(Photo by Edwin J. Torres/N.J. Governor’s Office)

The National Mediation Board has ended more than four years of negotiations between NJ Transit and a union representing its engineers without a resolution, paving the way for a strike that federal law could still delay by months.

NJ Transit locomotive engineers have been working under an expired contract since 2019 amid a collective bargaining standoff with the state over pay, but federal law that limits labor actions by railroads has kept them from striking despite a unanimous vote by the union’s members.

“It’s time for NJT to make a fair offer and settle this dispute voluntarily, otherwise our members will be walking picket lines rather than operating trains,” said Eddie Hall, president of the national branch of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.

Because rail service interruptions can significantly impact interstate commerce, railways — and commuter railways especially — must complete lengthy mediation processes before launching a job action.

The National Mediation Board is the largest of those hurdles. The body can indefinitely mediate disputes between rail unions and transit agencies, and it has kept the dispute between the union and NJ Transit in mediation for years.

The end of mediation kicks off a 30-day cool-off period, meaning locomotive engineers could strike as early as July 25, though they will likely have to wait months longer.

The union declined an offer of arbitration that followed the National Mediation Board’s release, which means the dispute will likely go to a Presidential Emergency Board.

Federal law requires President Joe Biden to convene a Presidential Emergency Board upon request from either of the parties or a governor in a state that would be affected by a job action. In this case, that list includes Govs. Phil Murphy, Kathy Hochul, and Josh Shapiro.

Statute requires the president to grant a requests emergency boards, which will create another 120-day lockout on job actions, though the board could end that lockout sooner.

The governors and parties can request a second Presidential Emergency Board be convened if the first does not reach a settlement within 120 days.

“While we are currently in the 30-day ‘cooling off’ period, in light of the BLET’s response to the National Mediation Board (NMB) rejecting binding arbitration to settle this matter, NJ TRANSIT fully intends, to make a formal request for a Presidential Emergency Board (PEB),” said Jim Smith, a spokesperson for NJ Transit.

the three governors did not immediately return requests for comment on whether they will ask Biden to convene a board.

“Our members are angry and feel betrayed,” Hall said. “Locomotive engineers kept the trains running during the pandemic. They have gone five years without a pay raise during a period of high inflation. These men and women want to serve the public with uninterrupted service, but they cannot continue working for subpar wages. They have had enough.”

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Passengers board a New Jersey Transit train at Pennsylvania Station on April 26, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Trains on the country’s busiest commuter rail line stopped running Friday for the third time this week amid scorching heat and persistent technical problems, spawning a new round of finger-pointing.

Rail service in and out of New York Penn Station was suspended Friday morning and delayed into the afternoon — snarling trains on the northeast corridor and other lines as transit officials offered competing explanations for the latest delays.

NJ Transit said issues with Amtrak’s overhead wires were responsible, while Amtrak — which owns the tracks the corridor’s trains travel on — said a disabled commuter train in New York Penn Station was responsible for the cancellations.

“We are working with our partners at NJT to investigate the cause of this morning’s disruption,” said Amtrak spokesman Anderson Kyle.

A spokesperson for the governor deferred a request for comment to NJ Transit, which called the frequency and severity of recent service disruptions “beyond unacceptable.”

The agency said an inspection of the disabled train conducted before it left Newark uncovered no issues, including with pantographs that collect power from overhead lines.

“What we can say is that we operate approximately 700 trains every weekday along hundreds of miles of track on 11 rail lines with the same equipment and these incidents are mainly occurring on just this one stretch of track on the NEC between Newark and New York,” NJ Transit CEO Kevin Corbett said in a statement. “We continue to offer Amtrak our assistance to resolve the issue.”

It has been a rocky week for the two transit agencies.

On Tuesday, train service to and from New York Penn was suspended during the morning rush due to Amtrak wire issues, with delays throughout the day that grew worse in the evening after officials reported a disabled Amtrak train near the station.

A power issue at a substation near train tunnels running into New York Penn caused more wire problems and another set of service suspensions on Thursday, and those were exacerbated by a nearby but unrelated brush fire that delayed wire repairs.

“I know everyone likes to dump on New Jersey Transit, but this is a bigger issue. This is an Amtrak issue, and we really have to bring our federal representatives and state representatives together to address this. This is a number one priority,” said Sen. Patrick Diegnan (D-Middlesex), the Senate Transportation Committee chairman.

Rep. Frank Pallone (D-06), whose district includes a portion of the rail line that runs along the Jersey Shore, on Friday called the service disruptions “utterly unacceptable.”

