New Jersey Transit - Random Thoughts Thread

[Lawrence St]

1 hour ago, go25 said:

Screw dispatch lol

After that whole 319 debacle, I fully agree!

[checkmatechamp13]

So I found out there's a free shuttle to the Hopewell campus from the Stuyvesant-Prospect neighborhood: https://www.hopewelltwp.org/DocumentCenter/View/11739/TIPSMART-Guide-Mercer-Hospital-Listing-3323

I guess that's an alternative to taking the #608 to the last stop and walking along the highway, but it should be better-publicized, and in any case, the #608 should be extended there anyway (connections to/from the West Trenton SEPTA station, and to areas along State Street, not to mention the direct connection to the Trenton Transit Center).

[B35 via Church]

37 minutes ago, checkmatechamp13 said:

So I found out there's a free shuttle to the Hopewell campus from the Stuyvesant-Prospect neighborhood: https://www.hopewelltwp.org/DocumentCenter/View/11739/TIPSMART-Guide-Mercer-Hospital-Listing-3323

I guess that's an alternative to taking the #608 to the last stop and walking along the highway, but it should be better-publicized, and in any case, the #608 should be extended there anyway (connections to/from the West Trenton SEPTA station, and to areas along State Street, not to mention the direct connection to the Trenton Transit Center).

It's not better publicized because it's not for the general public... It's only for Mercer county residents.

[46Dover]

On 4/13/2024 at 12:13 PM, 553 Bridgeton said:

They need to ditch the paper passes and tickets this would have stopped all that nonsense. They need to get on board with fare cards. 

There was a thing on YouTube not too long ago about NJT doing farecards.  Obviously they didn’t go through with it

[JLiu15]

Looks like 20808 was retrofitted with new color destination signs as a test. I've always thought NJT should consider other colors of destination signs, especially white LED as it looks very vibrant at night.

[46Dover]

Just now, JLiu15 said:

Looks like 20808 was retrofitted with new color destination signs as a test. I've always thought NJT should consider other colors of destination signs, especially white LED as it looks very vibrant at night.

It even has the 195 in its proper indentation. 

[46Dover]

On 4/14/2024 at 10:20 AM, B35 via Church said:

but yet the #163's that short turn at GSP Mall have no suffix; go figure.... It would be one thing if GSP mall was a part of the regular #163 route to Ridgewood Terminal, but it isn't.....

With as many suffixes lettered A-Z (they might as well throw in a  while they’re at it) for the 165, you’d think the 163 would follow suit 🤷

[Lawrence St]

9 hours ago, JLiu15 said:

Looks like 20808 was retrofitted with new color destination signs as a test. I've always thought NJT should consider other colors of destination signs, especially white LED as it looks very vibrant at night.

Yeah it's a spectrum sign, but with how horrible they've been doing their signs lately, I think they should use the money on other better things instead.

[A Former New Yorker]

Are they added more service to the #31 at some point? Bus is always crowded and it's ridiculous that have it run such crap headways despite running along a major corridor like South Orange Avenue

Edited April 23 by A Former New Yorker

[FlxMtroD]

2 hours ago, A Former New Yorker said:

Are they added more service to the #31 at some point? Bus is always crowded and it's ridiculous that have it run such crap headways despite running along a major corridor like South Orange Avenue

If that's the case, Hilton should add some artics on that line, knowing how heavy that route is on S.Orange. It sucks that the service is not every 10 or 15 minutes on a weekday, every 20 minutes on a Saturday and Sunday have service every 25 to 30 minutes. Don't have all service end in South Orange. Have some trips end at the Dover Loop

[Lawrence St]

Apparently some light rail derailed on the system earlier. Not sure of the details.

[go25]

6 hours ago, Lawrence St said:

Apparently some light rail derailed on the system earlier. Not sure of the details.

Can confirm that a derailment happened, but also damage to a catenary pole as well as the catenary is also confirmed

[jass]

On 4/13/2024 at 3:32 PM, MNR Beacon Line said:

Even a fare card doesn't work well with the NJT zone system.

Say I have a one-zone ticket and a two-zone ticket both loaded onto my fare card. I board the bus and tap. How does it know how which ticket to use?

If the answer is "tell the driver which ticket to use," that's not going to work in the real world. If you are boarding a bus at Port Authority do you expect a line of 40 people to all state the number of zones they're going? It will delay boarding just as bad or worse as the scanning thing.

