Continuing an annual increase program for transit fares and bridge/tunnel tolls started by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in 2011, PATH transit fares will increase on October 1 at 3 a.m. The single ride fare will go up from $2.50 to $2.75, making the PATH fare higher than the New York City Transit fare; a two-fare card will cost twice that. Multiple-ride cards (10, 20, or 40 rides) will cost $2.10 per ride; weekly and 30-day cards will go for $29 and $89. The Senior fare, available to riders who obtain a personalized SmartLink fare card, will remain at one dollar.

Grand Central Terminal has a renowned food court and other restaurants, including the Oyster Bar, Michael Jordan's steaks, Shake Shack's burgers, and gourmet coffee.  Across town, Penn Station has . . . TGI Friday's. Two of them, in fact. Few make Penn Station a destination for dining, but change may be in the works, according to reporting by Matt Flegenheimer in the New York Times (Sept. 2). Leases on many of Penn Station's restaurants are due to expire, and they may not be renewed. Some transportation officials hope to emulate the Grand Central example. Likely to close are such outlets as KFC, as station manager Amtrak tries to cater to what Amtrak perceives as a customer desire for a "slightly higher brand opportunity in the station," according to Jeff Gerlach, Amtrak's "principal" of capital program development. Meanwhile, consider visiting the Tracks raw bar and grill, downstairs near the 32 St entrance to the 7th Avenue subway, and convenient to NJ Transit's 7th Avenue Concourse. It may not be the equal of Grand Central's Oyster Bar, but it does have railroad-history-themed décor.

See the complete story at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/02/nyregion/for-penn-station-diners-nowhere-to-go-but-up.html

Just under four years ago, Governor Chris Christie cancelled the Access to the Region’s Core project, a decision that has been a lightning rod for commuter frustration ever since. The tortuous road to that ending, marked by numerous project revisions that left it doing less with more, is enough to fill an article of its own. But suffice to say that whatever the merits of that project as it stood at the end, the cancellation has left a gaping hole in New Jersey Transit’s future.

ARC is dead, and with dire projections coming from Amtrak President Joseph H. Boardman on the need to shut down at least one of the existing two Hudson River tunnels for major repairs in under 20 years, it’s crunch time for trans-Hudson capacity. Let’s discuss the state of the plans for a replacement that are in the works – and what the Lackawanna Coalition’s team of riders and planners thinks of them.

Read more: ARC Is Still Dead. What's Plan B? (Part 1 of 2)

NJ Transit commuters have been inconvenienced by track closures on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor line between New Brunswick and Trenton, but the work will bring "the first true high-speed rail to the United States," according to reporting by Steve Strunsky in the Star-Ledger (August 7).  Most of the work involves the overhead "catenary" wires that supply electricity to Amtrak and NJ Transit trains; on August 6, US Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and federal officials toured an Amtrak maintenance facility, inspecting huge spools of copper and steel wire to be installed in the project. The upgrades will allow the fastest trains to increase their speed from the present 135 mph maximum to 160 mph; the project is scheduled for completion in June, 2017. The installation of new support poles for the overhead wire system has forced closure of adjacent tracks so the work can proceed, raising the possibility of train congestion and making train access more difficult at some stations. The project, which will cost a total of $450 million, has been attacked by some in Congress as not worth the anticipated benefits. But Federal Railway Administrator Joseph Szabo defended the project, saying that the growth in rail passenger travel justified it. Szabo said that Amtrak now enjoys 80 percent of the travel market between New York and Washington, a market once dominated by airlines.

Read Steve Strunsky's story at:

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2014/08/booker_federal_railroad_chief_tour_trenton_high-speed_rail_site.html

DepartureVision Real-time map

Since late May, the Lackawanna Coalition has been gathering raw data on NJ Transit’s on-time performance, using a hidden feature of the DepartureVision site that shows a real-time map of train’s locations. There are two cautions that we must give up front. First, that there are several data quality issues that mean that our sample, while a substantial 70% of all scheduled train stops, is incomplete. We have excluded missing station stops from analysis completely except when a Transit Alert indicates that a given train did not make all stops due to a cancellation or service disruption. The second caution is that our data does not contradict NJ Transit’s official On-Time Performance statistics as they are measured – though as we hope you’ll see, there are factors that make it an incomplete description of typical rider experience.

