Name: Static Interactive
Price range: $

Outside of Trenton, NJ.

The Fund NJ Transit coalition seeks to bring greater prosperity and better transportation to communities across New Jersey. We represent a convening of groups from across New Jersey’s advocacy spectrum to support legislative funding initiatives and to support transformation of NJ Transit into a modern, effective transit agency for the state’s one million and growing daily transit riders.

Call to Action

Fixing NJ Transit is not an option, it is an imperative - literally. New Jersey has only a few months before the next state budget when the agency starts slipping off the edge of a fiscal cliff that balloons to nearly $1 billion in Fiscal Year 2026.

New Jersey legislators, advocates, and community leaders needs to identify funding sources that are both recurring and growing in order to ensure riders don’t end up back in this same precarious place in a few years.

We must make our values clear.

We care about low-income families and working-class New Jerseyans who rely on public transit. We care about the environment. We care about making this a state where people of all backgrounds can live, work, and thrive whether or not they have access to a car. We will not stop working until equitable and sustainable solutions are finally in place.

Statement by the Fund NJ Transit Coalition on Proposed Fare Hikes

Why Fund NJ Transit?

- This double-digit fare increase unfairly places the burden of change on those who can least afford it, and could increase car congestion and pollution.
- The fare increase will not solve NJ Transit’s budget issues, as a 1% fare increase only raises $8 million. New Jersey can’t raise the fares enough to cover the budget gap.
- It is unconscionable to ask riders to shoulder fare increases before the state has a long term plan in place. The lack of action towards a better, dedicated funding mechanism for transit all but guaranteed that riders would get hit with a big, double-digit increase instead of smaller, easier-to-absorb increases over time.
- Also, NJT is proposing to eliminate the Flex Pass instituted during the COVID-19 pandemic, making the fare hike more drastic for many riders.
- Dedicated taxes contribute between 47% and 62% of operating assistance for most major transit systems, yet NJ Transit is left to the annual whims of a budget process.
- There was a recent $300 million drop in NJ Transit’s state operating subsidy, which plummeted from a high of $457 million in FY20 down to $142 million in FY24.
  Despite the state’s emphasis on the increased annual subsidy from the Turnpike Authority, the‘extra’ money was never used to make NJ Transit operating budget stable - it merely allowed the state to reduce its direct budget line for the agency while maintaining the status quo.
- This shortchanging has starved the agency of staffing, support systems, customer-focused information, and passenger amenities including ADA-compliant upgrades.
- NJ Transit’s procurement and capital teams are underpaid and understaffed and it has difficulty recruiting and retaining bus drivers and train engineers - all of which negatively affect service and the system’s state of good repair
- The New Jersey state legislature and Governor Murphy will need to identify a dedicated source of funding to ensure the system is able to operate at full capacity and serve the hundreds of thousands of daily riders who depend on it.
- NJ Transit makes New Jersey more equitable, environmentally friendly, economically competitive, and more prosperous.
- Supporting NJ Transit ensures that transit-dependent riders can access jobs, school, and healthcare, which in turn supports the broader regional economy.
- Reliance on public transportation is crucial as we work to combat congestion and curb carbon emissions amid the worsening impacts of climate change on New Jersey’s coastal region in particular.
- NJ Transit’s current practice of using capital funds to pay for operational expenses perpetuates a cycle of deferred maintenance and disinvestment that has taken a toll on riders through delays and inadequate conditions on buses and trains.
- Disinvestment in NJ Transit will harm commuters who rely on its services to get to work, school, stores, medical care, and more.
- Fare hikes are the same whether you ride the bus locally or take the train to Manhattan, which is a departure from Gov Chris Christie’s policy toward fare hikes. Local bus riders are by and large less wealthy than train riders and may not have other options (like a car) to get to work or to stores.