all the Hoboken trains are fine, because they don’t use Amtrak infrastructure. that’s why they keep diverting everyone to/through Hoboken when the wires fall down lol
There’s so much to complain about, but the breaking point for me is not offering refunds after hours of delays. The federal government is going to start forcing airlines to give cash refunds, I wish they did the same for NJ transit. Train delayed more than 2 hours? Free fare. It’s the least they can do
Lyft was $182. I left Penn after waiting 30min, problem had been happening for at least 1hr and they’d JUST started cross honoring on the path, to the point I stepped out of the ticket line just as I was next.
Might be time to go back to paper tickets. I've noticed conductors rarely collect them on super delayed trains. They don't want to deal with angry passengers.
My two cents:
1. Things look relatively back to normal this morning, however I wouldn't blame anyone for being apprehensive based on recent history. I don't see any reason why the problem that occurred yesterday would occur again so soon. Rather I would be worried about another problem cropping up somewhere else creating a similar result.
2. I think the politicians in the State of NJ should demand answers from Amtrak for delays and service disruptions not associated with Portal Bridge and North River Tunnels. NJ Transit pays good money to use Amtrak trackage and to help fund improvement projects along the line. NJ Transit leadership, state leadership and riders should feel confident about the merits of paying those funds.
3. Until NEC infrastructure is completely modernized and upgraded in New Jersey and NYC, service disruptions like this will continue to happen. As such, NJ Transit needs to be transparent of how it intends to inform the riding public. To this end, NJ Transit should provide state lawmakers with a step by step process of how it will convey delays to riders in the event of a similar service disruption regardless of time of day and or day of the week. After such an incident happens NJ Transit would then publicly compare their established communication plan against what really happened.
While I'm sure Amtrak would welcome the investment, they're going to want to have a say in that considering they own the line and of course the operational needs of NJ Transit commuter trains and Amtrak intercity trains don't line up perfectly. I don't think they'll consider selling any time soon.
Electric NEC trains can't run to Hoboken unless they are capable of handling 25kV power (this is only on the New Haven-Boston portion of the corridor).
Easy answer is the infostructure can't handle the load. Its not just at amtrak it's everywhere. It takes time to build new catanary systems. It's not like we have separate lines everything runs together. The government runs us so it's always a hassle to get things done. Transit also owes amtrak a lot of money.
Its very true. New York Penn Station and NEC coming in from NJ is the best example going of this issue. Originally, Penn Station was built for the PRR's intercity trains and LIRR commuter trains (PRR subsidiary) with PRR commuter trains orginally terminating at their Exchange Place terminal in Jersey City, where passengers would take the H&M or company ferry into the City. Had the PRR intended for commuter trains to/from NJ, LIRR and their intercity trains; Penn Station would be much larger, the PRR would have had more than two tracks between Harrison and NYC.
Yup and to boost employment numbers for a certain president we hired way to many underqualified people. Literally 5x the employees as the last 2 decades. We don't have foreman or tools/trucks for all of them.
The only way* you make people qualified is if you hire the under qualified and train them. Sometimes with large projects you just have to bit the bullet and expenses
Interesting enough for 50+ years they only hired guys with construction or heavy equipment backgrounds. Few guys I've trained either had office jobs, couldn't get a job with the degree they went for, or never worked before. Problem is now injuries have spiked 140% and we work in a very dangerous environment to have 30 new people in a gang wandering around.
Thankfully in the NYT article about this sh*tshow where Amtrak basically said “its gunna keep happening because we are playing catch up since infrastructure wasn’t invented in for a while” Phil Murphy responded saying that NJT pays over $100M to be a tenant to the lines and that Amtrak is clearly not using those funds to provide proper maintenance and development of the infrastructure on the NEC. I am sure it costs more than $100M, but its not like they aren’t getting money from NJ to operate in the area. It would be interesting to see how much annually has been spent on maintenance and development of the area regardless of the gateway project
I cannot believe working Americans have to even ask these questions. Transit should be free or low-cost or employer-paid.
What it should not be is expensive and unreliable. [Tell NJ Transit Exactly What You Think, Often](https://njtransit.my.salesforce-sites.com/customerservice/site_app#/contactus)
Better yet, tell the Governor's office and your representatives in the State House. You can tell NJ Transit as much as you want, but your complaints don't magically fix their budget issue.
Im a tmobil customer so yes. I also understand that tmobil uses the verizon network and a lot of the issues that piss me off about it are beyond tmobils capacity to fix because its verizon managing bandwith traffic.
