New Jersey Transit, a Cautionary Tale of Neglect

October 13, 2016 10:21 AM

"The story of how the nation’s third-busiest commuter railroad declined so rapidly is a tale of neglect and mismanagement that represents an ominous symbol of the challenges facing mass transit systems across the United States in an era when governments are loath to raise taxes." On September 29, a New Jersey Transit train headed into the Hoboken terminal crashed, killing one woman, and injuring 108 others.
posted by roomthreeseventeen (25 comments total)

The MBTA is rapidly (heh, heh) heading down this route, too. I'm glad I don't live on the Green Line or anywhere south of the city, I'll just say that.

The infuriating thing is that we know exactly how to fix all these problems. We just can't convince anybody to spend money doing it. And trying to argue for the spending just starts a round of griping about $90k paychecks and union policies.
posted by tobascodagama at 10:28 AM on October 13, 2016 [14 favorites]

I have to believe that Chris Christie will go down as one of the worst governors that NJ has ever had. How do you get away with starving a transit system of money it needs to run safely, just to build more roads, and then keep it unmanaged for a year without any civil or criminal consequences?
posted by a lungful of dragon at 10:32 AM on October 13, 2016 [17 favorites]

This makes me so sad. I grew up in NJ and have traveled to and through there very frequently over the years, always using NJT. And for most of that time, it was a paragon of public transit - clean, on time, professional, well managed. Even as a teen in an outlying suburb, I was able to get all over the state to friends' homes, and to and from Philadelhia, NYC, and DC cheaply and comfortable and safely. When I moved to Boston I found the MBTA a very sorry substitute - neglected, old, dirty, badly run, poor coverage, lazy conductors with bad attitudes. But I am hearing from all directions that under Christie, the NJT system has really declined and threatens to be on a par with MBTA commuter rail these days. So it's with pleasure that I saw he was summonsed today - different issue, but at least some accountability.
posted by Miko at 10:38 AM on October 13, 2016 [5 favorites]

When I lived in NJ and worked in NYC, the train that crashed was the one I took to work. That precise line and time.

I knew Christie was going to be hell on public transit when he cancelled the replacement tunnel and took the money for roads. He and his cronies have also looked the 911 update fund. I want that bastard impeached and disbarred and so humiliated that he has problems getting a job that involves asking people if they want fried potatoes as part of the meal.
posted by mephron at 10:43 AM on October 13, 2016 [18 favorites]

On a happier note, for a change it was satisfying to read the comments.
posted by Miko at 10:50 AM on October 13, 2016

I gotta hop the NEC tomorrow evening for a trip to Philadelphia. *sigh* And to think, after I leave Philly is when SEPTA starts getting its shit together, while NJ Transit and the MTA struggle.
posted by SansPoint at 10:55 AM on October 13, 2016

He also criticized the project’s inclusion of an underground station near the Macy’s store in Herald Square in Manhattan.

Which, hopefully, would have reopened the passageway from Penn Station to the PATH. No such luck.
posted by dr_dank at 11:16 AM on October 13, 2016 [3 favorites]

You trust Christie to do a job that involves a cash register?
posted by benzenedream at 11:21 AM on October 13, 2016 [4 favorites]

This seems to be a theme with the Republicans. If something doesn't affect them directly, then to hell with it. If it turns out your daughter is gay, then you might be OK with equal marriage rights or if you kid develops schizophrenia you will suddenly decide that insurance companies should pay for mental health care. But it's 'only poor people ride the bus, to hell with that!'
posted by Bee'sWing at 11:27 AM on October 13, 2016 [7 favorites]

This is an interesting paragraph, discussing Christie's disdain for NJT passengers:

“Had he taken buses or trains he would have seen — no, it’s not just people going to Wall Street,” he said. “It’s the blue-collar worker holding two or three jobs who doesn’t have money for a car, and they need that train.”

