As snow and ice knocked out the MTA’s full service at points during January, New Jersey Transit suffered as well. As Mike Frassinelli of The Star-Ledger reports today, the commuter rail service saw trains delays hit a six-year peak as January’s winter onslaught led to more and more late trains.
Noting that New Jersey Transit considers trains late if they arrive at least six minutes after the scheduled time, Frassinelli offered up the gory details: “Trains were late six or more minutes 8.8 percent of the time last month, the worst showing since January 2005, when the number was 11.1 percent. Last year, only 4.1 percent of trains were tardy for the same month.” To make matters worse, nearly 25 percent of all peak-hour Northeast Corridor trains were delayed.
New Jersey Transit officials were quick to point fingers at the weather. “January’s on-time performance is what you’d expect in a month of extreme weather,” Dan Stessel, agency spokesman said. “We played the hand we were dealt as best as we could. We believe the system performed better in January than similar extreme-weather months in past years.” That said, I can’t help but think that a new cross-Hudson tunnel built for the benefit of New Jersey Transit would go a long way toward alleviating these constant delays. As the trains grow more crowded, after all, it’s only going to get worse.
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Even ARC at “full speed ahead” wouldn’t have helped NJ Transit this particular winter. Allowing that capacity on the Northeast Corridor does need bolstering at the swampgrass choke point, we can pursue what may be a better alternative. This particular congestion problem has been at least 20 years in the making. The concern over this is justified and (clearly) sincere. The “gee, wish we hadda … ” is hardly justification enough for a (formerly) flawed, inferior product/project.