NEW JERSEY — Starting Monday, New Jersey Transit will waive fares on buses, trains and light rail for a week. Officials say the free ride option is intended to show appreciation to customers during a summer of delays, cancellations and ticket price increases.
The fare waiver will be in effect from Aug. 26 through Labor Day (Monday, Sept. 2) for all NJ Transit riders who will not be required to show a ticket when boarding public transit. Monthly passholders who have already purchased their August pass will automatically receive a 25 percent discount on their September pass through the mobile app, ticket booths and ticket machines, according to Gov. Phil Murphy’s office.
By waiving fares, authorities want to say “thank you” to the hundreds of thousands of passengers who rely on public transit, “especially at a time when transit service has not always met their – or our – expectations,” Murphy and transit officials said on August 15.
A 15 percent fare increase went into effect in July as NJ Transit seeks to close a projected $106.6 million budget hole for fiscal year 2025. Additional 3 percent increases will also be implemented on July 1 of each year.
Meanwhile, the state budget for fiscal year 2025 also included a 2.5 percent tax on companies that generate more than $10 million per year in New Jersey to provide another source of funding for NJ Transit. That fee will expire in 2029.
And as mentioned above, commuters and other transit customers also had to contend with outages, long delays and breakdowns when trying to get from point A to point B.
“Knowing that our commuters have faced numerous disruptions this summer, we are providing NJ TRANSIT riders with a one-week fare waiver,” the governor said in a statement.
Murphy added that transit agencies have been working with Amtrak to determine the causes of delays on the Northeast Corridor that trapped thousands of commuters during a brutal heat wave in late July. NJ Transit is paying the company more than $100 million to maintain a section of the busy rail corridor.
“…we hope this fare waiver will provide some relief to our commuters,” Murphy said. “We also encourage New Jerseyans to take advantage of this opportunity, and we remain grateful to the many New Jerseyans who rely on public transportation.”
NJT also acknowledged that the River LINE light rail service “has not met its performance standards in recent weeks” and mentioned that additional buses have been deployed at several stops.
“At the same time, we are requesting that contract operator NJ TRANSIT advance the necessary repairs and upgrades to the light rail vehicles to restore reliable weekday light rail service as quickly as possible,” officials said.
Not all drivers were grateful – and that includes the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, which said the announcement “smacks of injustice” to many employers.
Alex Ambrose, an analyst with New Jersey Policy Perspective, said Murphy and the transit agency should work to ensure lower-income riders can afford the transportation they need.
“We should “We will explore how to make public transit more affordable,” Ambrose posted on X.com (formerly Twitter) the day authorities announced the holiday. “But a week-long holiday is not the right thing to do. Instead, the government should consider a Fair Fares program for low-income riders so that the people who need it most can afford public transit.”
And while the NJBIA acknowledged riders’ concerns about affordability of public transportation, President and CEO Michele Siekerka said the fare exemption under the new corporate transportation tax was unfair to local businesses and corporations.
“New Jersey’s largest employers were just hit with a $1 billion tax increase – retroactively and with no advance notice after the start of the year – that was supposedly intended to help fund NJ TRANSIT,” Siekerka said.
“But this year, none of that money is earmarked for NJ TRANSIT, and many of the companies footing the bill have no employees using NJ TRANSIT at all.”