Here in the rest of the country, it's blue-collar workers who are the core (or, really, only) ridership of public transit. So our governors don't fund transit because who cares about poor people?
posted by workerant at 11:32 AM on October 13, 2016 [4 favorites]

"just people going to Wall Street"..."blue-collar workers who are the core"

You guys are looking for a logic, don't bother. Conservatives are defacto against 'public x', where x in this case happens to be transportation.*


*This is true for all values of 'x', EXCEPT for x = mitigation of private risk (see Great Recession)
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 11:51 AM on October 13, 2016 [8 favorites]

As recently as 5 years ago, NJT was the railroad that others (even Amtrak) looked up to. The system was impeccably run and maintained (without venturing into extravagance). Equipment was maintained, refurbished, and replaced on a schedule that seemed to have been dictated by a group of engineers instead of a group of politicians. Riding NJT was rarely a glamorous experience, but it was efficient and reliable.

Similar things could be said about the DC Metro, which, after decades of serving as a paragon of efficiency and modernity, is in the midst of a full-blown meltdown from which it may never recover (and threatens to deal a devastating blow to the region's economy along with its collapse, which many locals seem to be vicariously cheerleading for some reason).

I grew up in NJ, and truthfully speaking, didn't have any plans to stay. Christie's election pretty much cemented the notion that I'd never want to call New Jersey "home" again. Most of my peers have concluded the same – New Jersey quietly forced a substantial portion of an entire generation out of the state.

Now, my new home is in a similar state of collapse, and I frankly have no clue where I'll be able to go. My generation has been held hostage by the ones before it. We have no power to fix these problems, and have been tricked into blaming ourselves and each other.

The 2000s have been such shit.
posted by schmod at 12:19 PM on October 13, 2016 [16 favorites]

Well thank goodness I'm moving to Philadelphia, with its spotless record.
posted by grumpybear69 at 12:29 PM on October 13, 2016

grumpybear: Loathe as I am to defend SEPTA, the derailment was Amtrak, and the Silverliner V issue looks more the fault of the manufacturer.
posted by SansPoint at 1:04 PM on October 13, 2016

The MBTA is rapidly (heh, heh) heading down this route, too. I'm glad I don't live on the Green Line or anywhere south of the city, I'll just say that.

The infuriating thing is that we know exactly how to fix all these problems. We just can't convince anybody to spend money doing it. And trying to argue for the spending just starts a round of griping about $90k paychecks and union policies.

Two years ago, when Boston had record-breaking snow, the MBTA wound up hiring union workers to shovel a 9-mile section of exposed track on the Red Line. Because of course, railroad cars that have snow plows attached to them have been around for, oh, at least a hundred years.

The agency's complete failure to deal with the heavy snow caused the general manager to resign, for no reason other than the fact that she was the one at the helm when the snow hit. (After she resigned, the governor appointed a panel to look into things. The panel chair promptly went on vacation to Jamaica, and while he was there, the newspaper exposed a whole bunch of his tax problems. He then resigned too.) I used to babysit for a former GM, and during the snowcalypse he was quoted in the paper as saying "it was the worst job I ever had," because he couldn't get anyone to do anything.

Yes, we know how to fix these problems. And when it becomes so obvious why we don't (yay, journalism!!), we get that much closer to the revolution. Hmmm.
posted by Melismata at 1:30 PM on October 13, 2016 [4 favorites]

the Silverliner V issue looks more the fault of the manufacturer.

It's also worth stressing that we still don't know what's causing the trucks to crack (which makes the "let's just not weld them" solution seem really sketchy IMO).

Ultimately, the problem boils down to "freaky metallurgy stuff," and seems likely to produce a scientific paper or two if we figure out why it happened (and how to detect it). Rotem have a bad track record, but it really seems like we haven't fully groked the science of why this is happening.

That being said, I'm very surprised that SEPTA haven't demanded wholesale replacement of the trucks, keeping the existing ones in storage until we can definitively answer why they are failing. (So, yes, SEPTA have some blame here, but it's worth stressing that the Silverliner V issue is really weird)
posted by schmod at 1:31 PM on October 13, 2016 [2 favorites]

This makes me sad. I grew up in North Jersey and those trains were our connection to the city. It was still the Erie Lackawanna when I was a kid in the seventies and the cars were still from the twenties with no-AC, wicker seats and a bar car at the back. I don't know how many weekend trips we took into the city to see museums, shows, etc.
posted by octothorpe at 1:51 PM on October 13, 2016 [2 favorites]

The infuriating thing is that we know exactly how to fix all these problems. We just can't convince anybody to spend money doing it. And trying to argue for the spending just starts a round of griping about $90k paychecks and union policies.

