Free Republic

An updated financial plan for the Hudson Tunnel Project, a cornerstone of the Gateway Program, has been developed with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and was submitted to FTA on Aug. 27. The plan includes a price increase of nearly $700 million from the 2020 financial plan, but project partners point out their commitment to managing costs and schedule is also reflected in the new financial plan. “The Hudson Tunnel Project is of the utmost importance to the economic well-being of New Jersey, our region and our country,” said New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy. “The updated financial plan that is...

TRENTON – Governor Phil Murphy, alongside Department of Transportation Commissioner and NJ TRANSIT Board Chair Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti, NJ TRANSIT President & CEO Kevin Corbett, U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill, Congressman Tom Malinowski, and Amtrak Board Chair Tony Coscia, today celebrated the finalization of the Full Funding Grant Agreement (FFGA) with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to construct a new Portal North Bridge. NJ TRANSIT CEO and President Kevin Corbett executed the agreement with the FTA today, which will provide $766.5 million dollars in federal funding for the Portal North Bridge. The new Portal North Bridge, a $1.8 billion...

Need a career change? NJ Transit is hiring — and the job comes with big bucks. The nation’s second-busiest rail system has been struggling to keep its trains running on time, sometimes canceling as many as two dozen a day. Officials blame this commuting nightmare in part on a lack of engineers — the people who operate the trains. The shortage is exacerbated whenever a slew of engineers call out sick. The agency has been scrambling to fill training classes with recruits. Prospective job applicants might jump at the opportunity when they find out just how much the job pays....

Lisa Lebowitz was sitting in a delayed NJ Transit train departing Hoboken one recent Monday evening when she overheard an exasperated passenger complain about the frequency of last-minute cancellations. “Don’t worry,” Ms. Lebowitz recalled a crew member telling the passenger. “You should be good tomorrow because we take off Mondays and Fridays.” NJ Transit has been forced to cancel hundreds of trains this summer resulting from shortages of railcars, locomotives and workers. But it has also had to cancel trains because of last-minute calls from train operators saying they are sick or need time off for family or medical reasons,...

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump's new-found opposition to funding the Gateway Tunnel project is just the latest example of how he's championed policies that punish New Jersey, where he has long ties and spends his spring weekends and summer vacation. The Trump-backed tax plan targeted New Jersey and other high-tax states by curbing the federal deduction for state and local taxes, and he backed Affordable Care Act repeal efforts that disproportionately cut funding from those states, which expanded Medicaid in order to expand coverage. Meanwhile, New Jersey taxpayers send billions of dollars more to Washington than they get back in...

It's rare for a president to pull funding from a sweetheart transportation project. But on the final Friday of 2017, the Trump administration announced that it was backing away from an Obama-era plan to lavish billions in federal aid on the Hudson Tunnel project. Billed as "the nation's most urgent major infrastructure project" by its proponents, the venture envisions a new rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River along with repairs to an existing rail tunnel damaged by Hurricane Sandy. All of this would mostly serve to increase rail transit service within the New York City metro area. Given the huge...

A mob of Penn Station travelers fled the transit hub in hysteria after Amtrak police officers used a stun gun on a man. The busy Penn Station was already a mad house from a NJ Transit train that stalled in a tunnel, backing up service for more than two hours ahead of the Friday rush on a holiday weekend. By 6:30 p.m., shortly after the stalled train was taken to Penn Station, riders stampeded away from the site where the man was hit with the stun gun. Luggage food and clothes were strewn across the floor.

Frank Fleming, New Jersey feels your pain, and shares your fury. You may not know him, but Fleming this week became the voice of New Jersey after a simple derailment at Penn Station knocked our fragile rail system on its butt for the entire week. Fleming was heading to Citi Field for the Mets' opening game on Monday, when he fell into a pit of hell at Secaucus Junction, along with many thousands of others. The trip from his home in Belleville took five hours. Five more to get home.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer says inward-facing cameras should be installed on all New York City metropolitan area railroad systems to avoid accidents such as the recent New Jersey Transit crash. The New York Democrat says cameras will help deter bad behavior, improve safety and help investigators determine crash causes. …

The locomotive's recorder has information on train speed. National Transportation Safety Board vice chair T. Bella Dinh-Zarr said she's hopeful the data recorder in the cab control car in the front of the train is functional. Investigators haven't been able to extract that recorder because it's under a collapsed section of the train station's roof. Dinh-Zarr said the train's engineer told investigators the train was operating properly before it crashed Thursday morning. The engineer also said the train was operating at 10 mph as it approached the station. He told investigators he has no memory of the accident.

DEVELOPING: At least one person was killed and dozens more were hurt after a crowded train slammed into a busy station in Hoboken, N.J., during the Thursday morning commute, investigators and local media reported. The woman who died appeared to be standing on a nearby platform before the crash, a law enforcement source told Fox News, adding that the engineer was pulled from the train "semi-conscious" and rushed to a nearby hospital. People pulled concrete off bleeding victims and passengers kicked out the windows amid crying and screaming. At least 65 riders were injured, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said,...

Train struck train station in Hoboken, NJ....mass casualties, reports of fatalities.

A New Jersey Transit police officer spotted a man lying on the railroad tracks in Secaucus and managed to pull him to safety mere seconds before a train arrived.

NJ Transit sent four employees to the Super Bowl in New Orleans—including a key rail official who was in charge of the Hoboken terminal when dozens of rail cars and locomotives, left to sit in low-lying yards, were damaged during superstorm Sandy—at a taxpayer cost of $14,505, expense reports show. The bills, obtained by The Record through an Open Public Records Act request, include: $7,800 for lodging from Jan. 31 through Feb. 4, 2013;$5,241 for airfare;$423 in miscellaneous expenses.The intent of the visit was to ground NJ Transit officials in procedures used to handle transportation and security at the Super...

My friend, writer Diana West has blogged about a breaking New York Daily News story which captures (or should, even for those who remain willfully blind to the burgeoning phenomenon) how local US state institutions are obsequiously imposing Sharia norms. New Jersey Transit worker Derek Fenton was summarily fired -- an 11 year career coming to a sudden end -- for his peaceful act of First Amendment protected protest (see the video here): The protester who burned pages from the Koran outside a planned mosque near Ground Zero has been fired from NJ Transit, sources and authorities said Tuesday. Derek...

A shuttle train derailed this morning at Grand Central Terminal, injuring four of the seven passengers riding on board. New York City transit officials say the train was approaching the station at about 6 a-m. when it hit a bumper block causing it to derail. Four of the passengers sustained minor injuries and were treated at the scene. The train operator was not injured. The shuttle, which runs between Grand Central Terminal and Times Square, resumed service at 6:45 a-m.