Throughout the week, Amtrak officials have warned the heat wave battering the Northeast could force trains to run at lower speeds, creating delays of up to an hour during afternoons.

Excessive heat can deform rail tracks and the overhead wires that power trains, and it can cause certain train parts to fail.

“I always had a feeling like once we hit the first heat wave, sh*t was going to go down,” said Assemblyman Clinton Calabrese (D-Bergen), the Assembly transportation chair. “Here we are in the first heat wave, and things are going down.”

Calabrese and Diegnan said they hope the early-summer disruptions do not presage another “summer of hell” of the type that has dogged NJ Transit in recent years.

Amtrak issues have mounted over the past few months. The quasi-public corporation was responsible for 185 of the 381 cancellations NJ Transit saw in May, according to NJ Transit data, though the causes for cancellations can vary widely month-to-month.

Sen. Raj Mukherji (D-Hudson), the Senate transportation vice chair, said the latest issues underscore the need for customer advocacy at NJ Transit, pointing to a bipartisan bill that would create a new independent office to represent riders’ interests on fares and services.

“With everybody pointing fingers and a lack of clarity as to what keeps going wrong, this underscores why we need to pass my customer advocate legislation so that an independent rider advocacy commission can investigate these things and report to the Legislature and the governor and, most importantly, our commuters when things and go wrong what solutions must be implemented,” said Mukherji.

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Climate activist Stephanie Martinez appeared at a rally in Newark on June 13, 2024, to demand lawmakers support a proposed business tax to fund NJ Transit. (Sophie Nieto-Munoz | NJ Monitor)

Humberto Mendoza has taken NJ Transit’s 780 bus from his Passaic home to Hackensack daily for the last 26 years.

The bus rarely arrives on time, he said, but it’s his only way to get to work. With just a few weeks until the start of double-digit fare hikes, Mendoza said he’ll have to choose between paying more for inconsistent transit service or buying food to feed his family.

“It will be too much. We cannot take another increase in price,” said Mendoza, a member of immigrant rights group Make the Road New Jersey.

Local activists and mayors gathered in front of Newark Penn Station Thursday to demand legislative leaders include a new business tax in the upcoming budget to boost the financially struggling transit agency. They also plan to deliver a letter to top Trenton officials signed by dozens of mayors calling it “imperative” to fund public transportation.

“While our constituents face rising costs for transportation and basic necessities, it is unjustifiable that wealthy, multinational corporations continue to receive tax breaks that further exacerbate the financial burden on our towns and cities,” reads the letter, signed by mayors of Newark, Jersey City, Montclair, Trenton, Red Bank, and more.

The new tax was proposed by Gov. Phil Murphy as a transit tax to fill the $106.6 million budget gap that NJ Transit is facing in the fiscal year that begins July 1. Under the governor’s plan, there would be a 2.5% surtax imposed on businesses with more than $10 million in profit. It is expected to generate $800 million annually.

In April, the NJ Transit board approved fare hikes of up to 15% that will go into effect July 1, along with a 3% increase every year after. Without more revenue, NJ Transit could face major service cuts, agency officials have said.

Business groups oppose the new tax, saying it would make the state less competitive in attracting and retaining employers. The New Jersey Business and Industry Association released a list of 40 reasons why the transit tax would be “bad policy.”

The state Chamber of Commerce says the transit tax is just a veiled attempt to rebrand a previous business tax surtax that sunset in 2023, one that placed a 2.5% surcharge on corporations with more than $1 million in annual profits. Tom Bracken, the chamber’s president and CEO, urged the Legislature to reject the proposed tax, saying there’s no way to predict how much money it would generate every year since it hinges on companies staying in New Jersey.

“One thing is for certain, implementing the fee would give the state the dubious distinction of having the nation’s highest Corporation Business Tax rate for large companies, which would tarnish New Jersey’s business reputation and undermine the governor’s own business attraction and retention efforts,” Bracken said.

Some activists worry officials might try to redirect some of the expected revenue to other projects in backdoor deals during the budget-writing process.

“What happens in Trenton in the next few weeks is going to be a litmus test for the state Legislature to make sure that we prioritize the people that elected them to serve in Trenton,” said Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla.

Senate President Nicholas Scutari and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin have not said whether they support the proposed transit tax. Murphy must sign the budget before July 1 to avoid a state government shutdown.

Activists said on Thursday they would prefer to bring back the business tax surcharge that expired last year, which affected 3,000 businesses (the proposed transit tax will only hit 300 businesses). They also stressed that NJ Transit faces a budget gap next year that exceeds $700 million.

