NJ Transit finally "gets it."

[John WR]

Under Jim Weinstine New Jersey Transit was adamant there could be no more off peak fare tickets. NJT argued they were a money loosing proposition. Part of the reason was understandable. Today many places use flextime and that has streched out the rush hours to the point that some people were able to use off peak tickets to commute to work. However, that seemed to indicate that the hours off peak tickets could be used might be extended. Instead, the practice was abandoned all together. For example, it is hard for me to see that there are many people commuting from Newark to Trenton between 6 and 7 am. I use that example because if did that by train for several months and if one tenth of the seats were occupied that was a lot. To the extent that an off peak fare might attract people I could not see that NJT would be worse off. When Governor Christie was first elected he slashed NJT's appropriation NJT increased train fares by 25 per cent. I can appreciate that in the face of the Governor's act they did not have a lot of choice. At the same time right now their fares are so high that it is often cheaper for a single individual to commute by car within New Jersey and often commutes within the state are in the opposite direction of rush hour traffic. If NJT could attract reverse commuters with lower fares the money they would make would be pure profit. To restore off peak fares would be an important step in that direction and I think Jim Simpson wants to seriously consider such a reduction.

[blue streak 1]

Sandy::  =======  You may have spoken too soon.  Appears NJT is ignoring the legislature.  Just how bullet proof does NJT think they are ?

http://www.northjersey.com/news/nj-state-news/nj-transit-skips-hearing-on-super-bowl-rail-issues-1.730596

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[henry6]

There is a lot of political rhetoric flying.  Define political rhetoric: pandering and patronizing the press and the public; double talk; promises; empty promises; pretty words; not necessarily knowing what the words mean, but somebody said to say them;  the defecated waste of male cows.  Only if they back up what they say with actions and results will we accept them.  Most all the players, speakers, etc., are politicians and not railroaders or even really mass transit operators.  So, what can we really expect?  Nothing until it happens.  Neither running trains or moving people are the whole answer separately or combined.  The concept of providing a service in the operation and performance of equipment, schedules, and people from the ballast to the governor's office (in this case) will be the proof  by results.  How long do we give them.  Well, I for one, will, like SANDYHOOKKEN said above, say these words need to trickle down, that the title page of the book has been published indicating what could be inside.  Next comes the preface.  Then each chapter in turn, page by page, paragraph by paragraph, sentence by sentence will tell the story.  How long now before the preface?  And how soon before the first sentence of the first paragraph of the first Chapter?  Performance and results will be the true validation of their words.

[sandyhookken]

Here's a quote from the NJ Transportation Commissioner as part of his comments at a recent NJ Transit Board meeting. "We’re in the passenger transport business — we’re not in the rail business and we’re not in the bus business," he said. "We want to move people and constantly reinvent ourselves as an agency." This is the same concept that various posters on this forum have been preaching for years. I wonder when, or if, this philosophy will trickle down to the management levels. The newspaper article described the Commissioner, Jim Simpson, discussing a report from NJ Transit staff on the feasibility of restoring the off-peak fares that were eliminated in 2010. His appraisal of the report was "Garbage", and said that he tossed it in the trash. I tried to copy & paste the link to the newspaper article, but it didn't work (recent Microsoft Update?).