NJ Transit to restore Atlantic City Line & Dinky 5/12/19.

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You have to remember that NJT is perhaps the most ineptly run transit agency in the country at this time, and even the new management appointed by the new Governor is a bunch of incompetent morons with no experience in running anything like NJT, and it shows.
I believe that WMATA in our Nations Capitol can give NJTa run for their ( Wasted) Money when it comes to Cluster Flub Agencies.
 
One common element between NJT, Amtrak, and WMATA during periods of high incompetence was Thomas Downs. Somehow he keeps failing upwards and has now been hired by the international consulting branch of Network Rail in England to help give terrible advice to Americans and other foreigners.
 
Ummm...it goes back to what I stated before. Trains represent trains. The divisions cross. Issues on the Hoboken Division ultimately impact issues on the Newark Division and vice versa. North Jersey had terrible weather, particularly in the North West area of the state. This resulted in treacherous driving conditions due to closed roads, trees down, snow and ice accumulation. A lot of the Hoboken Division crew (which a great deal of the initial terminals being nestled in the mountainous regions) couldn't make it in a safe and timely fashion.

Now, years ago, the railroads would foresee these types of weather incidents and take steps to house their crews to make sure they show up. The railroads have scaled back these practices citing costs and not being responsible for where the employees live. The employees, citing safety and costs(e.g. is the cost of putting myself up in hotel greater than, equal to or less than what I will make braving the elements) often go home and hunker down without pay.

That means divisions aren't fed their trains, leading to a cascade effect. It is a different generation of workers. They favor quality of life over finances.

First of all, thank you for the explanation.

Second, I have to wonder if this isn't an unintentional result of better pay. If their pay is high enough, if someone can't make it in because of the weather, it becomes a loss they can weather (no pun intended) whereas in a previous time that would have been harder to absorb (to say nothing of the benefits of union protections...I rather suspect that if someone is otherwise not prone to absenteeism, sacking them for no-showing for a few days during a blizzard is harder to justify), particularly if that is compounded by losing another $100-150 on a hotel room net of their shift pay.

Of course, as jis noted, thinning out the staff rosters (and by connection the extra boards) can't help a bad situation.
 
Today's Trenton Times had an article rating Kevin Corbett in his first year as head of NJT. They asked two commuter rail experts, commuters, and Kevin himself.

The two experts: C- and D (and both said it would have been worse except that NJT met the first PTC deadline). (The first is the chairman of the Lackawanna Commuter Coalition, the second is the president of NJARP.)

The commuters (both train and bus): a B-, C, and D+, two Ds, and two Fs. (And the B- commutes on the NEC between Metropark and Newark, so a lot shorter distance than some of the others.)

Kevin's grade for himself: between a B and a C, but leaning toward a C because he is a hard grader and considers this his midterm grade as he works on his final grade. Judging from the photo of him in the article, he said this with a straight face.
 
Second, I have to wonder if this isn't an unintentional result of better pay. If their pay is high enough, if someone can't make it in because of the weather, it becomes a loss they can weather (no pun intended) whereas in a previous time that would have been harder to absorb (to say nothing of the benefits of union protections..

In a great deal of cases, it is the opposite. Since a lot of the employees aren't making a lot of money, they aren't counting on it. They often don't live near their means, let alone exceed them.

Therefore, they don't "have" to make sacrifices for the money. They don't NEED the extra whereas years ago, it was money grab...simply because it was available...and that was the key mistakes a lot of railroad made.

They assumed as they cut, employees would remain hungry and chase the work. They failed to consider that many people would adapt and the younger force wouldn't miss something they weren't accustomed to getting.

That is also why you have manpower shortage. Not only will people not come out for overtime, they also may not show up for their schedules.
 
And I love the way they are patting themselves on the back for restoring the service two weeks before their target date:rolleyes:. (After how many months? At least four? of delays from their initial target date:rolleyes:.)
 
I came into the office today, and on my walk from PJC to my office building, I heard a lovely "chug, chug, chug" and "honk, honk, honk"--the Dinky back again!:):):):) The Dinky tracks run along the end of our office parking lot, and I hadn't realized how much I missed hearing it when I am outside here.

They are having a party for it (I think Tuesday evening) at the Dinky station in Princeton itself, with WAWA giving out free coffee and pretzels.
 
Now there's a joy ride for me. Anything to see in Princeton? Or at least a good place to have lunch within walking distance of the station?s

The Princeton University campus and downtown Princeton of course. [emoji57] Plenty of nice eateries downtown.
 
Welcome back, Raritan Trains. I'm sure everyone missed the clutter they caused.

https://pix11.com/2019/11/04/direct-service-resumes-on-nj-transits-raritan-rail-line/

WESTFIELD, N.J. — Trains on one New Jersey Transit route that had been curtailed last year as the agency scrambled to finish installing a federally mandated braking system are finally set to be restored Monday.

Transit officials and Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy said back in October that off-peak direct service on the Raritan Valley Line to New York would resume November 4. The trains serve towns in Essex, Union, Somerset and Hunterdon counties.

The service was halted last fall to accommodate the system-wide installation of the braking system, called positive train control, that had to be completed by year's end. The work also caused delays and individual train cancellations on other lines and prompted NJ Transit to suspend service to Atlantic City.

Atlantic City trains resumed service in May.

Contributing to the delay in restoring the Raritan Valley Line service was an engineer shortage that officials have blamed on under-investment in training by former Republican Gov. Chris Christie. NJ Transit has undertaken an aggressive recruitment effort since last year and currently has several classes of engineers undergoing the 20-month training.
 
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