“Funding NJ Transit means we fund the local economy, where I can get to my local supermarket, access fresh foods, and live a healthy lifestyle. People can get to their jobs safely on time because the working class makes this world go around,” said climate activist Stephanie Martinez.

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New Jersey continues to use humor in its highway safety messages, like this one advising against “camping” in the left lane. (Courtesy of the New Jersey Department of Transportation)

States have had their fun with highway safety messages, posting everything from Taylor Swift lyrics to discourage texting in Mississippi, to a “vibe check” — winking at Gen Z — to encourage seat belt use in Arizona.

Such messages are shown intermittently on thousands of highway signs, known as variable messaging signs, when the billboards aren’t lit up with alerts about accidents, construction or other real-time traffic issues.

As the summer vacation season gets going, millions of America’s interstate drivers can expect to find more puns, silly turns of phrase or cultural references on those massive missives.

But federal safety officials aren’t amused by states’ cheek. In recent years, they’ve begun to discourage what they view as overly creative messages, fearing that in trying to entertain drivers, highway officials are confusing rather than enlightening them. Some states, most recently Arizona and New Jersey, have pushed back. As a result, officials at the Federal Highway Administration clarified this year that they’re not banning road-sign humor outright.

Mississippi, the state with the highest motor vehicle fatality rate in the country last year, has been particularly creative. Recent messages have included “FOUR I’S IN MISSISSIPPI TWO EYES ON THE ROAD,” and a reference to the Taylor Swift song “Anti-Hero”: “TEXTING AND DRIVING? SAY IT: I’M THE PROBLEM IT’S ME.”

“It’s been an effective program for us. We haven’t been contacted by [the] federal highway department and told to cease and desist. We want to be in compliance, but we haven’t stopped our message program,” said Paul Katool, a spokesperson for the Mississippi Department of Transportation.

A new rulebook issued last year “does not prohibit messages from including humor or cultural references,” Federal Highway Administration chief Shailen Bhatt wrote in a recent letter to U.S. Reps. Greg Stanton, an Arizona Democrat, and Thomas Kean Jr., a New Jersey Republican.

The representatives had complained earlier this year that the agency was stifling state creativity, calling the new rules “a blanket discouragement of humorous signs that leaves no room for state-by-state discretion.”

“Both of these states have signs that use slang or popular language, but the messages are clear,” the representatives wrote in their letter to Bhatt.

They cited messages such as two Arizona contest winners, “SEATBELTS ALWAYS PASS THE VIBE CHECK” and “I’M JUST A SIGN ASKING  DRIVERS TO USE TURN SIGNALS,” as well as New Jersey’s recent holiday messages: “DON’T BE A GRINCH, LET THEM MERGE” and “SANTA’S WATCHING, PUT DOWN THE PHONE.”

Bhatt’s response is an apparent softening of the FHWA’s opposition to the signs, after the agency asked New Jersey to pull down some messages in 2022. Some became so popular on social media that the state Department of Transportation asked drivers not to take photos of the signs while driving, posting a cat meme on its own social media accounts: “IF YOU KEEP TAKING PHOTOS OF THE VMS BOARDS WHILE DRIVING WE WILL TURN THIS CAR AROUND AND GO BACK TO THE OLD MESSAGES.”

Messages shown in 2022 included “GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR APPS” and “SLOW DOWN. THIS AIN’T THUNDER ROAD,” a reference to a song by favorite son Bruce Springsteen, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

The Federal Highway Administration isn’t telling states what to do — states retain control of their message boards — but it doesn’t think humor and cultural references are helpful. Vehicles pass under the signs in the blink of an eye, and the missives could puzzle people who don’t “get it” right away.

“FHWA appreciates the States’ efforts to creatively convey important safety messaging to motorists. Those messages need to be balanced with maintaining driver attention,” Bhatt wrote in his letter to the lawmakers.

An agency spokesperson, Nancy Singer, said in a statement that “states may develop their own traffic safety campaign messages” but they should avoid “messages with obscure meaning, references to popular culture, that are intended to be humorous, or otherwise use non-standard syntax.”

There’s some serious research behind the new guidance: One of the studies cited in Bhatt’s letter shows that overly creative language can have the wrong effect when used on a highway message sign. Driving behavior can get more dangerous, not less so, if you’re trying to process a confusing message.

“Messages involving humor, wit or pop culture references could have adverse consequences on driving behavior for motorists who are unable to correctly interpret those messages,” according to the 2022 study published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

Lead author Gerald Ullman, who was senior research engineer at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute at the time the study was published, said it simulated highway-sign messages seen while driving.

