koalafishmutantbird t1_j53wcx5 wrote
Reply to comment by toughguy375 in NJ Democrat joins NY Republicans in congressional effort to sink NYC's congestion pricing by fvckspeak
what can be done to make NJ Transit better than what it is now? More buses and trains? More “express” trains?
toughguy375 t1_j53xz76 wrote
Many of the NJ Transit branches only have service about once an hour, which makes them unusable because you can't afford to miss your train. Make the service every 15 minutes and make the tickets cheaper and more people will use it.
ianisms10 t1_j546bdq wrote
Unless you live in or north of Glen Rock and have service on both the Main and Bergen lines, this is basically it. As a lifelong Glen Rocker, I have the luxury of knowing I can basically afford to wait 15 minutes if I miss my train because I can just walk 2 blocks to the other station. Most people don't have this.
PolentaApology t1_j54wk5x wrote
As someone who doesn't have this, I'm somewhat envious. https://goo.gl/maps/jRyqfQ67BdEkLHhv5
What are the waits like if you need to transfer in secaucus or hoboken?
Nexis4Jersey t1_j54xkfb wrote
They usually leave from the same Island platform at Secaucus so it's not a big deal, and Hoboken is the terminus, so you just look at the departure board.
ianisms10 t1_j566j6m wrote
Going to the city, you need to transfer at Secaucus, which will usually have trains every 10 or 15 minutes. Coming home from the city is the bigger issue. Both lines go directly to Hoboken.
Nexis4Jersey t1_j54ibj6 wrote
The 90s plan had a proposal for service every 10 mins during peak hour and 30mins offpeak. It would have been electrified, and most people would have seen a decent reduction in travel times. There was supposed to be a mini yard built at Waldwick allowing for increasing service on the Main/Bergen Lines.
The Pascack Valley Line would have been re-double tracked up to New Bridge Landing, which was to become a regional transit hub intersecting with a proposed Route 4 busway. The Double tracking would have allowed for reverse peak service, which is badly needed for the warehouse and Hospital workers. That plan was finally shelved in 2005 much to the disappointment of Hackensack and River Edge which plan to up zone along the corridor. NJT further got into a fight with river edge over the New Bridge Landing station expansion , the agency wanted a huge parking garage and the town did not...so the whole plan was canned in 2009. They also screwed over Hasbrouck Heights when they fenced off the western side of the tracks at Teterboro station rather than work with the town to install a proper crossing...ridership plummeted in the months after.
The Only hope of Electrification now is the MTA wants to electrify its remaining diesel lines by 2040ish.
hyperstationjr t1_j54vu3h wrote
Re Hasbrouck Heights, the situation with the train station was one of the main reasons I ended up not buying a home there.
At the time it was close to the rest of my family, I grew up there when I was younger, but I also needed to get into NYC and driving just wasn’t an option.
The fact that I couldn’t get to the train station, while not to only reason, pretty much sealed the deal and I looked elsewhere. It’s a shame because I generally liked the area.
Nexis4Jersey t1_j54w4vr wrote
I'm shocked that they were allowed to get away with that because the town had spent money upgrading the sidewalks and pushing the DOT to make the crossing at 17 safer to cross. Its not an expensive thing to put in a pedestrian crossing...
lost_in_life_34 t1_j555j5a wrote
LIRR and the MNR is the same way and people use it. I've been on packed LIRR trains out of Penn Station at evening and night time hours
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just get to the station 5-10 minutes before the train
Nexis4Jersey t1_j562dsh wrote
Metro North has way higher levels of service , most busier stations on the Electrified lines see a train every 20 mins most of the day , the less busy stations see a train every 45 mins. LIRR is similar to NJT with its service levels... Metro North pre pandemic ridership was 310,000 , LIRR was 350,000 and NJT was 290,000...
Nexis4Jersey t1_j54hail wrote
We had a wishlist drawn up in the 90s that if it were built by now would have addressed many of the congested corridors. It also would have connected most of Urban Jersey together with rapid transit rail and suburban areas would have had electrified frequent regional rail service.. Clearly the state has money for all these highway expansion projects, we're talking at least 40 billion over the next 15 years, but when it comes to Transit very little seems to be pushed.
pantslesseconomist t1_j55bdkp wrote
Free parking in big commuter lots outside of big commuter hours (this is me annoyed to pay $8 to park in Hamilton from 5-7:30 pm, when the lot is emptying out).
invaderjif t1_j55eubt wrote
I like that. Maybe from additional locations and stops for buses. Not sure how to do it for trains. New lines aren't likely to come.
At the same time, I guess the question of why more people drive into the city vs take public transit need to be understood. I have never driven into the city, parking is pretty expensive there, on top of tolls.
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