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Friday, June 1, 2007

NJT fares: The REAL problem



Reader JF sent along these snaps of the 6:30 PM train on May 18 overshooting the platform
at the Netherwood Station. Debarking passengers had to clamber down to the roadbed,
walk back to the station and scramble to the parking lots.


NJT fares go up today.

When I first moved out from Brooklyn nearly 25 years ago, the monthly commute ticket seemed considerable in the scheme of things (especially since I had had a one-token subway commute from Brooklyn Heights to my midtown office).

For the first year here, I continued to work for a publisher in the city. The salary was good, the commute was reasonable, and the NJT fare was less annoying than paying New York State and New York City income taxes.

Though today's fare may be more annoying, my hunch is few riders will find it sufficiently bothersome to quit a good NYC job over it.

I have received some emails from readers about the increase, some of whom are unhappy, others who think that at least some improvements could be made (like stopping at the platform, as above) to make it seem more like a give-and-take.

The Asbury Park Press ran a front page article on May 29th -- "Transit agency defends spending" -- which struck me as really a cheap shot against employees who are just doing the job they were hired to do, produce publications.

Having communications and promotion in my blood, it doesn't seem to me the Press is attacking at the right point. Sure, there may be some waste here, but it's not the kind of stuff that accounts for NJT's annual operating deficit.

They would have been on a surer footing to expose the employment mill that the back office operation is for the politically connected of BOTH parties.

Now that's where some real differences could be made, if anybody cared to.

-- Dan Damon

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1 comments:

Anonymous said...

The article which named NJT staff and their salaries ( as printed in the Courier) was misleading. These individuals do far more in a given work day that prepare an employee newsletter. They communicate on multiple levels with passengers. My guess is they spend 5% of their time at most working on the employee bulletins. I used to run this department in a different configuration, the Director worked for me and I know what they did then and now and the vast majority of their efforts are spent to inform the system user about various important things relating to service.

Pat Ballard Fox