Highway wit can work well but only “for drivers who get the humor used and the traffic safety point of the message,” Ullman said in an email exchange. “However, it does appear to have adverse effects on those drivers who don’t get it.

“Pop culture references that younger drivers get might very easily be confusing for older drivers,” he said. “Conversely, puns or references to older funny movies that older drivers find witty can fly completely over the heads of younger drivers.”

Still in states such as Mississippi, state officials have heard from residents who say creative messages changed their habits, which might not have happened with more direct language, Katool said.

“It’s all good fun, but the point is to save lives,” Katool said. “There’s really only so many times you can just tell somebody to stop texting and driving or tell them to slow down. Eventually they just kind of tune you out. So we feel this is a way to leverage holidays, popular culture, music, that kind of thing.”

New Jersey is still using humor in its messages: A batch that ran in May included “SLOW DOWN BAD DRIVERS AHEAD” AND “CAMP IN THE WOODS NOT THE LEFT LANE.”

But the state is “mindful of the kinds of messages we put up, keeping them safety oriented” and does follow federal guidance, said New Jersey Department of Transportation spokesperson Stephen Schapiro.

The latest messages in June include “THERE’S NO DEBATE DON’T TAILGATE” and “LET THE WAVES DO THE CRASHING STAY ALERT!”

New Jersey has one of the lowest rates of traffic fatalities as of 2023, about 0.78 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles driven. Minnesota is the only state lower, at 0.71, with the highest being Mississippi (1.76) and Arizona (1.69), according to preliminary National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statistics.

In Arizona, messages “sometimes include humor and cultural references, and we work hard to make sure key messages about safety will be easily understood by drivers,” said Doug Pacey, a transportation spokesperson. Over the Memorial Day weekend, the department used a relatively straightforward message: “COOKOUT ESSENTIALS BBQ, MUSIC, WATER, DESIGNATED DRIVERS.”

Like New Jersey and Mississippi, Arizona sometimes gets the public involved in picking safety messages with contests. A contest last fall led to two winning messages: “I’M JUST A SIGN ASKING DRIVERS TO USE TURN SIGNALS” — a reference to a line in the 1990 film “Notting Hill” with actor Julia Roberts, whose character in the film says, “I’m also just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.”

Another contest winner, Elise Riker, won for “SEATBELTS ALWAYS PASS THE VIBE CHECK” which was also displayed last fall. A marketing professor at Arizona State University, Riker told Stateline she crafted it to appeal to Gen Z drivers.

“A vibe check is Gen Z slang for good vibrations, from the 70’s,” Riker said. “Levity definitely helps a safety message get through. ‘You can die in a car accident without your seatbelt’ is more likely to be ignored.

“Nobody likes to think about dying,” she said. “Friendly and funny safety messages are a reminder that there are humans at the heart of it.”

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org. Follow Stateline on Facebook and Twitter.

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A decision in New Jersey's lawsuit against New York for its congestion pricing plan is expected soon, after a federal judge heard arguments in the case this week. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday that she has directed the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to put an indefinite hold on implementing its controversial congestion pricing plan, saying she cannot “add another burden to working and middle-class New Yorkers or create another obstacle to our continued recovery.”

The congestion price plan was slated to begin June 30. Drivers entering Manhattan south of 60th Street would have been forced to pay a $15 toll, in addition to tolls for using bridges and tunnels to enter the city.

The news was met with cheers from a group of New Jersey Democrats who have voiced opposition to congestion pricing, including Gov. Phil Murphy. The Murphy administration filed a lawsuit last July arguing the feds failed to conduct a comprehensive environmental review before giving the plan their OK.

“I want to thank Governor Hochul for pausing the implementation of congestion pricing in Manhattan’s Central Business District. Although we have had a difference of opinion with our colleagues in New York in congestion pricing implementation, we have always had a shared vision for growing our regional economy, protecting our environment, and creating good-paying jobs on both sides of the Hudson River,” Murphy said in a statement Wednesday.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-05) also celebrated Hochul’s decision to drop the state’s “outrageous congestion tax.” Gottheimer, who represents parts of Bergen County home to many commuters, has been one of the loudest voices opposing the plan, saying it would increase traffic and pollution on this side of the Hudson.

“We threw the kitchen sink at New York — and then some — and got it done. Even when some said the fight was over, we kept going. Well today, Jersey families, their wallets, and the environment won big,” he said. “As I always say, don’t mess with Jersey.”

New York would have been the first city in the nation to implement congestion pricing. Similar pricing schemes exist in London, Milan, and Singapore. Supporters of congestion pricing say it decreases the number of vehicles on the road, leads to more people using public transit, and reduces pollution.

