A proposed fare increase and service cuts announced by NJ Transit would strain household budgets and have a negative impact on the environment, according to speakers at a public hearing concerning the proposed changes.
“When I learned NJ Transit planned to raise the fare by more than 9 percent, I was shocked,” Matawan resident Ken Ramsey said on May 18 at the hearing in Freehold Township. “I don’t think there is any rationale to justify such a dramatic fare hike for almost nothing in exchange.”
NJTransitisproposinga9percentfare increase and several service cuts that would eliminate two low-ridership and late-weeknight trains, as well as a number of underperforming bus routes.
Alan Maiman, deputy general manager for bus service planning for NJ Transit, said a $56 million deficit was one of the factors that caused the transit agency to propose its first fare increase in more than five years.
“When we began our budgeting process we faced a deficit of $120 million,” Maiman said. “We looked internally first and identified more than $42 million in internal reductions that reduced the budget gap.”
In order to close the rest of the deficit, Maiman said officials are proposing a “small number of service adjustments” that would better align service with demand so that no customer would experience a fare increase of more than 9.4 percent.
“Service and fare adjustments are always an option of last resort,” Maiman told those in attendance. “The service adjustments, valued at approximately $2.5 million, impact as few customers as possible by matching service with ridership demand while achieving cost savings.”
As a rail commuter to and from New York City, Ramsey said his train is often behind schedule and uncomfortable, and he said the daily fare to and from the city on the North Jersey Coast Line is the second highest expense for his family.
“It is a struggle to commute this way. Commuters give up a portion of their lives each day, leisure time and family time, and the fare is the highest expense my family faces after mortgage and food,” Ramsey said. “To think NJ Transit would raise the fare by such a staggering amount is deeply troublesome and it casts a shadow over my family’s every move … to be saddled with a [large] monthly increase is debilitating.”
The proposed fare hike would also have environmental consequences, according to New Jersey Sierra Club Program Assistant Toni Granato. The fare increase and service cuts would create more traffic as fewer people would be inclined to ride buses and trains, and would resort back to their cars, she said.
“This fare increase … will mean more traffic and more air pollution and will mean fewer riders and less revenue — thus leading to more fare increases and service cuts,” she said. Granato said she thought the cuts in service were poor alternatives since they could cause more delays and problems for commuters.
“People have seen major delays, the breakdown of trains, overcrowding, as well as equipment failures,” she said.
More dissatisfied train riders will result in more people driving, adding to traffic, air pollution and sprawl, she added.
“This is something this community does not need in Monmouth County,” Granato said.
State Assemblywoman Amy Handlin (R-Monmouth) said she believes her constituents are being taken for a ride.
“Anyone looking at the pattern of fare hikes over the years can see the increases have been disturbingly erratic as well as very large — never lower than 9 percent and as high as 22 percent,” she said.
Handlin said she believes NJ Transit has much more work to do before finalizing a fare increase or service cuts.
“At a minimum, I believe you need to demonstrate that you have a rigorous financial forecasting model in place and will use it to avoid a future of continually hitting people erratically, unexpectedly and deeply in the pocketbook,” the assemblywoman said.
NJ Transit conducts customer counts on trains to determine ridership levels and provide immediate data to adjust service periodically, Maiman said. These counts and financial performance were key criteria in the recommended elimination of two latenight trains along the Pascack Valley and Montclair-Boonton lines, he said.
Maiman said all bus routes were evaluated for three key performance metrics: the cost paid by taxpayers beyond the passenger fare to cover the operating costs of each individual bus trip; the percentage of operating costs covered by the fare; and the number of fare-paying passengers divided by the number of hours operated on that bus route.
While Maiman said NJ Transit continues to keep local bus fares below regional levels, officials have recommended the elimination of several bus routes, including a route from Freehold to Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson.
He said the proposed fare increase and service cuts would allow NJ Transit to continue to provide important discounts for senior citizens, customers with disabilities, military personnel and students, and will preserve existing travel flexibility features for customers with monthly and weekly passes.
A decision regarding the proposed 9 percent fare increase and service cuts would be made in July at the earliest. The increases would take effect Oct. 1.
According to Maiman, NJ Transit is the nation’s largest statewide public transportation system, providing more than 915,000 weekday trips on 261 bus routes, three light rail lines, 12 commuter rail lines and through Access Link Paratransit service.