TRENTON, N.J. — NJ Transit may not restore service on two routes and weekend service on another by January, as it had originally said when those services were interrupted to allow for installation of positive train control.
The agency’s executive director, Kevin Corbett, told the state’s Senate Transportation Committee on Monday that service will be restored “as soon as possible,” New Jersey radio station 101.5 FM reports. Under questioning, he said that should be within 90 days, which would be by the end of March. He also said that PTC testing may require service suspensions on “select weekends” in 2019.
NJ Transit shut down service on the Atlantic City line in September and on the Princeton branch — the 2.7-mile shuttle between the Northeast Corridor and the Princeton University campus — in October for PTC installation, replacing both with bus service. It also discontinued weekend service on the Gladstone line.
Riders on the Atlantic City branch, which carried about 700,000 riders in fiscal 2017, have been skeptical that service will return since the shutdown was announced. Many are now facing commutes by bus that take an hour longer than the comparable trip by rail. When originally announced, NJ Transit said the shutdown would last until “early 2019,” but Corbett subsequently promised it would return Jan. 1. [See “NJ Transit director says Atlantic City service will return by Jan. 1,” Trains News Wire, Aug. 21, 2018.] In an email to the Press of Atlantic City, NJ Transit spokesman wrote that the agency is “currently evaluating the schedule for restoring regular service … We are still intending to restore service as fast as possible following successful meeting of the federally mandated end-of-year PTC installation deadlines.”
NJT’s credibility hasn’t been great lately, but I can’t imagine why they would be spending the money to install PTC equipment on the AC line if they weren’t planning to restore service.
They can get a jump on the AC line with just one set of equipment running AC to Lindenwold. It could cover 80% of the existing schedule. That this isn’t even being whispered as a possibility leaves me pessimistic.