Gov. Phil Murphy's plan to offer a week of free rides on NJ Transit does nothing to help fix the agency's problems. (Photo by Edwin J. Torres/N.J. Governor’s Office)
Freelance writer and editor Kim Kavin was at the Peapack train station in Somerset County on July 30, excited for a night out in New York City with a friend from California she hadn’t seen in years.
Unfortunately for Kavin, she was planning on NJ Transit getting her to and from the city. But after a 20-minute delay, the train was canceled. Kavin, who had already bought a round-trip ticket, asked NJ Transit to refund her $36.50 and has yet to hear back.
Kavin does not think much of Gov. Phil Murphy’s Thursday announcement that, as an apology for the transit agency’s abysmal performance this summer, all riders will get free trips on NJ Transit for a week starting Aug. 26.
“I don’t need a ride. I needed a ride when my friend was visiting from California. Now I need my $36.50 back. That’s what I want from Phil Murphy,” she said.
Listen, riders aren’t itching to get one or two train or bus trips for free; they want good, reliable public transportation year-round. And the prospect of a few on-the-house NJ Transit rides the week before a holiday weekend will not reassure them that, after the fare holiday ends, service will get any better.
“This fare holiday is a gimmick,” said Alex Ambrose, a policy analyst with progressive think tank New Jersey Policy Perspective. “It does nothing to actually address the structural problems that exist in NJ Transit, one of the biggest of which is that lawmakers have neglected to adequately fund transit for decades.”
This is a rare issue where progressive wonks and business leaders agree.
Michele Siekerka, president and CEO of the New Jersey Business & Industry Association, also opposes the fare holiday, though for a different reason. Siekerka hates it because it represents a bait-and-switch by Murphy’s administration.
Murphy helped push through a new surtax on some of the state’s most profitable businesses, which he said would help give the financially beleaguered NJ Transit a steady revenue stream for the next few years. Instead, Siekerka noted, the $1 billion the surtax is expected to generate in its first year is going to the state’s general fund — not to NJ Transit.
“If there was such a desperate need, why did we money-grab a billion dollars from the business community to stick in surplus for a year? It makes no sense,” she said. “It’s illogical, it’s nonsensical, it’s irrational, and it’s very, very difficult to have a legitimate discussion about.”
It’s not just the business community paying more to help fund public transit. NJ Transit approved a big fare hike this year — some fares rose 15% — and will tack on 3% fare hikes annually starting next July.
So after raising taxes and hiking fares to rescue NJ Transit from its a budget crisis, the Murphy administration will take $19 million the agency was expected to make from fares the last week of August and flush it down the toilet.
What sense does this make?
Murphy offering an apology to NJ Transit users is good, though he undercut it with his don’t-blame-me attitude (“A lot of this is out of our hands,” said our powerful governor who claims to have a close relationship with the president of the United States). What the apology should come with is not a gimmick to appease riders for one week, but a concrete plan to make sure NJ Transit service is frequent, reliable, and accessible. Hopefully we see that soon.
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