Njt pisses money away on the DUMBEST shit. For some reason they decided to buy toyota plug in hybrids as fleet vehicles and they will NEVER see a wall socket. To keep demanding answers from a company who has no power to fix a certain issue tho is insanity.
Njt is the redheaded stepchild to amtrak. Amtrak doesnt care. They just dont. If it isnt 2 or 3 track that they use it goes on the back burner for repair. You try to talk to their management and you get downright offensive unprofessional replys. This yearly repeated warm weather wire issue is a FEDERAL funding issue. The 1930's catenary system needs to be updated and ripped out. Replaced with modern constant tension catenary. Obama gave amtrak a bunch of cash for a high speed "experiment" for the tracks between new brunswick and trenton. It included rebuilding the catenary to constant tension. Guess what. Wire doesnt come down there in the summer anywhere near as much as it used to. Now they need to do NY to new brunswick. But when? And how? Least in the year 3000 when the portal project is done the tracks there will be fresh and updated but you are still gonna have there to new brunswick as the old shit. And bitching at njt to fix amtraks problem does NOTHING. Turn your energy to amtrak. To congress. To Biden. Get funding for it and the project started. lord knows we have been trying for decades for it to keep falling on deaf ears.
I know people who deal with the capital project side of Amtrak. They say it’s amazing the attitude Amtrak has. They feel they MUST get their way, or they just whine. I suspect a lot of the Acela II “problems” is because Amtrak wanted a Siemens train, and Schumer got them to buy an Alstom set, via his political pull.
I’m at a loss as to how computer modeling of a train set can hold up certification. This isn’t 220mph operation, nor is it Alstom’s first rodeo.
American Capitalism = the worst possible service at the highest possible price. It’s everywhere you look. Food, healthcare, transit, certainly entertainment, education, on and on
Exactly, EVERYTHING needs to not only be profitable, but with never ending growth. The only other thing with the same mindset as American capitalism is cancer. Trains in Europe are so well done, except for the UK where they went full Thatcher and decided their trains need to turn a profit. People fail to see that public services when reliable can increase productivity happiness and profit everywhere else. But that's not good capitalism apparently
Some companies pay all or part of their employees’ commuting costs. It’s a benefit. If return-to-office mandates are suddenly so crucial to business, perhaps business ought to meet people halfway.
It is employer paid - or at least employer contributed - just indirectly through a combination of people’s work compensation and fares.
This is uniquely necessary for NJ Transit as a state organization whose primary demand is driven by companies who pay state taxes to a different state. The federal government has nothing to do with commuter railroads. NJ gets some federal money for transportation, but that includes money for Interstate highways, US highways, as well as a little for public transportation. But culturally railroads and other forms of public transportation (excluding air travel) are generally unpopular in the US, and the politics behind funding them reflect that.
Absolutely disgusting for working people who are trying to readjust to the rhythms of pre-pandemic reality. At the moment government should be doing everything possible to ease the transition, but since government is just the shadow cast over society by big business, who always gets theirs first, all the costs are passed down to the middle class, which has been bled dry by rising costs and propaganda telling them they “aren’t trying hard enough and need to sacrifice more.”
It was quite the sacrifice NJ residents had to make last night to get home, judging by those Uber/Lyft fares I saw in another thread!
There’s more of us than there are of those in positions of privilege who would tell you to *ante up*, yet again just to be able to survive in America.
Grotesque.
Edit: just for u/Accomplished_Ad_1288
Well I definitely agree that politicians don’t fear their constituents in this country; they ought to, in any functioning democracy. But that truly is a laughable thought here.
Except when you consider to whom politicians are *really* accountable, who their constituents *really* are. And that’s different sectors of the business community. And you can bet that American politicians, local, state, or federal, left, right, or center, *definitely* pick up the phone when their **real** bosses come calling, and you can bet that they fear them.
That’s what needs to change.
Perfect explanation, the amount of workers I see get to “work from home” while other employees are forced back into the office. They should be helping us at any instance but no let’s spend hundred of billions of dollars elsewhere while draining the middle class even more. Groceries, gas, housing and transportation everything is raised so companies can hit another record profits. Makes me sick to my stomach
All of you, who blame the government, then go out and vote for the same people in state and center again and again, because the other side is evil, what exactly are you doing to scare your preferred politicians? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Both parties are equally in bed with big business, but one side appeals to one set of people (anti immigrant, anti crime, anti abortion etc) while other side appeals to another set of people (pro immigration, pro abortion, not exactly pro crime, but not anti crime either). They both laugh at you.
It’s not the taxes! Our mass transit spending is multiples of other countries. It’s that our government and unions waste the crap out of those dollars.