Mobile tickets are OK because you choose which one to activate before boarding. But forcing people to use a cell phone doesn't sit right with me. Sometimes I need to take the bus and my phone is dead.

The people running NJT are morons and I doubt that they thought any of this through. So the implementation of the fare card will be interesting to watch.

The way to minimize dwell time is a mandatory tap-on tap-off system. If you dont tap off, you get charged the max fare for the route. That means zero interaction with the driver allowing for all door boarding.

[JAzumah]

8 hours ago, jass said:

The way to minimize dwell time is a mandatory tap-on tap-off system. If you dont tap off, you get charged the max fare for the route. That means zero interaction with the driver allowing for all door boarding.

If the farebox knows where it is, that would work perfectly. I assume a 100-200 foot geofence for the bus stop could assist the farebox in knowing exactly where it is when passengers tap in and tap out.

[Kingsbridgeviewer382]

So the old 7100s from Howell were apparently sold to the  That's funny considering that those units were supposed to go to NYC 16 years ago.

[danielhg121]

7 minutes ago, Kingsbridgeviewer382 said:

So the old 7100s from Howell were apparently sold to the  That's funny considering that those units were supposed to go to NYC 16 years ago.

Is the MTA really short on commuter coaches? Or the MCI's are giving us lots of headaches?

[Kingsbridgeviewer382]

8 minutes ago, danielhg121 said:

Is the MTA really short on commuter coaches? Or the MCI's are giving us lots of headaches?

A fleet expansion as they're going to beef up some express routes for congestion pricing.

[JAzumah]

30 minutes ago, Kingsbridgeviewer382 said:

So the old 7100s from Howell were apparently sold to the  That's funny considering that those units were supposed to go to NYC 16 years ago.

1) I asked about those buses 10 days ago. LOL.

2) They did go to the MTA...and sat in a lot for months because the MTA spec'd them incorrectly and wanted MCI to eat the cost of fixing them. It is hilarious that they are coming home fixed, but they have many more miles on them than their MTA equivalents.

[Robert Spire]

On 4/30/2024 at 1:40 PM, Kingsbridgeviewer382 said:

A fleet expansion as they're going to beef up some express routes for congestion pricing.

They aren't adding that many trips, just a few trips here and there. If anything I wouldn't be surprised if they were used to retire the remaining 2005-06 MCI's on the property at MTA Bus. 

[danielhg121]

2 hours ago, Robert Spire said:

They aren't adding that many trips, just a few trips here and there. If anything I wouldn't be surprised if they were used to retire the remaining 2005-06 MCI's on the property at MTA Bus. 

Nah, these are high mileage coaches, won’t retire nothing, probably just to fill in some service for service increase or to replace MCI’s we’ve lost here and there. Replacing high-mileage coaches with more high-mileage coaches isn’t exactly a winning solution.

[Kingsbridgeviewer382]

2 hours ago, Robert Spire said:

They aren't adding that many trips, just a few trips here and there. If anything I wouldn't be surprised if they were used to retire the remaining 2005-06 MCI's on the property at MTA Bus. 

Nope. The 15 units they got are heading to Staten Island.

[DCTransitFilms]

An update on the 7100s. There's finally a picture of them on Facebook. They also have new numbers it seems.

7105 is 2199

7112 is 2205

[TyBusLover1]

2 hours ago, DCTransitFilms said:

An update on the 7100s. There's finally a picture of them on Facebook. They also have new numbers it seems.

7105 is 2199

7112 is 2205

Is there a link? Also I think it was 7106.

[JLiu15]

7 hours ago, DCTransitFilms said:

An update on the 7100s. There's finally a picture of them on Facebook. They also have new numbers it seems.

7105 is 2199

7112 is 2205

If their numbers are 2195-2209 (15 units) and 7109 and 7116 are long retired, doesn't that mean there's 16 buses going to MTA? Unless another one was retired or is used as a parts bus.

[GojiMet86]

1 hour ago, JLiu15 said:

If their numbers are 2195-2209 (15 units) and 7109 and 7116 are long retired, doesn't that mean there's 16 buses going to MTA? Unless another one was retired or is used as a parts bus.

If there are indeed 15 making the trip, then a third bus isn't making it.

Assuming they're being renumbered as close to sequentially as possible, then it can be 7113, 7114, 7115, 7117, or 7118.