N.J. Transit’s Most Troubled Trains Are Older Than Many of the Riders

This is just one more example of Chris Christie's legacy of opportunism and neglect.

Are we all forgetting that NJ Transit parked loads of new equipment in the Meadowlands during Hurricane Sandy in violation of their own emergency management rules? That brand new equipment was destroyed by salt water. Christie's response was to ignore the fact that the emergency response rules were violated: Those trains should have been high and dry.and NJ Transit management should have been fired.

As someone who lives two or three days by train from New York City, I find these kinds of articles surprisingly interesting. I'm sure it is more fun to read these articles than it is to stand in a crowded train. But when things seem bad, just remember, it could be worse: People could be smoking.

"Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee" and everywhere else. Thanks, Chris Christie, for making sure you didn't spend any taxpayer money that would not have benefited your friends!

We should, as a nation, be ashamed of the lousy conditions of our trains, roads, and medical care. Yet we wallow in our propaganda about being the greatest nation on Earth. Well, guess what - that's just rubbish.

New double deck cars? I ride the Morris and Essex line to Penn NY. While a cosmetic improvement from the older Arrow cars the "new" 2x deck cars have been poorly maintained (doors that do not open, dirty and broken restrooms, etc.) resulting in delays, crowded trains, and canceled trains. In short, whether old or new, NJ Transit has the un-Midas touch and always finds a way to make any and all assets malfunction.

People want to live in the suburbs and yet work in the city, you can’t always have your cake and eat it , a lot of your friends followed you out there too ,

How about a bit more detail here? Just because something is old doesn't necessarily make it failing. A simplistic view is a train is a metal platform with wheels and electric motors underneath and a metal compartment above. They don't wear out from salt-induced rust like cars, nor do they have petroleum-powered piston engines that physically wear. If the brakes go, you replace them, whether this is an old train or a new train. So, as an engineer, what is failing so often and why?

This is further more evidence that we live in a failed nation. A broken healthcare system, a broken social welfare system, and now we witness also the nation's most densest region being host to failing public transit systems. What on earth is the purpose to being the richest region of the world if your public goods on which you are taxed are so disastrous? I'm currently in grad school for computer science, but once I'm done, I'm out to Canada or the UK, its been real America.

Hoboken, location of a major NJ train hub, sits below sea level. That should be priority one. The damage done to that hub with Sandy was truly alarming and far-reaching. Old passenger cars are not the biggest issue at hand.

Quick question, what is the cost of replacing the old cars, and installing the automatic braking system? Too bad mini-Mike squandered $500 million for a handful of delegates when he could have made a huge difference with a charitable gift to upgrade NJ Transit.

There is no reason why well-designed and well-maintained railway equipment cannot last for fifty or even a hundred years. The tracks are over a century old in some places. The overhead cables are the same. The quality of the original work was very good, as was the judgement of the public officials who insisted on it. This is something to celebrate and admire. Infrastructure should be designed for sustainability at all levels. The broad constraints on train design are set by the width of the track, the height of the platforms, and the distance between stations, none of which are going to change. Within these constraints there is room for innovation and progress, which does not have to be based on the superficial concept that new is better.

In reference to zamzam's tweet asking "Why can’t we have all double deckers go inbound to NY in the AM?": More likely than not, NJ Transit does in fact have every double decker in its fleet scheduled to run into New York during the morning rush. Unfortunately once a train has run INTO New York, it has no choice but to run OUT of it before it can run into the city a subsequent time. This unfortunately means that you'll have to see double decker trains running in the "wrong" direction with few passengers aboard at the height of rush hour. A frustrating sight for sure. But realize that just a few minutes before that, these trains were carrying 1000+ commuters into New York. NJ Transit will also, when possible, operate a full commuter train into Penn Station at the beginning of the morning rush, then run it back to New Jersey nonstop without passengers so that they can reuse the equipment for a second inbound rush hour train. Nobody wants to ride the older trains. But without them, NJ Transit's only option would be to offer even less service during rush hour, an alternative that I'm sure no one here wants. Until additional new equipment arrives, this is where we're going to be.

Would love an honest assessment of where the billions of dollars spent annually on the transit system actually go. Union workers making >$100/hour? Bloated administration? Other? Seems that only a fraction of the money collected and paid from the government (taxes) go to actual transit. Reminds me of healthcare dollars and spending. Government waste astounding.

Transit agencies are limited by Buy America provisions in terms of procurement and are not allowed to purchase the best or least-cost equipment.

The author should indicate the price of *one* train car. According to the NJ Transit website, the average cost per Bombardier multi-level car is $1.82 million. I am still waiting for the Trump infrastructure investment.

We could consider making some stuff again in this country, besides soft ware and hamburgers and diet plans. I think we did that once a long time ago. Those jobs paid well and provided something like a middle class lifestyle. Or we can move that work to say, China and depend on them for everything including the funding of our debt. After all China is our friend and what could disrupt the supply?

After graduating from college in 1979, I’d stay at my girlfriend’s place in Morristown, and take an Erie-Lackawanna train into Manhattan while looking for jobs. The cars were from the WW I era, dark and with rattan seats. Now that was old and uncomfortable.

In other words, our neighbors in New Jersey experience the same problems we mass transit riders in New York do. Just like the train cars at NJT, large numbers of subway cars are eligible for AARP membership (over 50), and older cars are more likely to break down or require service. Both states could really use a large investment in their public transportation.

Think how much more outraged many of these commuters would be if they knew how efficient, clean, and punctual public transportation is in most other countries. Where does all that money go, NJT?

I'm surprised that the older cars are so unreliable, usually, equipment that has been around a while has had all the bugs ironed out, they must be poorly maintained. On the railroad I'm a driver on, our oldest trains are from 1981 and they are quite reliable, they are also well maintained. We still have locos that were built in 1952 that have never been upgraded, just well maintained and they are still in everyday freight service.

Those crowd pictures, showing a situation that occurs several times a week at NJT’s area in NY Penn, are particularly concerning as everyone worries about the Coronavirus. We tend to view these chronic delays and cancellations as inconveniences to commuters, when we should recognize their economic impact in terms of lost productivity and, now, their potential impact on health and safety.