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| Lack of funds for maintenance clogs busy NJ Transit rail system (1171801) | |||
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Lack of funds for maintenance clogs busy NJ Transit rail system |
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Posted by Gold_12TH on Sat Aug 11 16:55:32 2012 NJ Transit riders have endured thousands of delays over the past decade on Manhattan-bound trains that were caused by failing cars, competition for track space, and a lack of funding to keep the heavily used rail lines known as the Northeast Corridor in a state of good repair, an analysis shows.And even as NJ Transit has improved its on-time performance on the corridor and other lines, including the Bergen/Main and Pascack Valley, the corridor — owned by Amtrak — has remained the problem child of a system dependent on it for access to New York City. “It’s a very common occurrence even to this day to hear [train conductors] say there are delays because of signal problems,” said James McCrane, who commutes into Newark on the corridor. “When you engage some of their people, they will cite Amtrak as a problem because those are Amtrak lines. You hear grumbling from the conductors. “Getting into the city, there is invariably a delay,” he said. The corridor runs from Washington to Boston, but the stretch that concerns New Jersey commuters is the 70 miles between Morrisville, Pa., and the Sunnyside rail yard in Queens. That portion handles one of five NJ Transit trains but in some years has accounted for as much as 32 percent of the delays systemwide, an analysis by The Record of operating records from 2002 to 2012 shows. Officials blame funding. A look at the numbers tells the story. While NJ Transit sends Amtrak about $70 million a year to cover operating costs, like electricity, for running commuter trains on the corridor each day, NJ Transit’s contribution to funding that targets capital projects sits near 1996 levels. This past year, under a joint program in which Amtrak and NJ Transit contribute matching dollars to pay for corridor projects, $55 million was spent on replacing wood ties, improving the ventilation system in the East River tunnels and power system upgrades in Metuchen, among other projects. In 1996, $50 million was spent. What has increased, though, are the number of NJ Transit trains operating on the corridor. Over the past decade, trains have jumped from 30,697 in 2002, to 41,579 last year, according to agency figures. Stephen Gardner, who oversees Amtrak’s investment on the Northeast Corridor, said Amtrak, which relies on Congress for the majority of its funding, inherited a railroad that was “in very bad shape.” And while improvements have been made, he said the system has not received any significant funding increases from Congress since 1976. “We have 100-year-old bridges that need to be replaced,” Gardner said. “Much of the original installation is at the end of its useful life. It’s not that it’s unsafe, but it means it’s not as reliable, and it’s quite expensive to maintain.” Systemwide, NJ Transit had an on-time performance rate close to 95 percent last year. But that has done little to mollify commuters who, in a customer service survey from February and March, gave the agency middling grades — a 5.3 out of 10. The corridor received a lower score, 5. The concentration of delays during the morning commute on the corridor hints at the source of their dissatisfaction. The Record analysis showed that while the number of late or canceled trains on the overall system has dropped in recent years, morning rush-hour commuters saw a spike in late or no-show trains — from 2,642 in 2010, to 3,600 in 2011. NJ Transit counts trains as late if they arrive six minutes or more behind schedule. Data also show delays are disproportionately high on the Northeast Corridor, where in some winter months, 20 to 30 percent of trains are late. So far this year, delay rates on all but the Atlantic City lines are down. Good weather was a factor, officials say. Martin Robins, director emeritus of the Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University, called the morning commute a “very sensitive time.” “If something does go wrong, opposed to 2 in the afternoon, it’s much more noticeable and can create an impression of poor service,” said Robins, a deputy executive director at NJ Transit in the 1980s. “You have the most people using the corridor and that has a reverberating effect because of its own trains, and the service that feeds into it.” While the Northeast Corridor is plagued by aging systems, data show problems with railcars and locomotives — like stuck brakes, breakdowns and jammed doors — are the leading cause for delays. In May of last year, for instance, stuck brakes resulted in a 34-minute delay for New York-bound riders. Two months later, a damaged pantograph — the piece of equipment that connects to the overhead electrical lines — forced NJ Transit to cancel a midday train out of Newark Penn Station, records show. Data also showed: ---The Northeast Corridor line had the worst on-time performance (91.7 percent), while the Main/Bergen and Pascack Valley lines had the best (97.4 and 97.5 percent, respectively). ---One of 12 morning rush-hour trains were delayed, compared with one of 18 for the afternoon rush hour and one of 24 in off-peak hours. ---Problems with broken or failing cars and infrastructure caused about half the transit system’s delays, with another 20 to 25 percent a year resulting from problems caused by the passengers and the public. Human error by transit workers accounts for 7 to 10 percent of the delays each year. Just this week, NJ Transit