About the Data

The raw data we gathered comes from two sources: the DepatureVision real time train map, and Transit Alerts. The most important thing to understand about the real-time map data is that, while updated frequently, a train’s location isn’t necessarily transmitted at the exact time it makes a station stop. We take the closest point available as a train’s actual departure time (assuming it falls within a .4 mile radius of the station stop). There are also parts of the line that have communication limitations, which means that we receive less accurate times for these stops. Notably the entire Princeton Branch and nearly half of the Atlantic City Line have no locations reported, and we have completely excluded both from our analysis. Finally, the data on endpoint terminals tends to be less accurate than intermediate stops, whether because of communication issues or other reasons. Finally, our own data gathering tool experienced some downtime repeatedly during the month.

Location data only tells us how well the train ran if it ran, so we supplement this data with Transit Alerts in order to find cancellations and service disruptions. This data is only as good as the people writing alerts, and only available during hours when the “alert desk” is manned. This means that a nontrivial number of cancelled or disrupted runs are probably excluded from analysis, which would certainly count against NJ Transit if reported.

Read more: On Time Performance Report - June 2014

NJ Transit Executive Director Veronique "Ronnie" Hakim opened by stating that she considers herself the company’s rider advocate, and recognized the dedication of transit advocates such as the Coalition in promoting the interests in passengers. She highlighted that in her own past experience as a bus commuter and parent, every morning meant going through a “risk assessment” of how much parenting time she could fit in and still make the bus. To that end, NJ Transit is working toward the goal of putting the most timely and accurate information available in the hands of riders.  She also brought up the issue of on-time performance statistics, acknowledging that the single number was often unrepresentative of riders’ experiences, and added that Rail Operations management is working on delivering station by station numbers.

Hakim expressed the view that NJ Transit needed to improve (and is actively working on improving) its relationship with partners such as the Port Authority, NY Waterway, and Amtrak. On the Port Authority front she mentioned an effort to eliminate a part of the holding pattern that buses that don’t have space available at PABT go into, which causes them to go a substantial distance away from the terminal before doubling back through city traffic. She also mentioned trying to build a taskforce of all the players whose decisions affect the flow of buses (such as the NYPD).

On the subject of Trans-Hudson mobility, she stated that all options are on the table, and that NJ Transit is doing what it can to help Amtrak with planning Gateway and the MTA with considering a possible extension of the 7 subway line to Secaucus. She also noted that she has been making an effort to get NY Waterway – a trans-Hudson link that is running at under 25% of its capacity – to promote itself in order to take a greater share of the riders crossing the “[Hudson] Ocean” (echoing a joke one of our members had made earlier).

Her comments on New York improvements were threefold: first, NJ Transit is actively participating in the Northeast Corridor Raceway project of improvements that Amtrak is making between Trenton and New Brunswick. She acknowledged that NJ Transit’s main interests were further north (i.e. the part of the line that all New York bound trains merge into), but felt that investment here could still benefit from a reduced number of late trains – both NJ Transit and Amtrak – that cause substantial delays when they get to New York. She also stated that NJ Transit had a vested interest in ensuring that the process was being expedited as much as possible given the disruption its construction is causing at Princeton Junction and Hamilton. Second, she highlighted an effort to get more timely track assignment information from Amtrak’s New York Penn dispatcher. Third, NJ Transit now has 6 customer service employees on the 7^th avenue concourse (the NJ Transit part of the station) whose duties include ensuring the escalators are operating in the right direction.

I think I speak for the entire Coalition in expressing our hope that the efforts at improving NJ Transit service for all its riders continue, and that transit management continues to engage us actively as representatives for and of their stakeholders, the riding public.

NOTE: Service was restored as of 4:30 PM

Service on the Morris & Essex Rail Line is disrupted west of Madison, due to a storm that damaged the railroad's power wires in the area last night. There is no service today, and NJT sources do not know when service will be restored. Customers who board trains at Convent Station, Morristown, Morris Plains, Mount Tabor, Denville or Dover have no service.

There are also no substitute buses running in the affected area - a notable change from Friday night, where limited substitute buses were run during the evening peak. There is limited local bus service in Morris County on Saturdays, and none on Sundays. So riders west of Madison are essentially stranded today, and will be completely stranded tomorrow, if service is not restored by then.