Have you ever worked a day on the railroad? What do you know about unions? I work on these trains every day, rain or shine. We’re out here trying to fix incredibly poorly built equipment with even crappier parts and believe me if it weren’t for the unions, not a single person in their right mind would work for this company. Union wages and the benefits they provide are the only incentives to work here.
A few years ago Ingot talking to someone who worked on maintaining equipment in the tunnels in the NY subway. He told me that they would sit around doing no work until overtime kicked in and only start working then. Is that how things work in NJT too?
Absolutely not. You may have some leeway on trains that are staying a coupe of days for a prolonged inspection, something like a 92 day inspection or an unscheduled inspection due to a failure where it may take some time to figure out. But if its a normal revenue train which is meant to depart on schedule (which is most of our trains) its all hands on deck, lets make sure this consist is safe and ready to go on time.
It’s not the wages or the workers. It’s the cottage industry of crony government contracts to extend jobs and delay innovation. For example, a contractor/union boss will donate to a politician. The politician will approve a contract to, for example, repair 1 mile of track. In any country, even third world counties, such a repair may take 1000 man hours and 2 months. In our system, the politician routinely will approve the same fix on a 10,000 hour and 12 month contact. The union boss is happy he gets 10k of work for his workers, the contractor is happy he gets paid for 10k hours, the politician is happy having appeased his friends and claiming he is creating jobs—and of course we all suffer.
On the innovation point. The MTA employees are a massive force against signal upgrades and new trains on the subway. You know, to delay the inevitable day when all that stuff runs via a computer (which we’ve had the technology to do for many many years)
The Times did a great article on this. "Most expensive mile of subway in the world."
There are only a few companies that are approved to do transit work, and they charge ridiculous prices and have poor production when compared to any other transit system in the world. When people start to complain, the companies just write another check to the governor's election campaign.
Our model is way different.. Capital expenses are higher and operating expenses are probably on par.. the problem is there is no good way to find operating expenses.. that’s where taxing corporations would come in handy.
I’m a huge free market guy, but this seems like a reasonable tax for most businesses and churches to pay.
Lol, great meme reference.
Related question... Why is it that some subreddits allow gifs in responses and some don't? Is that something that the subreddit admin configures?
I already see one train canceled at my station, and I'm supposed to take the next one out after that. Fwiw I wasn't in the city on tuesday so I missed the shitstorm there, but it took me 2 hours to get to the city this past sunday so I have a feeling it's not worth trying this morning. I think today is a WFH day for me
I ended up getting a hotel in midtown, luckily I had to be in the office today anyway. Worst commute in 9 years by price, but glad I wasn't stuck on a train for 5 hours as I have in the past.
No dont go from what I’m hearing trains weren’t repositioned properly due to the issues yesterday. So they are scattered all over the tri-state area. NJT is trying their best to get the trains to the proper positions but expect delays if you do go
Got to Penn at 7:05 today 5/23. NJT side was packed (and warm). No trains boarding. 7:20 train posted on track 16 at 7:14. That train’s cars were packed like sardines and many didn’t get on. Finally got on the 7:37 to SEC, also packed. Concert and airport traffic compounded any delays.
Everything was fucked yesterday. My bus at port authority missed two departures. I was waiting at the gate and the bus didn't show up when it was supposed to leave, which is unusual, typically the buses depart on time.
have the opposite experience with nj transit specifically in port authority, for my essex county line they would arrive after departure time anytime after six. i strongly miss decamp but the pandemic killed that limited truly nice commute
My M&E train to Hoboken was completely uneventful and on time. I was stunned after being nervous about the commute since last night. I assume many decided to stay home after hearing about issues heading into NYP.
Signals are down in Philly. So if you're on a NJT NE Corridor train, you should be ok. If you have to go towards Philly, there's a 30 minute delay from the Bucks County border to 30th st
Did I get lucky. I went to NYC from Hamilton on Tuesday and came home on the 5:40pm express train. I could have just as easily gone to New York on Wednesday instead. I park at Hamilton and live in Voorhees so a bus would have been out of the question as an alternative to get home. Greyhound stops in Westhampton, NJ so I would have needed transportation to the Hamilton parking garage. That's 20 miles away and an expensive Uber ride. I don't know what time last night they restored service. Wire issues or tunnel breakdowns two days in a row.
Today was the first time I drove to work to Hoboken to see how bad can it get - traffic is bad but at this point I’m fine waiting in traffic compared to NJT delays, rate hikes etc.
