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NJ Transit OKs 15% fare hike starting this summer
By
Mike Hayes
Published Apr 10, 2024
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Mike Hayes/Gothamist
By
Mike Hayes
Published Apr 10, 2024
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NJ Transit’s board of directors voted unanimously on Wednesday to raise fares for riders by 15% starting this summer.
The fare increase is still subject to approval by the state Legislature when it finalizes its budget this June for the next fiscal year. The fare hike would go into effect on July 1 and would be NJ Transit’s first in nine years.
The proposal also calls for a 3% annual hike starting in 2025.
As of July, a one-way train ride from Princeton Junction to Penn Station in New York would go up $2.40, from $16.00 to $18.40. A one-way bus ride from Toms River to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York would rise $3.15, from $21.25 to $24.40. The one-way fare for Newark Light Rail would increase from $1.60 to $1.80.
NJ Transit also plans to eliminate its FlexPass program, which provides 20 one-way tickets for travel between one origin and one destination, at a 20% discount.
The fare increase is intended to close a budget shortfall that the state-owned agency last year projected would reach $119 million for the fiscal year beginning this July. The shortfall could increase to $917 million in the fiscal year beginning in July 2025 and $957 million the following year, according to NJ Transit's four-year budget forecast.
Gov. Phil Murphy has proposed closing the gap by effectively reinstating a tax surcharge on New Jersey corporations that he’d previously let expire, but restricting the tax to companies making more than $10 million a year and dedicating the funding to NJ Transit. That proposal also needs to be voted on by the Legislature.
Before the board's vote, activists and transit riders held a rally outside NJ Transit’s headquarters in Newark. The ralliers were joined by Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla, who spoke out passionately against the fare hike.
"What this fare increase is essentially, in my view, is a backdoor tax on working families," he said. "It's not right. It's unconscionable."
Bhalla added that he wants Murphy to override the decision. He called him a "good man" and said "he's got to do the right thing here."
North Bergen resident Stephanie Martinez attended the rally and said she takes multiple buses each day to get to her job as a researcher at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark. She said her commute via bus and Newark Light Rail normally takes an hour-and-a-half but can take up to two hours with delays.
Martinez said the pending fare hike would greatly affect both her and her mother, with whom she lives and splits the rent.
“She is a senior who makes the bare minimum, and it's only us two,” Martinez said. “And those little cents, although it [seems] like very little to anyone that's looking from the outside, [and] doesn't really take the bus, it accumulates after a few weeks.”
At past public hearings, some riders have criticized NJ Transit for planning a hike just after moving into a brand new $440 million office. Several critics said the agency should focus on fixing existing problems before asking more of riders. Some said decisions about a fare increase shouldn’t be made before the state has a budget for the coming fiscal year.
On Wednesday, most members of the public who commented on the proposal at the board meeting opposed the fare hike. Bhalla challenged the board members not to be a “rubber stamp” for Murphy's administration and the fare hike proposal.
During his comment, Bhalla gave out his cellphone number and asked the board members to call him and explain their vote.
“If you are not a rubber stamp of the governor's policy, call me and tell me why not,” he said.
Board member Richard Maroko said fare increases are “always a last resort” for NJ Transit and the “alternative is cutting services.”
Shanti Narra, another board member, said she would vote for the fare hike but added that she was “not a rubber stamp” for the administration.
“I’ll be very frank, this vote pains me very very much," she said.
She also echoed Maroko, noting the alternative to a fare hike would be service cuts and job losses, which she said would be “devastating.”
The MTA increased fares and tolls by 6% last year, which came after a four-year pandemic-era hiatus on the transit agency's regular toll hikes. The agency has raised its prices by 4% every two years since 2009, following the financial crisis, in what it calls "small, predictable adjustments."
Tagged
new jersey
Politics
transportation
Mike Hayes
Mike Hayes covers equity and access to opportunity in New Jersey. He joined WNYC and Gothamist in 2023. Before that, he worked as a freelance journalist writing about policing and criminal justice. He has written for ProPublica, CNN, HuffPost, BuzzFeed News and The Appeal. He is also the author of the book, “The Secret Files: Bill De Blasio, The NYPD, and the Broken Promises of Police Reform.” In 2019, he was a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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