A week of free trips on NJ Transit begins Monday

NJ Transit and Amtrak commuters walk through Newark Penn Station. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)

A week of free rides on New Jersey Transit’s trains and buses started Monday, a “fare holiday” meant to appease customers enraged after a summer of service suspensions and interruptions.

Passengers will pay nothing until Sept. 2 on trains, light rail, and buses, while monthly customers will get a 25% discount on their September passes.

Critics have panned the fare holiday — which is expected to cost the state $19 million, roughly 2% of this year’s expected fare revenue — as a gimmick that does nothing to fix the system’s entrenched problems.

Assemblywoman Nancy Muñoz (R-Union) said the public “should be really distressed” that the fare holiday comes on the heels of fare hikes and a new corporate tax that are meant to help the underfunded transit agency dodge a projected fiscal cliff.

“I’m aggravated by the fact that they’re going to offer a free week of free rides — which is very nice and people will appreciate it, but it’s not going to improve the service, number one. Number two, it’s the last week of August, leading into Labor Day, so many people will be on vacation, so it’s probably the fewest number of riders,” Muñoz said. “And it doesn’t fix the problem.”

In announcing the fare holiday earlier this month, Gov. Phil Murphy said officials wanted to “end the summer on a grace note” after extreme heat and the system’s ancient infrastructure stranded thousands of rail riders periodically since June.

The causes of the delays led to finger-pointing between NJ Transit and Amtrak, which owns the tracks and tunnels traversed by NJ Transit trains.

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