Wisniewski Calls For Hearing On Increased Rail Delays
Assemblyman John Wisniewski
TRENTON – Assemblyman John Wisniewski announced plans to call a hearing of the Assembly transportation panel to look into an increase in the number of NJ Transit rail delays.
According to NJ Transit, there were 12 incidents in July that led to major service disruptions. One year ago, there were only three.
In July, 7.6 percent of NJ Transit trains were late by six or more minutes — the agency’s worst month since December 2007. By comparison, just 5.7 percent of trains ran late in July 2009, according to NJ Transit spokesman Dan Stessel.
“It has been a very challenging month for our customers due to delays from a number of causes,” Stessel said. “It’s been trespassers. It’s been trees. It’s been locomotive failures in extreme heat. We’ve been all over the map in terms of delays.”
“New Jersey commuters deserve better,” said Wisniewksi (D-Middlesex), “especially considering this poor service comes after a 25 percent fare hike was forced upon them earlier this year by Gov. Christie.”
“We’ve heard many excuses so far for the delays and disruptions, but New Jersey had hot weather, falling trees and trespassers in previous administrations without massive and repeated delays,” Wisniewski said, “so something doesn’t add up.”