was forced to evacuate a Spring Valley-bound train out of Hoboken when fumes flowed into railcars, sickening passengers and crew members. John Durso Jr., spokesman for NJ Transit, said many of the mechanical problems occur on older railcars that the agency has been replacing over time with its more popular, more reliable multilevel cars. Among its 1,068 cars, more than 200 are models known as Arrow III, which were built in the 1970s. Durso said delays caused by problems with passenger cars have declined as the older models are phased out. Other delays can occur when NJ Transit and Amtrak trains compete for a spot on the Northeast Corridor. Amtrak controls the order in which trains are dispatched along the corridor, and NJ Transit officials are often annoyed when their trains are made late by Amtrak’s giving preference to its own trains. “It’s seen as a problem,” said Kevin O’Connor, general manager for NJ Transit’s rail division. “Why should an NJ Transit train that is on time be held back for an Amtrak train?” An Amtrak spokesman, Cliff Cole, said Amtrak dispatches trains based on multiple factors, including weather, available track space and scheduling. There are instances in which NJ Transit trains are given preference, he said. But it is the aging systems on the Northeast Corridor that have most often disrupted service for customers and been a source of tension between NJ Transit and Amtrak. Officials at both organizations agree the system is in need of repair. But which agency should bear the burden is less clear. One great weakness, Amtrak’s Gardner said, is the system that supplies power to the signals. Another is the Portal Bridge, a 100-year-old swing-span that carries Amtrak and NJ Transit trains over the Hackensack River in Secaucus and often becomes stuck in the open position, preventing trains from passing. Portal Bridge’s failures accounted for roughly 75 NJ Transit delays last year, data show. “The bridge is antiquated and obsolete by any measurable standard,” Durso said. “Not only does the bridge not permit trains to travel at full speed, but the opening of the bridge for boat traffic during the morning or evening rush — even for 10 minutes — can have a dramatic ripple effect resulting in significant delays for customers who utilize the Northeast Corridor.” NJ Transit and Amtrak in 1996 started the joint benefit program — a pot of money into which each agency would contribute matching dollars to pay for infrastructure maintenance on the corridor. For the first five years, each agency kicked in $25 million. Those contributions climbed to $55.5 million each in 2007. But by last year, funding had returned to earlier levels; each agency put in $27.5 million. Amtrak’s contribution to the joint benefit program is in addition to its own capital investment in New Jersey’s section of the corridor, which officials have not disclosed. The joint contributions, NJ Transit’s O’Connor said, are for maintenance on the system. “That’s not state of good repair and that’s two different things,” he said. “The amount of money we put into [the corridor] would have to be significantly higher.” While O’Connor declined to say how much it would cost to return the line to a state of good repair, NJ Transit Executive Director Jim Weinstein has said it would take billions. “There are a number of priorities in the agency overall, with regard to its capital expenditure,” said David Dieck, NJ Transit’s director of rail contracts. “Some of it is new equipment acquisition.” O’Connor pointed out that since 2004, NJ Transit has invested additional millions of dollars in projects along the Northeast Corridor, including a $79 million rehabilitation of the Trenton Transit Center in 2005, a $44 million platform replacement project in Metuchen in 2009 and $2.5 million for an elevator tower project in New Brunswick in 2010. Durso said that through the program, NJ Transit has since 2004 invested $328 million “to support service on a railroad we do not own and we do not control.” Cole said Amtrak does not believe ownership of the corridor is a relevant issue, and some critics agree. Joseph Cliff, a former director of planning for the Long Island Rail Road, who regularly attends NJ Transit board meetings, has been pressing NJ Transit to invest at least $50 million more in the corridor each year, an expense he said is justified by NJ Transit’s heavy use. “If you live in an apartment building and something breaks down, you worry about that,” he said. Some relief could come from a $450 million high-speed-rail grant the U.S. Department of Transportation awarded Amtrak last year to fix the corridor between New Brunswick and Trenton. It will be used to upgrade electrical power, signal systems, track and overhead wires. Officials at both agencies say talks have occurred between Weinstein and Amtrak President Joseph Boardman about funding, but no promises have been made. Joshua Crandall, founder of Clever Commute, a digital media service that allows commuters to alert each other to commuting conditions — from mechanical breakdowns to crawling trains, said NJ Transit riders struggle with the system. “People on the corridor are generally having a hard time,” said Crandall. Crandall said those commuters don’t care who owns the line, they just want to reach their destination on time. But delays aren’t their only issue, he said. They’re vexed by poor seating, a lack of air conditioning or platform problems, he said. “We are customers of NJ Transit,” he said. “The buck has to stop with them.” ----http://www.northjersey.com/news/bergen/Lack_for_funds_for_repairs_clogs_busy_NJ_Transit_rail_system.html?page=all |
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