BY WALTER ELLIOTT
NEWARK – “Local Talk” commiserates with those of you who have been experiencing NJTransit bus, commuter and light rail sticker shock over this weekend into July 1.
Those riders who get their monthly or weekly passes or single tickets in advance noticed that they, for most, are being charged three percent extra. Those who are paying at the farebox or at the Ticket Vending Machines from Tuesday onward will see their fares go up at least five cents per ride.
Feelings of getting sticker shocked or feeling sucker punched by NJTransit are due to the nation’s third largest public transportation carrier’s low-key publicity drive.
NJTransit had rolled out Full Fare Guides on NJTransit.com and its app the last two weeks. There seems to be more news in the New York City area media, as of this writing, of NJTransit counterpart MTA postponing its intended August 1 increase of its base subway and local bus fare from $2.90 to $3 until later in autumn.
At least straphangers can complain about the hikes in the MTA’s public hearings – something NJTransit did away with in their July 1, 2024 fare increase plan.
NJTransit’s Board of Directors, after agreeing to a 15 percent hike in 2024 – its first in as many years – with annual automatic indexed three percent increases through 2027. They are therefore not going to hold any hearings for the boosts effective July 1, 2025, ‘26 and ‘27.
Tuesday’s three percent fare increase – for most riders – will change a one-way one-zone intrastate (within New Jersey) bus or Newark Light Rail fare from $1.80 to $1.85. Similar fares for seniors 62-year-old plus, children 5-11 years old, disabled and Newark Light Rail Underground stations go up from 80 cents to 85.
Two zone intrastate fares will go up from $2.85 to $2.90; senior, disabled and child fares rise from $1.20 to $1.25.
Three zone fares go respectively up to $360 and $1.60. The 10-trip ticket book is now $31.
Monthly and student one-zone within New Jersey passes remain at $67 and $50, two zones at $89 and $67 and so on.
The Northern New Jersey interstate bus fare to New York is now based on $2.10 and .95. Two zones go up to $4 and $1.75. NJTransit sells interstate 10-trip, monthly and student on at least two zones – translating to $33.50, $123 and $92.
Commuter rail one-way, senior/disabled/child and 10-trip tickets will also go up three percent based on distance.
NJTransit is keeping its bus, light rail and commuter rail weekly and monthly passes — last raised July 1, 2024 – as-is. They will, however, no longer print the Feeder Fare stickers – a feature since the 1990s.
NJTransit is allowing monthly commuter rail pass users to, instead, ride the equivalent of the railroad’s travel distance.
Montclair-Boonton Line users in Montclair, Glen Ridge and Bloomfield – for example – can ride on local buses to Newark instead of waiting two hours for the train on weekends. Those riders would have to bail out at the Newark border and take a second bus or the Newark Light Rail at Bloomfield’s Grove Street.
Maplewood riders who normally take the Morris & Essex Line to Newark Broad Street may now take the No. 25 or No. 70 bus on Springfield Avenue out to downtown Newark. (That fare boundary zone crosses the Irvington Bus Terminal.)
One may want to look at bus schedules and rail timetables for the zone boundaries. While the zones are generally four miles long, their zones may not neatly align between bus routes and rail lines and within rail lines. The misalignment comes from when the buses and railroad were private and had competed with each other.
Those who have pre-July 1, 2025 tickets should check their purchase date stamp. Riders have 30 days from the tickets’ stamping date to use them – and they are not refundable.
NJTransit, in the past week, had posed Fare Service Notices on trains, buses and stations. Those notices, in seven languages, read: “New fares are to take effect July 1 on all NJ Transit services,” with a link to NJTransit.com.
