NJ Transit set its Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBE) goal for Federal Fiscal Years (FFY) 2020-2022 at 21.87%. This goal is on the total federal financial assistance that NJ Transit will expend on Federal Transit Administration (FTA)-funded contracts over the next three years. NJ Transit has $2.7 billion projected FTA-assisted contracting projects for FFY 2020-2022.
New Jersey Transit recently announced that construction of the new Elizabeth train station and platform extension project on the Northeast Corridor is set to begin later this fall.
Rail-related parts and components supplier PowerRail, Inc. was recently awarded a multi-year, $1.9 million contract with New Jersey Transit to manufacture new Passenger Car Class F Journal Adapter Boxes.
The New Jersey Transit (NJT) Board of Directors recently announced that it has adopted a Fiscal Year 2020 (FY 2020) operating budget of $2.39 billion and a $1.42 billion capital program—the budget does not include a fare increase for FY 2020—that aims to support continued investments in personnel, infrastructure and equipment to maintain the system in a state-of-good repair, and enhance the overall customer experience.
July 17, 1979 was a momentous day in the annals of U.S. transit history. The New Jersey legislature passed, and Gov. Brendan T. Byrne (1924-2018) signed, the bill that became the Transportation Act of 1979. The legislation established New Jersey Transit (NJT), and in so doing, began the process of consolidating the state’s bus service under a single statewide umbrella. That step was considered radical in its day, but it set a model for bringing public transportation into the public sector, at a time when railroads and bus companies in the private sector were working hard to get rid of it.
I have this friend, a railroad professional. I know I would never question his commitment to safety. I hope he wouldn’t question mine. This friend is concerned that railroad management will unfairly use medical information it obtains from employees, from employees’ medical care providers, and from the requirements of a medical fitness for duty regulation, to disqualify employees from service. He fears railroads will weaponize the information.
At a legislative hearing on Aug. 16, 2018, Gateway Program Development Corp Interim Executive Director John D. Porcari said, “There is no Plan B.” He was wrong. At the same hearing, this writer (as Chair of the Lackawanna Coalition, a New Jersey-based advocacy organization) outlined the “Plan B” that some rider-advocates had formulated and submitted, in the event that the entire $30 billion-plus Gateway program as currently proposed fails to attract sufficient funding. Porcari stuck to his story that the existing North River Tunnels are deteriorating so quickly that they constitute a disaster waiting to happen but, under his proposal, they would not be repaired until 2030 or some time shortly thereafter.
In 1995, one of the alternatives of the original Access to the Region’s Core (ARC) Project would have developed a track connection for New Jersey Transit (NJT) trains to go to Grand Central Terminal (GCT) on the East Side of Midtown Manhattan. New Jersey riders, especially commuters whose offices are nearby, would have enjoyed convenient access to them for the first time. That alternative was eliminated in 2003, and the means for delivering new Manhattan capacity was downgraded to a stub-end deep-cavern station 20 stories below ground.
Around 1900, sharp operators in New York City would fleece tourists by offering to sell them the Brooklyn Bridge. The bridge, which still impresses and inspires New Yorkers and visitors today, was a marvel of its age and towered over everything else on the Manhattan or Brooklyn sides of the East River when it opened for service in 1883. Today, there are still people who have a bridge to sell us; two bridges, in fact. They want transit riders and taxpayers in New York and New Jersey to spend more than $3 billion to replace one bridge with two. They also say that replacing a two-track bridge with another two-track bridge will expand capacity sufficiently to qualify for a grant program established specifically for that purpose.
NJ Transit announced that it has hired Bilal Khan to serve as its Chief Technology Officer for Infrastructure and Operation (CTO – I&O).