You can say the same thing about the CTA and Metra in Chicago. Add in the Downstate Illinois legislators who think too much state money goes into Chicago and do not want another penny going to fund anything there - it's a mess.
posted by SisterHavana at 4:08 PM on October 13, 2016 [1 favorite]

The right has so successfully demonized governance at every level that I'm beginning to worry about them... who will they grift from now that governing has died?
posted by ccaajj aka chrispy at 4:22 PM on October 13, 2016 [1 favorite]

My wife and I will have to move to New Jersey soon, and I'll be commuting into Manhattan for work. She's working in Jersey, so one of us will have to take NJ Transit. Is there a way to avoid the worst of this?
posted by fremen at 8:47 PM on October 13, 2016

You might look into a bus line, actually. The Hoboken incident didn't disrupt my schedule at all. It's less pleasant, but bus systems are a lot more resilient.

Is it super weird that the article called him Mr.? Instead of "Governor Christie"? That feels pretty weird to me.

Mr. Burkert said Mr. Christie did not seem to understand New Jersey Transit’s essential role in the state’s infrastructure. “Had he taken buses or trains he would have seen — no, it’s not just people going to Wall Street,” he said. “It’s the blue-collar worker holding two or three jobs who doesn’t have money for a car, and they need that train.”

As excellent as this point is, that's not all. As far as I can tell, 92,000 people take the train into New York every day, and 78,000 take the bus.* Imagine 200,000 extra people driving into Manhattan, every day. Statewide, NJTransit serves 900,000 people daily - and the state only has 8mil people in it. That's a huge amount of road traffic that's being displaced onto trains or condensed into buses.

but hey Christie takes the fucking helicopter anyway so screw the rest of us right

*I'm getting those numbers from "Avg weekday boardings" at Penn Station and the Port Authority.
posted by Rainbo Vagrant at 10:01 PM on October 13, 2016 [2 favorites]

Is it super weird that the article called him Mr.? Instead of "Governor Christie"? That feels pretty weird to me.

Times house style is to use the political title in the first instance of mentioning an elected official ("Gov." in this case) and the standard title (Mr., etc.) in subsequent instances. Look at any article about the president, where he is referred to as "Mr. Obama" throughout (except, of course, in the first mention, where he is "President Obama").
posted by mr_roboto at 10:29 PM on October 13, 2016 [2 favorites]

London's transport network is facing similar criminal dis-investment. All government subsidy (except for capital projects) is being withdrawn over the next four years. It's not difficult to see how the ideological (if you can call neo-liberal asset stripping such a thing) policies of a right leaning elite lead to a breakdown of physical and societal infrastructure. This is close to my heart because I work for Transport for London - though it's not clear for how much longer.
posted by Myeral at 1:44 AM on October 14, 2016 [2 favorites]

@fremen DON'T settle beyond like, the North East of Jersey. Transit in this state is so amazingly bizarre that if you're not in one of the main cities, or near a college, good luck going anywhere noncar. I live in the middle of New Jersey. To get into Brooklyn would take me 40 odd miles.
If I were to attempt to take the transit system, I would have to drive a half hour south to get to the bus station that would take me the hour 45 or so to get there. Google says that trip by car is 1:35, but with whatever insane traffic I would hit, it would roughly even out.
So yea, stick to anything close geographically to Manhattan, Damn the rest.
posted by WeX Majors at 6:19 AM on October 14, 2016 [2 favorites]

I wish ironic sentencing wouldn't be a violation of the 8th amendment, because it would be really fitting to force some of these people to live out "Charlie on the MTA" for the rest of their lives. (Yes, I know it's not the same MTA.)
posted by tobascodagama at 6:52 AM on November 6, 2016