I was away and was at Princeton Junction for the first time in over a week yesterday, so just caught up with this.
In spite of sensible points made at the meeting, and what sounds like a very polite crowd (the full report is in the Town Topics local newspaper for October 10, but I can't get the link to post, and it might be longer than a fair use quote anyway), NJT has suspended the Dinky. Of course they have--they planned to all along. They are giving a 10 percent reduction in NJT fares, which is not what Dinky riders need--they need the train into Princeton!
They said they needed the extra cars and crew for other places while they work on PTC. Two ancient cars and one conductor and one engineer. Two of the nicest guys I've met who work for NJT. (Ok, a few more than that for different shifts--but not enough to save NJT from itself.) And now they have to bid again for the Dinky, which is apparently one of the most popular routes to work, when it resumes, and will have stiff competition.
There is a bus--I saw it this morning, and it's okay. Not provided by NJT, of course--it's a Tiger Transit or something like that provided either by the town or the university. One person boarded it. As opposed to a crowd boarding the Dinky during the same time period.
My older commuter friends who regularly take the Dinky were nowhere in sight. Either they are getting rides, or working from home, or saying "I love my job, but I'm retiring because of NJT messing up my commute." They are not taking the bus. Some of them commute from Philly. Two trains and an hour and a half later, and they are supposed to wait out in the cold (and eventually probably snow and ice) for a bus?
Usually, I make jokes about NJT and just roll my eyes when they do the next ridiculous thing. But this time I am absolutely furious
. What they've done is mean-spirited and just plain nasty, with no need to have done it at all.