The plan was first signed into law in 2019 by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Revenue from the tolls was intended to fund public transit in New York (none would go to NJ Transit). Hochul on Wednesday said “circumstances have changed” since the plan was introduced, most notably the pandemic.

“While our recovery has been stronger and swifter than anyone imagined, it is by no means complete. And we cannot afford to undercut this momentum, and I won’t allow this delicate recovery to be jeopardized,” she said.

She noted many workers are commuting into the city for just two or three days instead of five, with subways packed Tuesdays to Thursdays but much less so on Mondays and Fridays. And while the idea behind congestion pricing was to generate more revenue and shift commuters to public transit, she laid out another possibility — people avoiding the city altogether, for work and leisure.

Commuters might tell their bosses they need to work fully remote, or families visiting on the weekend might skip the trip to the city, she said. An additional cost to enter Manhattan would hurt its recovery even more, she added.

The Regional Plan Association, a tri-state environmental organization, called Hochul’s move a “betrayal to New Yorkers and our climate.” Delaying the plan will also delay critical transit projects like improving subway lines and electrifying buses, said Kate Slevin, executive vice president of the association.

Talya Schwartz, president of SafeStreetsJC, said the group had been looking forward to congestion pricing, hoping it would reduce the number of cars headed to Manhattan that clog Jersey City streets daily.

“The cost of delaying congestion pricing means more crashes and unsafe streets, more buses stuck in traffic, and all of us breathing dirty air,” she noted.

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Photo by Edwin J. Torres/NJ Governor's Office

NJ Transit will offer refunds on some tickets purchased before June 1 in response to criticism of the agency’s new policy that applies 30-day expiration dates to tickets.

The refund policy, announced Wednesday, will apply to all one-way bus, train, and light rail tickets bought before June 1, and will also apply to 10-trip train tickets purchased then.

The reversal comes after lawmakers and commuters blasted the rail agency for its new expiration date policy, part of a package approved in April that included fare hikes of up to 15% starting July 1 — and a 3% increase each year after. Adding expiration dates to tickets will provide a revenue boost of tens of millions annually, the agency says.

The agency said the overwhelming majority of customers typically do not purchase more than three months of tickets in advance, but the refund option will help people who purchased tickets before the new expiration date policy was announced.

Ticket holders seeking refunds will be able to do so starting Aug. 1 and through Dec. 31.

Previously, people could buy as many transit tickets as they wanted with no worry they’d expire. Under the proposal approved by NJ Transit in April, all one-way tickets purchased after July 1 will only be valid for 30 days.

Tickets purchased in June won’t be eligible for a refund, and all one-way tickets purchased before July 1 will expire on July 31, regardless of purchase date.

“Ticket expiration policies are consistent with transit industry best practices across the country,” NJ Transit said in a statement.

The cash-strapped transit agency says that with the new fare hikes, it will close the roughly $100 million budget gap it faced for the upcoming fiscal year. But another shortfall of nearly $800 million is expected in the budget year beginning in July 2025, even considering the revenue from fare hikes.

Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D-Union) last week threatened to introduce legislation to reverse NJ Transit’s expiration date policy if the agency didn’t honor the full value of tickets purchased before the agency announced the change. On Wednesday, Scutari said he welcomes the move by the agency to refund riders.

“NJ Transit has a responsibility to respect the consumer rights of its riders by treating them fairly. If they want to sell tickets with expiration dates, it should be on the tickets or the purchasers should be informed at the time of sale. That is a reasonable expectation for any customer, including riders who rely on the services of a public transit agency,” he said.

How to request a refund 

Refunds are expected to take about three to four weeks, and will go much faster for customers who kept their receipts, the agency said in its announcement.

All mobile app tickets will be automatically converted to a full-value credit if unused by August 1.

People who bought online should print out their tickets before June 1. Instructions on how to seek a refund are included on printed tickets.

Customers with paper tickets must visit a customer service office near them with their receipts. If you don’t have receipts, you’ll be asked to provide the last four digits of the credit card used to purchase the tickets.

Customer service offices are located in Hoboken Terminal, Newark Penn Station, Secaucus Junction, Trenton Transit Center, New York Penn Station, and the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

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A deal for FAA reauthorization would add flights to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, despite opposition from U.S. senators from Virginia and Maryland, who said in a letter on Monday, April 29, 2024, that the move would hurt safety efforts. Shown is the terminal and air traffic control tower at Washington National. (Patrick Donovan | Getty Photos)

Key members of Congress announced an agreement Monday on a $105 billion bill to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration for five years ahead of a May 10 deadline.

