NJ Transit Rail Morris and Essex Line and Montclair-Boonton Line commuters in Morris County deserve free WiFi service before 2016

In 2010 reacting to a budget shortfall NJ Transit riders – rail, bus, and light rail – were treated to a 25% fare increase with no change in service. This was described as an end to subsidies to rail commuters.  Monthly tickets for Morris County commuters ranged up to $418 from Western Morris to New York, and $284 from Eastern Morris to New York. From Western Morris to Hoboken is $299. Daily and weekly fares are proportionally higher per ride.

For these fares riders on the Morris and Essex Line (M&E) to Hoboken are treated to some of the oldest running stock in NJ Transit’s inventory and indeed one must believe in the Eastern U.S.  The Montclair-Boonton Line (M-B) also makes its way through Morris County, and although it avoids the ancient equipment, since it is not electrified past Montclair, it shares much with the M&E.

At the same time, NJ Transit Rail has some of the most expensive equipment in the world. Trains on the M&E and the M-B lines going to New York Penn Station must switch from one electrical gradient to another as they go from NJ Transit tracks on the M&E and M-B lines to the Northeast Corridor tracks, managed by Amtrack, in order to complete the trip to New York Penn Station.  This requires locomotives that can run under either of the two power gradients. The locomotives NJ Transit Rail has acquired for this are from a German manufacturer and are among the most expensive in the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALP-46

In 2012 the management of NJ Transit Rail was alone among the transportation agencies in the New York Metropolitan area in choosing not to move the equipment out of the low lying areas that the National Weather Service predicted would take a storm surge of 9 to 11 feet from Hurricane Sandy. The yards in question were the Hoboken Terminal yard and the Meadows Maintenance Complex in Kearny. The new locomotives and the new double decker passenger cars left in the storm’s path were badly damaged and are mostly still not back in service.  The lines have made due with passenger trains cobbled together from available stock and with reduced schedules since the storm.

http://www.wnyc.org/blogs/transportation-nation/2013/aug/19/nj-transit-disregarded-hurricane-plan/

In addition the pace of the trains on the M&E and M-B lines is among the slowest on any train line in the Northeast.  This may be because the trains pass largely through residential areas, or it may simply be a tradition on these lines that has not yielded to time.  Suffice to say that there is no train that goes from Dover to Hoboken in less than 75 minutes and there is no train that goes from Dover to New York Penn Station in less than 90 minutes; a distance of less than 40 miles.

WiFi coverage over the length of the M&E and M-B lines is spotty, even for WiFi subscribers. NJ Transit has announced a plan to partner with Cablevision to provide free WiFi on NJ Transit rail by 2016. Why the wait? The commute on the M&E and the M-B lines in inordinately long as it is. The rolling stock is old and cobbled together after poor decision making during a natural disaster. This following a 25% fare increase. Can’t NJ Transit Rail work to get free WiFi onto the M&E and M-B lines sooner than 2016 in order to allow its passengers to extract a bit of productivity or recreation out of an overly long trip?

 Thomas Moran, Candidate for Morris County Freeholder