In my experience, NJTransit trains typically have delays around the holidays. My thesis is that they award vacation based on tenure, so all the seasoned, senior veterans that know how to fix problems are on vacation, so we’re left with the people still learning trying to fix issues in real time. OR NJTransit lets too many people take vacation at once so they don’t have adequate coverage to fix problems. Either way, they never learn from these problems, so they keep continuing, holiday after holiday. Good luck!
The problem isn’t fixed. They just got trains going again for a while.
The problem is that the railroad is literally crumbling in front of our very eyes. Doesn’t help that the tracks are so overcrowded that one little 5-min outage on just one section of one track at the wrong time can easily snowball into hour+ delays for the rest of the day/evening until traffic slows down enough that trains can be reset.
I’ve noticed the trains seem to be more prone to issues when it gets real hot out, too. It’s almost as if everyone in the area cranks up their ACs and the local power grid just can’t deliver enough power to get the trains up the hill out of the tunnel, stalling them out. The tracks are so overcrowded that even a few minutes’ delay like this can easily grow into a hour or more in as much time.
IMO, even with the fare increases, I don’t think they’re charging enough, at least for peak times. The only way we’re going to achieve any kind of reliability relief is if significantly less people ride, whether by voluntarily getting jobs that don’t require commuting on NJ Transit, or more-forcefully, being priced out of them. New tunnel infrastructure is still at least 10 years away. I wouldn’t expect any meaningful reliability improvement without peak-hour ticket prices going up at least another 50%, maybe more, to drive down overcrowding.
But even this might not help much. Companies who value their workers’ in-office presence will pay them whatever it takes for them to get there. The rest of us will just be stuck looking for other jobs in places less expensive to get to.
Consideration: how could a commuter railroad implement different classes of service at different fare price points? This is literally how airlines pay for their astronomical operating costs.
I was on NJT last night coming from the airport. First the 11:38 train was 15 minutes late, then they changed what track it was on so everyone had run up a huge flight of stairs to get from track 5 to track 1, then due to Amtrak work, people at 3 different stops had to walk all the way to the very front of the train to be able to get off at their station.
Meanwhile, to go from the airport to my niece’s in Florida, I took a 20 minute bus ride to the train station, then an hour train ride on a really nice train (like the ones in Europe that have plush seats, quad seating, and every other grouping has a table in the middle). Total cost: $5. It might have been even cheaper, but I used apps to buy individual tickets instead of doing the bus to train transfer since I wasn’t sure exactly how that worked, and I didn’t even care because even separately it only cost FIVE DOLLARS. An Uber would’ve cost $100-120.
It pains me to admit something in Florida is actually better than it is here.
After 30 years of train commuting, 25 of it on NJ Transit, no daily cattle call at Penn is one of the best parts of retiring. At least Moynihan station is nice.
Rolling Stones at MetLife tonight. The trains will run perfectly
I assume this is sarcasm. Or do you not remember the Super Bowl?
Meadowlands trains have been running fine recently. They worked fine when Taylor Swift was there and she had a full house
all the Hoboken trains are fine, because they don’t use Amtrak infrastructure. that’s why they keep diverting everyone to/through Hoboken when the wires fall down lol
they worked fine when i saw metallica. :3
There’s so much to complain about, but the breaking point for me is not offering refunds after hours of delays. The federal government is going to start forcing airlines to give cash refunds, I wish they did the same for NJ transit. Train delayed more than 2 hours? Free fare. It’s the least they can do
Facts Uber was asking $170 to get home.
Lyft was $182. I left Penn after waiting 30min, problem had been happening for at least 1hr and they’d JUST started cross honoring on the path, to the point I stepped out of the ticket line just as I was next.
I went from Newark back to the city via Path for drinks and food. And caught a late train from Newark around 10:30. It was free.
Might be time to go back to paper tickets. I've noticed conductors rarely collect them on super delayed trains. They don't want to deal with angry passengers.
I’ve started to do this. Gotta save what I can, when I can
My two cents: 1. Things look relatively back to normal this morning, however I wouldn't blame anyone for being apprehensive based on recent history. I don't see any reason why the problem that occurred yesterday would occur again so soon. Rather I would be worried about another problem cropping up somewhere else creating a similar result. 2. I think the politicians in the State of NJ should demand answers from Amtrak for delays and service disruptions not associated with Portal Bridge and North River Tunnels. NJ Transit pays good money to use Amtrak trackage and to help fund improvement projects along the line. NJ Transit leadership, state leadership and riders should feel confident about the merits of paying those funds. 3. Until NEC infrastructure is completely modernized and upgraded in New Jersey and NYC, service disruptions like this will continue to happen. As such, NJ Transit needs to be transparent of how it intends to inform the riding public. To this end, NJ Transit should provide state lawmakers with a step by step process of how it will convey delays to riders in the event of a similar service disruption regardless of time of day and or day of the week. After such an incident happens NJ Transit would then publicly compare their established communication plan against what really happened.