The 1,000-page bill would raise hiring targets for air traffic control and would codify in law a rule the Biden administration introduced this month requiring airlines to offer refunds for canceled or significantly delayed flights, among other consumer-focused provisions.

The legislation also would add flights to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, despite opposition from U.S. senators from Virginia and Maryland who said in a letter Monday the move would hurt safety efforts.

The compromise measure was negotiated by U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Chair Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington state, and ranking Republican Ted Cruz of Texas and U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Chair Sam Graves, a Missouri Republican, and ranking Democrat Rick Larsen, a Washington Democrat.

The four lawmakers released a joint statement announcing the agreement early Monday praising their “bipartisan, bicameral, comprehensive agreement.”

“The American people deserve nothing less than the safest and most efficient aerospace system in the world, and to that end, our bill provides critical safety enhancements, grows America’s aviation workforce, invests in infrastructure at airports of all sizes, sets clear priorities for advancing innovative aviation solutions, improves the flying public’s travel experience, and ensures a healthy general aviation sector for years to come,” the lawmakers said.

The bill would authorize $66.7 billion to fund key safety programs such as aircraft safety certification and the hiring of air traffic controllers and technical engineers. It would also authorize $19.35 billion for infrastructure improvements. It would more than double annual funding for the Essential Air Service program that subsidizes flights to small rural airports.

No votes have been scheduled in either chamber on the measure, which President Joe Biden must sign by midnight on May 10 to avoid a lapse in FAA authority.

Washington National Airport

With endorsements from committee leaders on both sides of the aisle, the bill should have broad bipartisan appeal in both chambers of Congress.

But senators from the states bordering Washington, D.C., said Monday they opposed the provision adding five incoming and five outgoing flights to Washington’s Reagan National Airport, or DCA, located in Northern Virginia just across the Potomac River.

In a statement, Democratic Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine of Virginia and Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland vowed to “continue to fight against this ridiculous and dangerous provision.”

Two planes cleared to take off from the busy airport came within 400 feet of crashing in an April 18 incident. The near-miss should have underscored the crowded conditions at DCA, which, as the closest airport to the Capitol, is a favorite of members of Congress, the senators wrote.

Committee members, none of whom are from the area, “decided to ignore the flashing red warning light of the recent near collision of two aircraft at DCA and jam even more flights onto the busiest runway in America,” the senators said. “It should go without saying that the safety of the traveling public should be a higher priority than the convenience of a few lawmakers who want direct flights home from their preferred airport.”

Because the federal government owns DCA and Dulles International Airport further into the Northern Virginia suburbs, Congress has the power to make operational changes.

Consumer provisions

The bill includes several provisions meant to protect consumers.

It would establish in law a rule the Biden administration proposed this month to require airlines to offer cash refunds for flight delays of more than three hours for domestic flights or six hours for international travel.

The Biden administration had sought such a measure, even as it pursued the rule.

It would also require airline credits to be effective for at least five years, bar airlines from charging families to sit together and require the Transportation Department to create a digital dashboard of the minimum seat sizes for U.S. airlines. It does not mandate a national standard for seat size, but it does direct the FAA to decide if a rule on the issue is needed.

The legislation would establish a Senate-confirmed position of deputy secretary for consumer protection, who would run a new office with an annual budget of $14 million dedicated to consumer issues.

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Traffic backs up on the George Washington Bridge. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)

One of the loudest critics of New York City’s congestion pricing plan scoffed at a transportation official’s promise this week that New Jersey will get a bit of the billion dollars it’s expected to generate annually.

U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-5) said the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is merely “throwing some crumbs to Jersey” when MTA CEO Janno Lieber said Wednesday that New Jersey will get “its share, exactly on the arithmetic” of the hiked tolls to offset the harms expected when drivers dodging the impacted zone clog North Jersey roads.

“What we saw from the MTA is nothing new. Throwing some crumbs to Jersey doesn’t fix the fact that they’re planning to whack hardworking families with a $15-a-day, $4,000-a-year Congestion Tax,” Gottheimer said.

Lieber’s comments come as the region awaits a ruling by the federal judge presiding over New Jersey’s lawsuit to stop the plan, which would boost tolls on Manhattan’s busiest roads by up to $15 for cars and $36 for trucks, with lower tolls during off-peak times. Critics want the court to vacate the final approval the U.S. Federal Highway Administration gave the plan last June and order a “full and proper” environmental impact review, as federal law requires.

A federal judge heard arguments in the case earlier this month and is expected to rule by mid-June, when the new tolls are set to start.

Gottheimer has long blasted the plan and did so again Thursday.

