| New Jersey Transit | |
|---|---|
New Jersey Transit (NJT) provides bus service throughout New Jersey, commuter rail service in North and Central Jersey and along the Route 30 corridor, and light rail service in Hudson and Essex Counties, and in the Delaware Valley. |
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| Info | |
| Locale | New Jersey (statewide), Rockland County and Orange County in New York state. |
| Transit type | Commuter rail, light rail, bus |
| Number of lines | 11 (commuter rail) 3 (light rail) 247 (bus) |
| Number of stations | 162 (rail) 60 (light rail) 27 (bus terminals) 18,000+ (bus stops)[1] |
| Daily ridership | 940,877 (weekday) 392,613 (Saturday) 216,375 (Sunday)[2] (2007 figures, all modes) |
| Chief executive | James Weinstein |
| Headquarters | 1 Penn Plaza East, Newark, NJ 07105 |
| Operation | |
| Began operation | June 1979 |
| Operator(s) | Commuter rail: NJ Transit Bus: See bus article Light Rail: See light rail article |
| Number of vehicles | 2,477 (bus) 1,078 (commuter rail) 93 (light rail)[2] (2007 figures) |
| Technical | |
The New Jersey Transit Corporation (usually shortened to New Jersey Transit, NJ Transit or NJT) is a statewide public transportation system serving the US state of New Jersey, and New York, Orange, and Rockland counties in New York State. It operates bus, light rail, and commuter rail services throughout the state, notably connecting to major commercial and employment centers both within the state and in the adjacent cities of New York and Philadelphia.
Covering a service area of 5,325 square miles (13,790 km2), NJ Transit is the nation's largest statewide public transit system and the nation's third largest provider of bus, rail and light rail transit by ridership,[3] linking major points in New Jersey, New York and Philadelphia.
New Jersey Transit also acts as a purchasing agency for many private operators in New Jersey, with numerous private operators receiving equipment from New Jersey Transit (primarily buses) for route service within the state not controlled by New Jersey Transit.
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New Jersey Transit, founded in June 1979, was an offspring of the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT), mandated by the state government to address the many transportation issues that had developed at the time. NJ Transit came into being with the passage of the Public Transportation Act of 1979 to "acquire, operate and contract for transportation service in the public interest." NJ Transit originally acquired and managed a number of private bus services. Conrail (or Consolidated Rail Corporation) had been formed in 1976 through the merging of a number of financially troubled railroads, and operated commuter railroad service under contract from the NJDOT.
In 1983, NJ Transit assumed operation of all commuter rail service in New Jersey from Conrail. It now operates every passenger and commuter rail line in the state except for Amtrak; the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH), which is owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; the PATCO Speedline, which is owned by the Delaware River Port Authority; two SEPTA Regional Rail lines, the West Trenton Line and the Trenton Line; and a handful of tourist trains in the southern and northwestern parts of New Jersey. New Jersey Transit also runs most of the state's bus lines. In northern New Jersey, many of the bus routes are arranged in a web. In southern New Jersey, most routes are arranged in a "spoke-and-hub" fashion, with routes emanating from Trenton, Camden, and Atlantic City. In addition to routes run by New Jersey Transit, NJ Transit also subsidizes and provides buses for most of the state's private operators, such as Coach USA, DeCamp, Lakeland, and Academy, providing fixed route or commuter service. Since inception, rail ridership has quadrupled.
In the 1990s, the system expanded, with new Midtown Direct service to New York City and new equipment. On October 21, 2001 it opened a new station at Newark Liberty International Airport. On December 15, 2003, NJ Transit opened the Secaucus Junction transfer station, connecting two major portions of the system, allowing passengers on trains based out of Hoboken Terminal to switch to other trains to get to Midtown Manhattan more conveniently. The transfer saves passengers headed into Midtown Manhattan an estimated 15 minutes of travel time. Previously, passengers on trains into Hoboken had to connect to PATH trains at Hoboken to get to Midtown or Lower Manhattan. On October 31, 2005, NJT took over Clocker (NY-Philadelphia) service from Amtrak. Four new trains were added to the schedule, but service was cut back to Trenton.
New Jersey Transit's operations are divided into three classes: bus, rail, and light rail, operated under three legal businesses: NJ Transit Bus Operations, Inc, for bus and Newark Light Rail operations, subsidiary NJ Transit Mercer, Inc. for bus operations around Trenton, and NJ Transit Rail Operations, Inc., for commuter rail operations.
New Jersey Transit operates service on 247 bus routes and the Newark Light Rail using 2,477 buses[2] (leasing out the remainder to private operators) and 20 light rail vehicles (with numerous other line runs being subsidized by New Jersey Transit),[1] The complete bus fleet, including buses purchased by New Jersey Transit for other New Jersey operators above the 2,477, can be viewed here.
New Jersey Transit operates three separate light rail lines:
NJ Transit has 11 commuter rail lines:
Additional special event service is provided on the Meadowlands Rail Line.
Also operated by NJ Transit is the Atlantic City Express Service (ACES), a service owned by a joint venture between the Caesars and Borgata casinos in Atlantic City.The train runs from New York Penn Station to the Atlantic City Rail Terminal with one stop at Newark Penn Station.