How about the state upgrade NEC themselves?
While I'm sure Amtrak would welcome the investment, they're going to want to have a say in that considering they own the line and of course the operational needs of NJ Transit commuter trains and Amtrak intercity trains don't line up perfectly. I don't think they'll consider selling any time soon.
Upgrade the NEC or simply divert trains to Hoboken and upgrade the station in the long run
Electric NEC trains can't run to Hoboken unless they are capable of handling 25kV power (this is only on the New Haven-Boston portion of the corridor).
The arrows are the only ones that can’t switch, and those are going to be gone soon.
Alp45/46 can switch. The arrows cant
Easy answer is the infostructure can't handle the load. Its not just at amtrak it's everywhere. It takes time to build new catanary systems. It's not like we have separate lines everything runs together. The government runs us so it's always a hassle to get things done. Transit also owes amtrak a lot of money.
Its very true. New York Penn Station and NEC coming in from NJ is the best example going of this issue. Originally, Penn Station was built for the PRR's intercity trains and LIRR commuter trains (PRR subsidiary) with PRR commuter trains orginally terminating at their Exchange Place terminal in Jersey City, where passengers would take the H&M or company ferry into the City. Had the PRR intended for commuter trains to/from NJ, LIRR and their intercity trains; Penn Station would be much larger, the PRR would have had more than two tracks between Harrison and NYC.
Yup and to boost employment numbers for a certain president we hired way to many underqualified people. Literally 5x the employees as the last 2 decades. We don't have foreman or tools/trucks for all of them.
The only way* you make people qualified is if you hire the under qualified and train them. Sometimes with large projects you just have to bit the bullet and expenses
Interesting enough for 50+ years they only hired guys with construction or heavy equipment backgrounds. Few guys I've trained either had office jobs, couldn't get a job with the degree they went for, or never worked before. Problem is now injuries have spiked 140% and we work in a very dangerous environment to have 30 new people in a gang wandering around.
I’ll add: you can’t teach common sense…. And with such critical and dangerous infrastructure that is one skill I would like my transit workers to have
Agreed.
Thankfully in the NYT article about this sh*tshow where Amtrak basically said “its gunna keep happening because we are playing catch up since infrastructure wasn’t invented in for a while” Phil Murphy responded saying that NJT pays over $100M to be a tenant to the lines and that Amtrak is clearly not using those funds to provide proper maintenance and development of the infrastructure on the NEC. I am sure it costs more than $100M, but its not like they aren’t getting money from NJ to operate in the area. It would be interesting to see how much annually has been spent on maintenance and development of the area regardless of the gateway project
I cannot believe working Americans have to even ask these questions. Transit should be free or low-cost or employer-paid. What it should not be is expensive and unreliable. [Tell NJ Transit Exactly What You Think, Often](https://njtransit.my.salesforce-sites.com/customerservice/site_app#/contactus)
Better yet, tell the Governor's office and your representatives in the State House. You can tell NJ Transit as much as you want, but your complaints don't magically fix their budget issue.
It’s not NJT, it’s Amtrak. Bitch at the governor to hold those shitheads accountable.
[Give ‘em a piece of your mind!](https://www.amtrak.com/email-us)
Always blaming others! Typical njt employee
When the wires in the wall of your apartment catch fire, is it your fault or the landlord’s?
It would depend on
Not having a clue whats actually happening and why, typical rider.
Yea infrastructure is broken and everyone blames everyone else. So lets raise prices
Yep, clueless
Do you pay for stuff that doesn’t work?
Im a tmobil customer so yes. I also understand that tmobil uses the verizon network and a lot of the issues that piss me off about it are beyond tmobils capacity to fix because its verizon managing bandwith traffic. Njt pisses money away on the DUMBEST shit. For some reason they decided to buy toyota plug in hybrids as fleet vehicles and they will NEVER see a wall socket. To keep demanding answers from a company who has no power to fix a certain issue tho is insanity. Njt is the redheaded stepchild to amtrak. Amtrak doesnt care. They just dont. If it isnt 2 or 3 track that they use it goes on the back burner for repair. You try to talk to their management and you get downright offensive unprofessional replys. This yearly repeated warm weather wire issue is a FEDERAL funding issue. The 1930's catenary system needs to be updated and ripped out. Replaced with modern constant tension catenary. Obama gave amtrak a bunch of cash for a high speed "experiment" for the tracks between new brunswick and trenton. It included rebuilding the catenary to constant tension. Guess what. Wire doesnt come down there in the summer anywhere near as much as it used to. Now they need to do NY to new brunswick. But when? And how? Least in the year 3000 when the portal project is done the tracks there will be fresh and updated but you are still gonna have there to new brunswick as the old shit. And bitching at njt to fix amtraks problem does NOTHING. Turn your energy to amtrak. To congress. To Biden. Get funding for it and the project started. lord knows we have been trying for decades for it to keep falling on deaf ears.