“The MTA ignored the tens of thousands of families who begged them not to pollute our children. It’s only right that the federal government ensures there is a full environmental review before they whack Jersey families with the cancer-causing Congestion Tax,” he said.

Lieber, who spoke at a business breakfast in Manhattan, declined to detail how much funding New Jersey can expect, saying only it would be determined “by the number of people who are in areas impacted by initial truck traffic.”

The agency will spend millions to mitigate pollution in New York neighborhoods where local traffic is expected to worsen because of motorists detouring from the congestion pricing zone, which starts at 60th Street and runs south.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Phil Murphy, another congestion toll critic, declined to comment.

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NJ Transit President and CEO Kevin Corbett (Courtesy of NJ Transit)

NJ Transit CEO Kevin Corbett defended double-digit fare hikes the agency’s board approved Wednesday, arguing to lawmakers that more farebox revenue will help the agency maintain services as it braces to meet fiscal cliffs in the two coming budgetary years.

Corbett told the Senate Budget Committee Thursday that the fare increases, which were broadly opposed by activists who fear its impact on low-income commuters, are necessary to avoid service cuts that officials worried could depress fare revenue and send the agency into a “death spiral.”

“We’ve seen that firsthand with the private carriers who lost so much ridership after reducing their service levels. They were unable to recoup that ridership and abandoned their service this past year on our bus side,” Corbett told the panel.

Last year, numerous private bus carriers — including Coach, DeCamp, and TransDev, among others — announced they would stop servicing their bus lines, citing the worsening economics of commuter bussing and staggering ridership losses spurred by the pandemic.

The fare hikes — some as high as 15% — and the annual 3% fare increases the NJ Transit board greenlit Wednesday will allow the agency to overcome a $106.6 million budget gap it faces in the fiscal year that begins July 1, Corbett said.

The agency’s farebox revenue is projected to grow by $170.7 million in the new fiscal year, with the fare hikes that are effective July 1 responsible for $106.6 million in additional collections. NJ Transit faces a $766.8 million fiscal cliff in the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2025.

Gov. Phil Murphy has proposed the state fill that gap by enacting a new surcharge, called the corporate transit fee, to its corporate business tax that would impose a 2.5% surtax on businesses with more than $10 million in profit. The tax is forecasted to generate more than $800 million in revenue annually that lawmakers could dedicate to NJ Transit.

One Democrat, Assemblyman John Burzichelli (D-Gloucester), called Murphy’s proposal “a very unpopular move in some view” Thursday and told the New Jersey Monitor he does not support it.

“I personally think we have to fund New Jersey Transit a different way. I’m not favorable to that tax,” he said. “I think it happens this year, but that doesn’t mean it has to stay there. We have to find another way.”

Burzichelli acknowledged transit’s need for investment, invoking bankrupt railroads that were later nationalized into Conrail, and said his final vote on the tax could depend on whether it was a standalone bill or a provision within the state budget. He said he expected the surtax to win legislative approval either way. 

Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen), the Senate’s budget chair, previously opposed an extension of the corporate business tax surcharge — a substantially similar policy that imposed a surtax on businesses with more than $1 million in profit — but he declined to comment on the corporate transit fee proposal Thursday.

Praise for MVC

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle on Thursday praised acting Motor Vehicle Commission Chief Administrator Latrecia Littles-Floyd, a turnabout from pandemic years when the agency was a frequent legislative punching bag.

Sarlo said calls to his office about wait times at MVC locations had largely abated recently, and Littles-Floyd won praise for her stewardship from some of the committee’s Republican members. She took helm of the agency responsible for issuing licenses and vehicle registrations in 2022.

“You’ve been really responsive. You’ve really fallen into the position very effectively. All of my communication with you, you’ve been responsive. Your staff has as well,” said Sen. Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth).

Littles-Floyd told the committee her agency is exploring a legislative proposal that would allow New Jersey residents to register their vehicles for multiple years — at present, multi-year registrations are extended only to new vehicle purchases — but warned agency officials are concerned about the prospect of refund requests.

That bill, sponsored by O’Scanlon, would allow vehicles to be registered for up to 10 years, with annual registration fees paid upfront.

“One of our major concerns, too, is it results in refund processes or requests. We did talk about it when you and I met earlier this year, but we’ll continue to work with you,” Littles-Floyd told the senator. “I don’t want to really speak on legislation that’s still pending too much, but it’s something we’re looking into right now.”

Others asked about a new $50 million subsidy Murphy has proposed for the MVC that has raised eyebrows within the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services. In a budget analysis, the office said it is “not clear as to why an operating subsidy in the magnitude of $50 million is necessary” for the coming fiscal year.

