KEARNY, N.J. (AP) - Fares on New Jersey Transit buses and trains won’t rise in the next fiscal year, Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy said Tuesday.
At a graduation ceremony for new engineers, Murphy said his proposed budget to go into effect in July will be the third in a row not to raise fares on the state’s embattled transit corporation.
NJ Transit has raised fares five times since 2002, the last time in 2015 when it hiked rates by an average of 9 percent. Since then, the system has faced mounting complaints from commuters, particularly train riders, about regular delays and cancellations related to an engineer shortage and the installation of a federally mandated emergency braking system.
Murphy has made reforming NJ Transit a central theme of his administration but has come under criticism as change has come slowly. Train cancellations decreased last year but still numbered in the hundreds per month, according to statistics released in November.
Under a two-year extension granted at the end of 2018, NJ Transit has until the end of this year to fully install and implement the emergency braking system, called positive train control, or face penalties from the federal government.
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