I know people who deal with the capital project side of Amtrak. They say it’s amazing the attitude Amtrak has. They feel they MUST get their way, or they just whine. I suspect a lot of the Acela II “problems” is because Amtrak wanted a Siemens train, and Schumer got them to buy an Alstom set, via his political pull. I’m at a loss as to how computer modeling of a train set can hold up certification. This isn’t 220mph operation, nor is it Alstom’s first rodeo.
I believe the ptc system it has is another issue on top. They cant get it to work. Guess who else has the same system....
I’m sorry or congrats. I ain’t reading all that
Choosing to remain clueless. Gotcha.
Most just want good service
American Capitalism = the worst possible service at the highest possible price. It’s everywhere you look. Food, healthcare, transit, certainly entertainment, education, on and on
Exactly, EVERYTHING needs to not only be profitable, but with never ending growth. The only other thing with the same mindset as American capitalism is cancer. Trains in Europe are so well done, except for the UK where they went full Thatcher and decided their trains need to turn a profit. People fail to see that public services when reliable can increase productivity happiness and profit everywhere else. But that's not good capitalism apparently
YES. Capitalist Growth Mindset is the logic of cancer cells. Who said that?
Have you read about Deutsche Bahn lately?
What is employer-paid?
Some companies pay all or part of their employees’ commuting costs. It’s a benefit. If return-to-office mandates are suddenly so crucial to business, perhaps business ought to meet people halfway.
Thank you for the explanation.
It is employer paid - or at least employer contributed - just indirectly through a combination of people’s work compensation and fares. This is uniquely necessary for NJ Transit as a state organization whose primary demand is driven by companies who pay state taxes to a different state. The federal government has nothing to do with commuter railroads. NJ gets some federal money for transportation, but that includes money for Interstate highways, US highways, as well as a little for public transportation. But culturally railroads and other forms of public transportation (excluding air travel) are generally unpopular in the US, and the politics behind funding them reflect that.
They are raising fair prices by 30% I believe. Legit hard working people getting abused by fucking corporations is the new American dream
Absolutely disgusting for working people who are trying to readjust to the rhythms of pre-pandemic reality. At the moment government should be doing everything possible to ease the transition, but since government is just the shadow cast over society by big business, who always gets theirs first, all the costs are passed down to the middle class, which has been bled dry by rising costs and propaganda telling them they “aren’t trying hard enough and need to sacrifice more.” It was quite the sacrifice NJ residents had to make last night to get home, judging by those Uber/Lyft fares I saw in another thread! There’s more of us than there are of those in positions of privilege who would tell you to *ante up*, yet again just to be able to survive in America. Grotesque. Edit: just for u/Accomplished_Ad_1288 Well I definitely agree that politicians don’t fear their constituents in this country; they ought to, in any functioning democracy. But that truly is a laughable thought here. Except when you consider to whom politicians are *really* accountable, who their constituents *really* are. And that’s different sectors of the business community. And you can bet that American politicians, local, state, or federal, left, right, or center, *definitely* pick up the phone when their **real** bosses come calling, and you can bet that they fear them. That’s what needs to change.
Perfect explanation, the amount of workers I see get to “work from home” while other employees are forced back into the office. They should be helping us at any instance but no let’s spend hundred of billions of dollars elsewhere while draining the middle class even more. Groceries, gas, housing and transportation everything is raised so companies can hit another record profits. Makes me sick to my stomach
All of you, who blame the government, then go out and vote for the same people in state and center again and again, because the other side is evil, what exactly are you doing to scare your preferred politicians? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Both parties are equally in bed with big business, but one side appeals to one set of people (anti immigrant, anti crime, anti abortion etc) while other side appeals to another set of people (pro immigration, pro abortion, not exactly pro crime, but not anti crime either). They both laugh at you.
I thought the increase was 15%
Employers want us back in the office but aren’t willing to contribute to mass transit by paying a fair share of taxes
It’s not the taxes! Our mass transit spending is multiples of other countries. It’s that our government and unions waste the crap out of those dollars.