The analysis said administration officials had cited rising staffing and information technology costs, though OLS noted salary expenses are projected to rise by roughly $600,000 less than the agency’s revenue.

William Kelly, the commission’s chief financial officer, said high staffing and retainment had contributed to growing costs — MVC staffing in the fiscal year that begins July 1 is projected to be 7.4% higher than it was in fiscal year 2023 — but pointed to rising benefit costs as a bigger driver.

The agency’s fringe benefit costs had risen to 77% of employee salaries, Kelly said, more than twice what benefits cost the agency in 2019.

“We’re expected to pay $120 million,” Kelly said. “That significant increase is really impacting our budget.”

The post NJ Transit CEO says fare hikes will keep agency from ‘death spiral’ appeared first on New Jersey Monitor.

A NJ Transit train arrives at the Hamilton train station. (Photo by Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)

NJ Transit riders will pay more to ride trains and buses starting July 1 after the agency’s board on Wednesday unanimously approved double-digit fare hikes, plus an annual 3% fare hike starting in July 2025.

The board’s unanimous vote to approve the fare increases, some as high as 15%, came after the agency heard from 25 commuters and transit advocates who urged them not to foist its budget woes onto NJ Transit riders.

“Your rate hike will have a devastating impact on urban areas and minority communities, as people are already struggling to make ends meet,” said Holly Cox of Montvale.

The fare hike plan was first proposed in January to close the $106.6 million budget gap the agency faces for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Revenue from the fare hikes is expected to top $106 million. Before the vote, NJ Transit President and CEO Kevin Corbett said that after internal budget cuts and no promise from state lawmakers that they would approve additional funding, the agency was left with two options: cutting service or raising fares.

Members of the board also defended the fare increases. Board member Shanti Narra, who said she rides a bus run by a company that is also expecting to raise prices, said casting a vote in support pained her “very, very much.”

“I know there are many, many of our residents who are going to be digging deep into pockets that are nearly empty. And this is so hard to do this,” she said.

NJ Transit faces a $766.8 million budget shortfall starting in July 2025, even considering the fare hikes. To help, Gov. Phil Murphy has proposed a budget that includes a so-called corporate transit tax — aimed at the state’s 600 most profitable businesses — that could bring in about $800 million annually, mostly for NJ Transit. But it’s unclear whether the new tax will remain in the spending plan after lawmakers amend it. Budget hearings are underway.

Members of the public on Wednesday blasted the NJ Transit board for failing to secure funding for the agency sooner rather than passing extra costs onto riders. Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for the 8th Congressional District’s House seat in June, called the increases a “backdoor tax on working families.”

“Whatever happened to standing up for people who need a helping hand? Isn’t that what our values are about? Isn’t that what New Jersey Transit should be about?” he said. “It’s not a business. It’s a public service.”

Several speakers asked the board if they were simply “rubber stamps” who approve Murphy’s proposals without question. Vice Chairwoman Kiabi Carson said that label implies the board hasn’t done their due diligence.

“This is not a ‘yes’ as a rubber stamp, it’s a ‘yes’ considering all the factors that we discussed,” she said.

And while many speakers urged the board to hold off on the vote until the governor signs the state budget — that deadline is June 30 — Carson said that would lead to “financial consequences.”

“All we can do as a board, and I feel as a board member, with the fiduciary duties that we have, is deal with the situation as it exists right now, as unpleasant and as gut-wrenching as it is for many of us,” she said.

The rates of the fare increases depend on the type of ticket. The price of a one-zone local bus ticket will increase from $1.60 to $1.80, and bus fare from Jersey City to Port Authority Bus Terminal will rise from $3.50 to $4. Fares on the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail will increase from $2.25 to $2.55 and for the Newark Light Rail, from $1.60 to $1.80. A train ticket from Princeton Junction to New York Penn Station will spike from $16 to $18.40.

The measure approved Wednesday also eliminates the FlexPass discount and will limit the life of digital and paper tickets to 30 days from purchase.

In a statement, Sen. Tony Bucco (R-Morris) called the fare hikes an “affront” to commuters.

“From escalating gas taxes and increasing highway tolls, to raising taxes on employers and cutting funding to certain school districts, Governor Murphy and Trenton Democrats have relentlessly betrayed their promise to make New Jersey more affordable – and if that wasn’t bad enough, now they’re price gouging public transit riders,” he said.

The last time NJ Transit riders saw a fare increase was in 2015, when prices rose about 9%.

An earlier version of this story misstated the amount of revenue NJ Transit will collect from the higher fares.

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