The Lackawanna Coalition is deeply concerned that New Jersey Transit failed to dedicate a few buses to providing mobility for the riders at the six westernmost stations on the M&E Line. Management makes such provisions during a planned service outage, particularly when a line is placed out of service for track work. We do not understand why management could not do the same during the current service outage, especially since it began last night, and there are plenty of buses available on a week-end.

Hakim shakes hands with our Chair, David Peter Alan

The Lackawanna Coalition Transit Advocacy Organization will host an evening of frank conversation with NJ Transit Executive Director Veronique “Ronnie” Hakim on Monday, June 23^rd at 7 PM at 375 Millburn Ave (Town Hall) in Millburn, NJ. This event is open to all, and NJ Transit riders with issues are strongly encouraged to come out and to make your voice heard.

The Lackawanna Coalition is an organization of riders fighting for riders of New Jersey Transit’s Morris & Essex and Montclair-Boonton rail lines, as well as connecting transit. Ms. Hakim has been NJ Transit’s executive director since her appointment this winter, and has made an effort to engage stakeholder groups such as the Coalition in her tenure. She was previously headed the NJ Turnpike Authority and spent more than 23 years with the New York MTA, rising to the rank of Vice President and General Council.   

For the first time in decades, there is public transportation to Chester, a historic town in western Morris County. The "I Love Chester Express" shuttle van connects with week-end trains that arrive in Gladstone at 10:08 and 11:08, on both Saturday and Sunday mornings through the end of October. The destination of Alstede Farms, which offers a farm store, "pick your own" from their orchards and activities for kids.

General Manager Kurt Alstede is providing the shuttle, in co-operation with the Historic Chester Business Association and the "Streets of Chester" Mall. The van runs between the farm, Main Street and the mall through the afternoon, and leaves the farm in time for visitors to catch the trains departing Gladstone at 5:52 and 6:52.

Between Alstede Farms, the historic Cooper Gristmill and Main Street, a first-time visitor to Chester can keep busy for the afternoon. The mill is open only on Saturdays during June; Sunday tours start in July. The farm and many stores are open both days.

Coalition chair David Peter Alan, Technical Director Joe Clift, and member Pat Winship attended this month’s NJ Transit’s Customer Service Committee meeting, in order to provide our input and make a note of what the committee is doing in response to issues reported by customers. Mrs. Winship’s statement was focused on issues that we had seen and which had been reported to our Twitter account, @Lackawanna_Rail – in particular, incidents of unsafe closing of doors on a customer at South Orange, repeated reports of an insufficient number of car doors opened at New York Penn Station forcing passengers to walk up the platform unnecessarily, and the general problem of untimely and uneven communication of service issues. The first of these received direct attention from several managers, and given the serious danger of a passenger becoming caught in the doors we sincerely hope it never happens again.

The meeting itself is an opportunity for Customer Service leadership to meet with Rail and Bus Operations managers to discuss issues that have been receiving a significant amount of complaint attention. A significant number of the complaints on the rail side were related to overcrowding, which comports with what the Coalition has been hearing from customers. Northeast Corridor train 3813 and North Jersey Coast Line train 2304 were specifically cited for frequent overcrowding complaints, with the latter train having reportedly having been short 1 car for two days in the last month. Other train issues mentioned included Raritan Valley train 5710, which had encountered frequent 5-10 minute delays, and the conductor of Morris & Essex train 6647, whose conductor had refused several passengers’ requests to honor their e-tickets during an outage of the MyTix phone-ticketing app. There was also a inquiry about the cleanliness of train restrooms based on numerous complaints.

On the bus side, Port Authority Bus Terminal continues to be a problem spot, with major overcrowding and delays. An effort has been made to reallocate buses that had been assigned to later runs to replace late-arriving busses on an as-needed basis, which has provided a little relief. NJ Transit Board member Myron “Mike” Shevell suggested that the police cars parked on 41^st street could be moved to free up space for buses, though everyone clearly understood that this was unlikely. He also pointed out that NJ Transit is moving 70% of PABT’s busses through only 40% of its gates.

The Customer Service committee meeting was one of two that was opened to the public in a trial program two months ago. The Lackwanna Coalition strongly endorses making this permanent, and opening the remaining committees to public input.