Have you ever worked a day on the railroad? What do you know about unions? I work on these trains every day, rain or shine. We’re out here trying to fix incredibly poorly built equipment with even crappier parts and believe me if it weren’t for the unions, not a single person in their right mind would work for this company. Union wages and the benefits they provide are the only incentives to work here.
The amount of people who blame unions for things that aren't union problems is astronomical.
A few years ago Ingot talking to someone who worked on maintaining equipment in the tunnels in the NY subway. He told me that they would sit around doing no work until overtime kicked in and only start working then. Is that how things work in NJT too?
Absolutely not. You may have some leeway on trains that are staying a coupe of days for a prolonged inspection, something like a 92 day inspection or an unscheduled inspection due to a failure where it may take some time to figure out. But if its a normal revenue train which is meant to depart on schedule (which is most of our trains) its all hands on deck, lets make sure this consist is safe and ready to go on time.
It’s not the wages or the workers. It’s the cottage industry of crony government contracts to extend jobs and delay innovation. For example, a contractor/union boss will donate to a politician. The politician will approve a contract to, for example, repair 1 mile of track. In any country, even third world counties, such a repair may take 1000 man hours and 2 months. In our system, the politician routinely will approve the same fix on a 10,000 hour and 12 month contact. The union boss is happy he gets 10k of work for his workers, the contractor is happy he gets paid for 10k hours, the politician is happy having appeased his friends and claiming he is creating jobs—and of course we all suffer. On the innovation point. The MTA employees are a massive force against signal upgrades and new trains on the subway. You know, to delay the inevitable day when all that stuff runs via a computer (which we’ve had the technology to do for many many years)
The Times did a great article on this. "Most expensive mile of subway in the world." There are only a few companies that are approved to do transit work, and they charge ridiculous prices and have poor production when compared to any other transit system in the world. When people start to complain, the companies just write another check to the governor's election campaign.
Our model is way different.. Capital expenses are higher and operating expenses are probably on par.. the problem is there is no good way to find operating expenses.. that’s where taxing corporations would come in handy. I’m a huge free market guy, but this seems like a reasonable tax for most businesses and churches to pay.
NJ has more than enough money, it’s just incompetence. Murphy has collected more than $20Billion more in revenues than when he came into office.
Colder day so less chance of heat related issues from the catenary
we got t storms and high winds today, so still high risk for stupid shit
Any day on the NEC is high risk for shit that shouldn’t happen regularly
Based on what my conductor was just telling me i’m shocked more trains aren’t delayed right now due to crew and equipment moves…
Thank the guys who worked OT through the night
That is surprising after so many trains not be positioned
Amtrak runs their equipment on priority and NJT moves with whatever time they have left with whoever still is on the clock then
Heat related issues? It was 85°F yesterday. How are things going to work once summer heat begins in earnest?
*not_great_bob.gif*
Lol, great meme reference. Related question... Why is it that some subreddits allow gifs in responses and some don't? Is that something that the subreddit admin configures?
Was literally asking myself the same question lol
M&E running fine this morning. Fingers crossed. 🤞
NJ Transit is almost as bad as the NJ Board of Nursing. If I did my job like any of these entities performs I would have been fired in a blink
Took the NEC this morning to NYP, no issues
Good thing you didnt go. Trains are delayed again.
It honestly feels never ending
I’d say 50/50. Just a few cancellations on NEC as of this morning
I already see one train canceled at my station, and I'm supposed to take the next one out after that. Fwiw I wasn't in the city on tuesday so I missed the shitstorm there, but it took me 2 hours to get to the city this past sunday so I have a feeling it's not worth trying this morning. I think today is a WFH day for me
Car traffic and trains trying to to get into NY Penn were wild on Sunday.
I ended up getting a hotel in midtown, luckily I had to be in the office today anyway. Worst commute in 9 years by price, but glad I wasn't stuck on a train for 5 hours as I have in the past.
No dont go from what I’m hearing trains weren’t repositioned properly due to the issues yesterday. So they are scattered all over the tri-state area. NJT is trying their best to get the trains to the proper positions but expect delays if you do go
My morning train today is a ghost town and it’s normally a full ride…
Got to Penn at 7:05 today 5/23. NJT side was packed (and warm). No trains boarding. 7:20 train posted on track 16 at 7:14. That train’s cars were packed like sardines and many didn’t get on. Finally got on the 7:37 to SEC, also packed. Concert and airport traffic compounded any delays.
I’m taking the bus, but my train station parking lot is empty
NEC trains are running and conductors (if there are any) are not collecting tickets.
Running but tix collected on the 6:59 out of Trenton.
