The average North Jerseyan does not expect his commute to be the favorite part of the day. But it seems that recent train delays in this area have made things worse.
A significant holdup occurred on May 25, when 24 NJ Transit trains were rendered useless across the state. The problem was actually the fault of Amtrak, which maintains, owns, and operates the Northeast Corridor tracks, as well as the aging electrical substations that power them. At around 8 a.m., the circuit breakers in those substations all tripped at the same time, bringing rail traffic in the region to a complete stop. A massive power outage disrupted trains from New York to Washington, D.C.
Lots of scorn, little surprise
On the platforms of the Secaucus Junction train station that week, regular commuters expressed dismay and disgust at the general quality of train service into and out of New York City. They said that even if the major malfunction on May 25 was unique, delays and mechanical problems are far from unusual.
Vince Abbatiello, 45, commutes every day to Manhattan from Wyckoff in Bergen County. He found the delays extremely frustrating.
“My trip normally takes an hour,” he said. “It took two and a half hours the other day. The trains were jammed when I finally got on. It was hot. It was sweaty. It was a cattle car. It’s a mess.”
Abbatiello has no idea why this delay and other delays keep happening. But he does know the price he pays for riding the train to work.
“It’s expensive,” he said. “It costs me 22 dollars a day to get into Manhattan round-trip. I don’t get my 22 bucks worth every day, that’s for sure.”
Looking towards the future, Abbatiello was less than optimistic about service improving.
“They’ll never fix this,” he said. “Look. People don’t really have a choice. What am I going to do, drive? They’ve got us right where they want us.”
Casey Stadulis, 20, is a relatively new commuter to Manhattan. All she is sure of is the time she lost due to backed up trains.
“I was on the train going from Secaucus to Penn Station in New York when the power went out,” she said. “We crawled into Hoboken, and then it was a mad rush for the PATH train. I missed four trains in a row because they were so packed.”
Lisa Biviano, 23, commutes to Manhattan from Rutheford. She condensed her feelings about train delays in one word. “I was angry,” she said. “I missed my meeting at work.”
Joel Hershkowitz, 54, commutes to North Jersey from Nanuet in Rockland County, N.Y. He was going to attend a commuter meeting in the evening to express his concerns about regional train service.
“We’ve trying to convince the authorities that there actually are trains on the west side of the Hudson,” he said. “They kind of pay it lip service. There are more people riding the trains, possibly because of the gas crisis. There have also been more delays this year than I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been riding the trains for years.”
Looking for answers
Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black stated that the exact cause for the May malfunction has yet to be determined. However, he pointed out that there may have been regional and well as national train agencies that contributed to the problem.
“There are a number of organizations beyond Amtrak that are involved,” he said. “There are regional utilities in the Philadelphia area and near Lancaster, Pennsylvania that we are looking into. We have some substations that are 70 years old and some that are five years old, but age is not necessarily an indicator of fault.”
Black is uncertain when the fault line will be discovered.
“I’d like to be able to say it will be quicker, and that it will take less than the six months it took to figure out the cause of the massive blackout that occurred in New York City and New Jersey in August 2003,” he said. “But that remains to be seen.”
Many outside observers have long noted that Amtrak is chronically underfunded, leading to infrastructure problems that contribute to delays.
Black said, “We could certainly use more capital funding to go after a broad variety of problems.”
Dan Stessel, a spokesman for NJ Transit, said, “We want answers to same questions our customers do. We’re seeking those answers from Amtrak – why did this happen, and what is being done to prevent it from ever happening again.”
Stessel is confident that NJ Transit is less likely to face the same level of problems that Amtrak experiences.
“We pride ourselves on maintaining the lines that we own and operate in a state of good repair,” he said. “We are satisfied that we are getting the funding we need, especially with the renewal of the [state] Transportation Trust Fund, which is where much of the money comes from for capital and operating costs for NJ Transit. We will be able to continue to maintain our infrastructure in a state of good repair.”
Reporter Mark J. Bonamo can be reached at mbonamo@hudsonreporter.com.