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Reform NJ transit now

This week broughtnews that 17 rail unions in New Jersey had voted to go on strike in mid-March in the event that they do not reach a contract with New Jersey Transit. I hope for the sake of all commuters in New Jersey that such a strike does not occur. As the Daily Princetonian reported, such a strike would have a significant impact on students planning to travel during spring break, as well as a devastating impact on commuters needing to travel to work. For many working families, NJ Transit services are the only way to commute to work. Furthermore, NJ Transit is really the only financially viable option for most students to travel throughout New Jersey and to New York and Philadelphia, given that most University students do not own cars.

It is tragic that tensions between management and the unions have reached such a low point, but it is even worse that the rail workers have worked without a contract for five years. NJ Transitmanagement has clearly failed the interests of the workers by not granting them a contract. One hopes that the two sides will be able to come to a fair solution. The workers’ contract needs to be adjusted accordingly with increased costs of living, though the unions’ demands for an 800-percent increase in health insurance premiums and a six-percent pay raise will be too much for management —and perhaps commuters as well, if the additional costs are passed on to them —to stomach.

Commuters already suffered a nine-percent fare increase last year; it would not be fair to pass the costs of the proposed wage increase onto them. Indeed, the Northeast Corridor Line, probably familiar to most University students, is already one of the more profitable NJ Transit rail lines; it recovers 86-percent of its operating costs through revenue, which is relatively high among transit agencies. After all, people have no option but to ride the trains. The gravity of this situation points to a need for deeper reform of NJ Transit.

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According to Bloomberg News, NJ Transit handles nearly a million trips per day, but the quality of NJ Transit’s service has significantly declined recently, even as fares have risen. Delays are becoming more frequent. Over Intersession, for instance, I was forced to miss an Amtrak train because of delays and cancellations on NJ Transit Northeast Corridor trains. It is likely that these delays could get worse; the New Jersey state government voted to cut the budget for transportation in 2015, despite an increase in NJ Transit train ridership, leaving a $120 million hole in the 2016 NJ Transit budget. Subsequently, the agency was forced to cut some bus services and increase fares.

Additionally, Governor Chris Christie infamously canceled the ARC Tunnel project that would have constructed new tunnels underneath the Hudson River to replace aging and deteriorating Amtrak tunnels that had been damaged by Hurricane Sandy. New Jersey sank $1.2 billion into that project before canceling it, with no new tunnels or infrastructure to show for it. Now, delays on Amtrak are becoming more routine, due to the need for emergency repairs in 105-year-old tunnels.

The remaining money intended for the construction of train tunnels was instead shoveled into rebuilding the Pulaski Skyway, a freeway bridge between Jersey City and Newark. While an important project, it seems to be a rather backwards way of mass transit thinking in an age in which younger Americans are driving much less than their forbearers. We need a new vision for infrastructure development in New Jersey, and it is imperative that NJ Transit be reformed to reflect this generational shift in infrastructure needs.

Nicholas Wu is a sophomore from Grosse Pointe Shores, Mich. He can be reached at nmwu@princeton.edu.

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