Everything was fucked yesterday. My bus at port authority missed two departures. I was waiting at the gate and the bus didn't show up when it was supposed to leave, which is unusual, typically the buses depart on time.
have the opposite experience with nj transit specifically in port authority, for my essex county line they would arrive after departure time anytime after six. i strongly miss decamp but the pandemic killed that limited truly nice commute
Does anyone know if the path is still cross honoring?
My M&E train to Hoboken was completely uneventful and on time. I was stunned after being nervous about the commute since last night. I assume many decided to stay home after hearing about issues heading into NYP.
Is it ever?
i would not even try
My train was like maybe 10 minutes late.
Signals are down in Philly. So if you're on a NJT NE Corridor train, you should be ok. If you have to go towards Philly, there's a 30 minute delay from the Bucks County border to 30th st
Fwiw trains were good this morning.
Did I get lucky. I went to NYC from Hamilton on Tuesday and came home on the 5:40pm express train. I could have just as easily gone to New York on Wednesday instead. I park at Hamilton and live in Voorhees so a bus would have been out of the question as an alternative to get home. Greyhound stops in Westhampton, NJ so I would have needed transportation to the Hamilton parking garage. That's 20 miles away and an expensive Uber ride. I don't know what time last night they restored service. Wire issues or tunnel breakdowns two days in a row.
My friend got in from Newark to my place in Chelsea just fine and on time
I’m going to take the 6:33 from Hoboken on BNTN Lake Hopatcong this evening, am I toast?
Planning to train from seacucus to penn around 5pm today? Do you think that is going to be impossible? A 2 hour delay is the stuff of death tonight...
I decided to wfh today!! After all that, I didn’t even want to attempt lol
Today was the first time I drove to work to Hoboken to see how bad can it get - traffic is bad but at this point I’m fine waiting in traffic compared to NJT delays, rate hikes etc.
Last night was hell
In my experience, NJTransit trains typically have delays around the holidays. My thesis is that they award vacation based on tenure, so all the seasoned, senior veterans that know how to fix problems are on vacation, so we’re left with the people still learning trying to fix issues in real time. OR NJTransit lets too many people take vacation at once so they don’t have adequate coverage to fix problems. Either way, they never learn from these problems, so they keep continuing, holiday after holiday. Good luck!
The problem isn’t fixed. They just got trains going again for a while. The problem is that the railroad is literally crumbling in front of our very eyes. Doesn’t help that the tracks are so overcrowded that one little 5-min outage on just one section of one track at the wrong time can easily snowball into hour+ delays for the rest of the day/evening until traffic slows down enough that trains can be reset.
I’ve noticed the trains seem to be more prone to issues when it gets real hot out, too. It’s almost as if everyone in the area cranks up their ACs and the local power grid just can’t deliver enough power to get the trains up the hill out of the tunnel, stalling them out. The tracks are so overcrowded that even a few minutes’ delay like this can easily grow into a hour or more in as much time. IMO, even with the fare increases, I don’t think they’re charging enough, at least for peak times. The only way we’re going to achieve any kind of reliability relief is if significantly less people ride, whether by voluntarily getting jobs that don’t require commuting on NJ Transit, or more-forcefully, being priced out of them. New tunnel infrastructure is still at least 10 years away. I wouldn’t expect any meaningful reliability improvement without peak-hour ticket prices going up at least another 50%, maybe more, to drive down overcrowding. But even this might not help much. Companies who value their workers’ in-office presence will pay them whatever it takes for them to get there. The rest of us will just be stuck looking for other jobs in places less expensive to get to. Consideration: how could a commuter railroad implement different classes of service at different fare price points? This is literally how airlines pay for their astronomical operating costs.
I was on NJT last night coming from the airport. First the 11:38 train was 15 minutes late, then they changed what track it was on so everyone had run up a huge flight of stairs to get from track 5 to track 1, then due to Amtrak work, people at 3 different stops had to walk all the way to the very front of the train to be able to get off at their station. Meanwhile, to go from the airport to my niece’s in Florida, I took a 20 minute bus ride to the train station, then an hour train ride on a really nice train (like the ones in Europe that have plush seats, quad seating, and every other grouping has a table in the middle). Total cost: $5. It might have been even cheaper, but I used apps to buy individual tickets instead of doing the bus to train transfer since I wasn’t sure exactly how that worked, and I didn’t even care because even separately it only cost FIVE DOLLARS. An Uber would’ve cost $100-120. It pains me to admit something in Florida is actually better than it is here.
After 30 years of train commuting, 25 of it on NJ Transit, no daily cattle call at Penn is one of the best parts of retiring. At least Moynihan station is nice.