Governor Phil Murphy has announced a transit fare holiday for all customers from August 26 through September 2. During this period, fares will be waived for all modes of transportation, offering free rides across the NJ TRANSIT network as a “Thank You” to the hundreds of thousands of loyal customers who depend on public transit.
Monthly pass holders who have already purchased an August pass, which covers travel through the end of the month, will automatically receive a 25 percent discount on their September monthly pass purchase through the mobile app, ticket vending machine, or ticket windows.
The fare holiday is the agency’s way to express the appreciation for customers’ continued loyalty and patronage, particularly during a time when transit service has not consistently met their expectations.
“Understanding that our commuters have faced many disruptions this summer, we are providing a one-week fare holiday for NJ TRANSIT riders,” Murphy said. “As we work diligently with Amtrak to investigate and address the issues that have occurred this summer, especially on the Northeast Corridor, we hope this fare holiday offers our commuters some relief. We also encourage New Jerseyans to take advantage of this opportunity, and we continue to be thankful to the many New Jerseyans who depend on public transit.”
Many of the recent service disruptions have occurred on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor (NEC), which serves the Mercer County region with stations in Princeton, Princeton Junction, Hamilton, and Trenton. NJ TRANSIT has been working to advance the joint plan with Amtrak announced in June to improve service on this critical rail line — the busiest corridor in the country.
While the root causes of these incidents have not yet been identified, significant short-term actions have already been taken. NJ TRANSIT personnel have increased equipment inspections on platforms, while Amtrak has stepped up its efforts in inspecting and repairing their catenary (overhead wire), track signal systems, and substations along the NEC.
Additional longer-term actions to address state-of-good-repair of Amtrak infrastructure include adding resources to increase testing of transformers in substations and evaluating opportunities to expand work windows with service adjustments to accelerate repairs and upgrades. In addition, NJ TRANSIT is working with Amtrak to support overall capital renewal by pursuing additional grants to expedite the replacement of catenary, substations, and transmission and signal lines, through the Fed-State Partnership Grant Program.
NJ TRANSIT has also implemented a supplemental bus plan earlier this week as an interim measure to improve service reliability and predictability for customers traveling on weekdays using the River LINE light rail service. Necessary repairs and upgrades to the light rail vehicles are being expedited to restore reliable weekday light rail service as quickly as possible.