NJ Transit operates over 100 diesel locomotives, of which 11 are supplied by Metro-North Railroad as part of an operating agreement for the Port Jervis Line, and 61 electric locomotives. Its fleet consists of over 650 push-pull cars, of which 65 are supplied by Metro-North, and 230 electric multiple unit cars.
The New Jersey Transit Police Department (NJTPD) is the transit police force for the New Jersey Transit Corporation. It is a general-powers police agency with state wide jurisdiction with the primary focus on policing the numerous bus depots, rail and light-rail stations throughout New Jersey. The department currently employs 240 sworn police officers.
New Jersey Transit is planning to extend the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail past its current terminus to Tenafly along the Northern Branch, an existing freight rail line. The project is expected to break ground in 2011, and is expected to cost $900 million.[4]
The Passaic-Bergen Passenger Rail Project is a project being conducted by New Jersey Transit to reintroduce passenger service on the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway. As of September 2008, plans call for service to run between Hawthorne and Hackensack using newly built Diesel Multiple Unit rail cars.[5][6]
In May 2001, New Jersey Transit purchased the property of the Lackawanna Cutoff. This line, constructed by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad between 1908 and 1911 provided a direct, level-graded route between the Delaware River (Slateford, Pennsylvania), two miles (3.25 km) below the Delaware Water Gap, to the crest of the watershed at Lake Hopatcong (Port Morris, New Jersey). The DL&W had a penchant for extensive concrete construction, and as a result, most of the structures, including stations, bridges, and vast viaducts are still in operational or near-operational condition, despite the abandonment by Conrail in 1979. A 2004 study conducted by New Jersey Transit estimates that bringing the line back into operation would cost approximately $350 million. The proposed rehabilitation project, which still lacks funding, if completed, would provide commuter rail service between Scranton, Pennsylvania and Hoboken Terminal on the Hudson River waterfront in New Jersey (with connecting service to trains serving New York's Penn Station). Service to Midtown Manhattan would be made available to the growing exurban communities in Monroe County in the Poconos, and in upper Warren County and lower Sussex County.[7]
The Monmouth-Ocean-Middlesex (MOM)[8] line is a proposed south and central New Jersey commuter rail route offering those counties' residents access to New Brunswick, Newark and New York's Penn Station. The line was originally proposed by the Ocean County Board of Chosen Freeholders in March 1980. This route would run on a 40.1-mile rail corridor and would provide diesel commuter rail service from Monmouth Junction (South Brunswick), where the Jamesburg Branch partially joins the Northeast Corridor (NEC), to Lakehurst. As of 2006, the line was opposed by Jamesburg and Monroe Township.[9]
From Monmouth Junction, the line would continue southeast to Jamesburg, Monroe, Englishtown, Manalapan, Freehold Borough, Freehold Township, Howell and Farmingdale. A new rail connection would be required in Farmingdale. It would proceed southward from Farmingdale to Lakehurst, passing through Howell, Lakewood, Jackson, Toms River Township, and Lakehurst/Manchester. Trains on this line would also operate on the NEC between Monmouth Junction and Newark. Passengers destined for New York would transfer at Newark. Eight new stations and a train storage yard would be constructed.
In mid-February 2008, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine withdrew the Monmouth Junction alignment from the MOM Plan. Corzine opted to endorse the two remaining alternate alignments (via Red Bank or Matawan-Freehold, the latter which is currently part of the Henry Hudson rail trail. NJ Transit is still planning to go forward with the study of all the routes as to not delay action further on the EIS, and says all three routes are still up for evaluation, although they will take the Governor's comments into consideration.
In August 2010, NJ Transit received $534,375 in Federal Funds to investigate the possibilities of a MOM line. [10]
In November 2008, the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation (LVEDC), along with both Lehigh and Northampton counties, commissioned a study to explore the merits of expanding the Raritan Valley Line to the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, which would potentially include stops in Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton.[11]
The West Trenton Line is a proposed service connecting West Trenton Station with Newark Penn Station. The train would connect with the Raritan Valley Line at Bridgewater. As of 2004, New Jersey Transit's estimate of the cost of creating a passenger line to West Trenton was $197 million.[12] To date, no funding for the proposal has been secured.[13] Service ran on the line prior to 1983.
NJ Transit intended to construct a new two-track Hudson River tunnel adjacent to the two existing single-track Northeast Corridor tunnels (built in the early 20th century by the Pennsylvania Railroad). NJ Transit referred to the project as Access to the Region's Core, which would have used Dual-Power Locomotives and a newly constructed rail junction at Secaucus, allowing for a one-train ride between the Port Jervis, Main, Bergen County, Pascack Valley, and Raritan Valley lines and Penn Station New York. The project broke ground in June 2009.[14] Both the Federal Transit Administration and The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey made public commitments of $3 billion to the project. However, the project was suspended on October 7, 2010 due to concerns that the state of New Jersey would be solely responsible for the projected $5 billion in overruns. On October 27, 2010, Governor Chris Christie made a final decision to cancel the project. Amtrak later unveiled the Gateway Project, which addresses some of the issues ARC was meant to resolve.
Planned to connect Downtown Newark and Elizabeth via Newark Liberty International Airport, the agency is no longer pursuing Newark-Elizabeth Rail Link unveiled at present.
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