeply deserve,” Saidel said.

Reliability Standard

The bill also sought to increase transparency, but so far that’s been a disappointment to Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr., a Westfield Republican who served on the committee investigating NJ Transit. He’s sponsoring legislation to compel the railroad to disclose why it discontinued Manhattan-direct service on the Raritan Valley Line in September 2018, and when it might return. He said the law is necessary because NJ Transit hasn’t answered his multiple inquiries on the matter.

“It impacts real-estate values,” Kean said by telephone. “From the smallest communities to the largest urban centers in New Jersey, everyone is impacted by this dysfunction.”

Railroads use a reliability standard, called mean distance between failures, to track mechanical troubles that prevent a run’s start or finish. In December, NJ Transit’s average hit 65,796 miles (109,662 kilometers), lowest since at least 2012, when the agency started publishing such figures. For the fiscal year to date, the average was 68,141 miles -- the worst record for the time period and 10% lower than a year earlier. The agency said its April data, not yet publicly released, shows a 3% increase in mean distance.

By comparison, Metro-North and the Long Island Rail Road, two other New York City-area commuter trains, each averaged more than 200,000 miles between failures through March.

NJ Transit attributed its increasing failures to aged locomotives, which are being overhauled. Though the railroad’s 40-year-old-plus Arrow fleet averaged 40,046 miles between failures, NJ Transit said, its newer multilevel cars traveled 370,575 miles. The railroad has a $670 million contract for 113 multilevels to replace the Arrows in 2023.

Typical Delays

Meanwhile, the railroad is struggling with its worst on-time performance since at least 2004, when it started publishing the 12-month moving average. Just 90% of trains system-wide arrived or departed on time as the railroad, racing to finish the first part of its braking project, rotated locomotives in and out of service for equipment installations. Atop that are the typical delay causes -- including inclement weather, fires, track fatalities and troubles with Amtrak-owned wiring and switches -- and in recent years, engineer shortages.

“New Jersey Transit has increased the number of engineer training classes to a record-setting six classes running concurrently,” agency spokesman Jim Smith said in an email. “There are four engineer classes set to graduate in 2019.”

Chernetz, the mass-transit advocate, said such steps are a start, but the agency still lacks a dedicated funding source that’s independent of politics-driven budgeting every year. Without it, she said, planning is hamstrung.

“You don’t have any long-term vision out of the administration,” Chernetz said. “There’s no long-term vision out of the agency. There’s actually no short-, medium- or long-term vision.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Elise Young in Trenton at eyoung30@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Flynn McRoberts at fmcroberts1@bloomberg.net, Stacie Sherman, Michael B. Marois

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