NJ TRANSIT Customers Vent Frustrations After Yet Another Morning Of Issues
NEWARK, NJ (CBSNewYork) -- It was another morning of agonizing delays for New Jersey train commuters, who are complaining no one is doing anything about the transit issues.
Power problems in a Hudson River rail tunnel were eventually repaired after causing train delays during Friday's morning rush. Nerves were frayed at Penn Station once again.
"Horrible. They made no announcements on the train for over an hour -- not a single one. We had to get up and ask the ticket guy what was going on. This is every day. This is every day with NJ TRANSIT," one commuter told CBS 2's John Metaxas.
Amtrak said crews had to repair an overhead power line that caused delays for trains in and out of New York City.
"We had a problem with one of the overhead wires that began to sag, so we had to stop all traffic from going through that particular tunnel," Amtrak spokesman Clifford Cole said.
Amtrak, which maintains the tunnel, was forced to divert its own trains and NJ TRANSIT's more numerous ones to the only other tube, which caused the delays.
Nevertheless, frustrated, late and angry NJ TRANSIT riders said this is nothing new.
"It's awful, it's awful," said another rider. "The problem is the infrastructure's bad. It breaks down too often and it breaks down constantly."
New Jersey politicians also expressed that there should be a better way of running the system.
"Well, it's not acceptable. It's not acceptable to get a 20 percent fare increase on NJ TRANSIT...and you end up with not better service, but worse service," said Sen. Robert Menendez.
Earlier thicommuters surveyed by NJ TRANSIT gave the agency an overall grade of 4.2 out of 10. That's down from 4.5 in April. The handling of service disruptions was the biggest gripe that commuters had.
