This week's journey. The Queensboro Bridge is getting dedicated bike and pedestrian lanes; Auditions for the top tier of busking; More trouble at Newark; How train operators call the NYPD, and more.
Gov. Phil Murphy campaigned for the State House eight years ago on a promise to fix New Jersey’s transit system. He called NJ Transit a “national disgrace,” and blamed his predecessor Chris Christie for not investing in the system used by more than 170,000 weekday rail riders.
But as Murphy wraps up the final year of his last term in Trenton, NJ Transit is in even worse shape than when he took office.
And now, the system’s problems are poised to become even worse as soon as Friday at midnight, when NJ Transit’s locomotive engineers could walk off the job in the state’s largest transit strike since 1983.
“Murphy promised to fix NJ Transit if it kills him,” said Talia Crawford, advocacy and organizing manager at the Tri-State Transportation Campaign. “Riders aren’t seeing any changes.”
“More funding needs to go to transit, and we’re hopeful that the next governor prioritizes public transportation and fixing the system for New Jerseyans,” she said.
The on-time performance rate on NJ Transit’s Northeast Corridor line fell to 75% last June, even lower than any month during 2017’s “summer of hell,” when issues with the interlockings at Penn Station caused chronic delays.
Service has improved slightly over the last year. NJ Transit officials blame many of their issues on equipment owned by Amtrak, which is responsible for the Hudson River train tunnels as well as Penn Station. New Jersey officials have over the last year said overhead wires that power trains into Penn are faulty — but Amtrak officials blamed old equipment on NJ Transit’s fleet of trains.
Representatives for Murphy declined to comment directly, and deferred questions to NJ Transit.
“One of the first orders of business under the Murphy administration in 2018 was an order of 113 new multilevel rail cars that, if not for the pandemic, most – if not all – would likely be in service today,” said NJ Transit spokesperson Jim Smith.
When Murphy entered office, the Garden State’s railroads also faced a funding crisis. Until last year, the problem persisted without a long-term solution. Then, Murphy passed a corporate tax that would help bring NJ Transit out of a deficit. The agency — after not raising its fares a single time under Murphy — authorized a whopping 15% fare hike to further plug its financial hole.
The corporate tax got “NJ Transit out of a billion-dollar hole,” said Crawford. “There have still been major commuter rail issues, like from last summer.”
Curious Commuter
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“Do conductors really have no way to reach NYPD directly through MTA systems of communication?”
- Laura from Brooklyn
Train operators and conductors don’t necessarily have a direct line to the NYPD, but their radios do connect directly to the subway’s rail control center, where all the system’s service is managed.
NYPD and MTA security officials are stationed at the rail control center, and can help organize police responses to crimes or other emergencies.
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We're also talking about...
The separation of powers on the Queensboro Bridge. Starting Sunday, cyclists and pedestrians will each get their own dedicated lanes on the busy crossing, bringing an end to years of bitter conflict.
“Forcing thousands of cyclists and pedestrians into a single 12-foot lane each day [was] a recipe for chaos.”
- Jon Orcutt, advocacy director at the nonprofit Bike New York
Other new bike lanes. The MTA on Monday unveiled a set of fully accessible cyclist and pedestrian paths on the stretches of the Triborough Bridge that connect Randall’s Island to the Bronx and East Harlem.
A safer Conduit. The city’s Department of Transportation is kicking off a community-led effort to redesign the 3-mile Conduit corridor in Brooklyn and Queens, one of the city’s most dangerous roadways.
More Newark woes. The Federal Aviation Administration ordered a ground stop at Newark Airport last Sunday due to a shortage of air traffic controllers. This came after repeated equipment malfunctions in recent weeks caused employees at the facility to go on trauma leave.
Listen to us talk about all this!Download our app and tune in to “All Things Considered” around 4 p.m. today. And catch up on last week’s segment in case you missed it.
