New Jersey Transit, facing a $60 million budget deficit for FY2016 (stemming from an overall transportation funding crisis in the state), recently announced a proposed 9 percent fare hike, and the anger is far-reaching. New Jersey Transit riders pay some of the highest fares in the nation. The last fare hike was in 2010 where riders were hit with an historically high 22 percent increase. Meanwhile, New Jersey’s gas tax remains the second lowest in the country at 14.5 cents per gallon, and has not been raised since 1988. As if that wasn’t enough, the proposed fare hike is coupled with a number of service cuts. If approved at the July 8 NJ Transit Board meeting, the fare increase and service changes would take effect on October 1, 2015.
NJTransit will hold nine public hearings in addition to a public information session starting this Saturday, May 16, and attendees may testify on these proposed changes at all ten sessions. Don’t miss your chance to make your voice heard!
If you can’t make it to testify in person, you may submit comments via mail to: PUBLIC HEARING OFFICE – FARE PROPOSAL COMMENTS, ONE PENN PLAZA EAST, NEWARK, NJ 07105; online at www.njtransit.com, or dropped off at Customer Service Offices. The online public comment period will be extended until 11:59 p.m., Thursday, May 21.
The Northeast Corridor megalopolis is the United States’ central economic nervous system. Without it (and the essential transportation infrastructure necessary for it to be functional), both the Northeastern and the entire Nation’s economic stability becomes compromised.
Very soon, the Northeast Corridor may be lacking a crucial piece of transportation infrastructure- Amtrak’s Hudson River tunnels. A recent report cites the necessity to take one or both tubes out of service for at at least a year to make critical repairs to damage caused by Superstorm Sandy in 2012.
Without these tunnels, essential intercity and commuter rail service could be reduced by 75%, causing mobility options in the Northeast to become limited and unreliable.
Unfortunately, the only solution to to build a new set of tunnels before the existing ones have to be taken out of service. This must be done as fast as humanly possible. This means there’s NO TIME left for dithering with additional studies and lame political/financial hurdles. The ONLY other choice is decades of unacceptable levels of mobility and economic instability.
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