NJ TRANSIT Celebrating 40th Anniversary! 2019 ANNUAL REPORT Rebuilding the Customer Experience TABLE OF CONTENTS MESSAGES Recruiting .....................................................16 Governor’s Message ..................................04 Service ...........................................................17 Commissioner’s Message ......................... 06 Bus and Rail Fleet .......................................17 President & CEO’s Message ..................... 08 Bus Facilities .................................................18 HIGHLIGHTS OF Rail Facilities .................................................19 FISCAL YEAR 2019 ................................10 State-of-Good-Repair ................................ 20 IMPROVING THE Major Projects .............................................21 Studies .......................................................... 23 CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE ....................13 Resiliency ..................................................... 24 More Customer Engagement ...................14 Technology .................................................. 28 North Highland Report ..............................16 NJ TRANSIT CELEBRATING 40TH ANNIVERSARY! NJTRANSIT.com facebook.com/NJTRANSIT twitter.com/NJTRANSIT 2 2019 NJ TRANSIT Annual Report SAFETY & SECURITY ........................... 30 Rail Methodology .......................................46 Light Rail Methodology ............................48 FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE .............34 Bus Methodology ....................................... 50 COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT TEAM & SUSTAINABILITY .............................. 36 Board of Directors ..................................... 52 SCDRTAP .................................................... 39 Advisory Committees ............................... 56 Executive Management Team ..................57 APPENDIX A & B .................................. 42 ON-TIME PERFORMANCE FY2019 FINANCIAL REPORT ........... 59 By Mode .......................................................44 instagram.com/NJTRANSIT youtube.com/user/TheNewJerseyTransit 3 LETTER FROM PHIL MURPHY Make no mistake, NJ TRANSIT is moving in the right direction. Where last year saw new leadership – led by Transportation Commissioner and NJ TRANSIT Board Chair Diane Gutierrez- Scaccetti and President & CEO Kevin Corbett – begin the effort to undo the damages to a once-proud system after nearly a decade of mismanagement and neglect, 2019 saw the continuation of NJ TRANSIT’s rebirth. This rebirth began with an honest self-assessment of the agency, borne from my order to perform a comprehensive financial and operational audit of Governor, NJ TRANSIT. We did not await the results and State of New Jersey prognosis to improve the organization, as resources under this new leadership were invested to bring the agency back from the brink. As recommendations from the audit are being implemented, our administration has continued to build upon record funding levels, reformed the organizational Fund support for NJ TRANSIT, increasing the structure, built a greater federal and passenger rail State’s total operating subsidy to $457.5 million, partnership, promoted transit community the largest in state history. Of this new funding, $75 development, and sought an unparalleled level of million is replacing prior diversions and $75 million transparency on behalf of transit riders. represents new direct funding. As a result of this continued commitment, NJ TRANSIT was able to The problems that we continue to work hard to fix ensure that commuters did not see an increase in did not appear overnight, nor can they be cured fares for the second consecutive year. overnight. Just as they took eight long years to fully manifest, it will take our continued commitment to We remain committed to providing the fiscal proper funding, to recruiting top-tier talent, to resources NJ TRANSIT needs to restore its long- maintaining a strong customer-oriented vision, and term financial integrity. And, that NJ TRANSIT is to investing in the future of New Jersey’s mass focusing on a more streamlined and efficient transit to see NJ TRANSIT’s turnaround complete. corporate structure as the agency has implemented much-needed and long-overdue reforms, including For the current 2020 Fiscal Year, the budget I those required by the NJ TRANSIT reform bill that I signed included an additional $150 million in General signed into law in December 2018. 4 2019 NJ TRANSIT Annual Report Highlights of Customer Safety & Financial Comm. Dev. & On-Time Messages FY2019 Experience Security Performance Sustainability SCDRTAP Performance Team Of course, new funding means little if it isn’t Diane, Kevin, and I, and the thousands of proud invested in the workforce needed to make NJ TRANSIT employees, have all accepted the NJ TRANSIT’s system run safely and on-time. This challenge to turn NJ TRANSIT around from year, I was proud to join Diane and Kevin in where we found it, and to restore this as a welcoming the first of what will be more than 100 nationally recognized standard for mass transit. new railway engineers as they completed their Whether it is the work improving safety and classroom training. Having a full roster of certified performance, modernizing the agency, or engineers and bus operators means fewer promoting livable and walkable communities, annulments due to lack of staffing, and greater we’re really just getting started, and we are going rider confidence that trains and buses will arrive to continue to push forward. as scheduled. NJ TRANSIT is acting with a greater level of transparency, publicly releasing information related to cancellations and delays, as well as their root causes, so all of us – from policymakers to commuters – can see. While we continue to see improving on-time performance across NJ TRANSIT’s service network, we also recognize those numbers mean nothing to the commuter Phil Murphy whose train, bus, light rail car or access link Governor, State of New Jersey vehicle still runs late. These new metrics will allow for a greater pinpointing of resources. Across levels of government, we continue to work together to secure a stronger future. This year, we renewed our full partnership with Amtrak, and began to move forward on needed customer-focused improvements at New York Penn Station, and at numerous other commuter- rail stations. In Middlesex County, a new understanding with local authorities is allowing a long-stalled plan for the new North Brunswick Rail Station to move forward. And, alongside our Congressional delegation, we continue to make the case for a full federal partnership in the construction of the new Portal Bridge, a linchpin project for improving service throughout the entire Northeast Corridor. 5 LETTER FROM DIANE GUTIERREZ-SCACCETTI Fiscal Year 2019 was a year of progress for NJ TRANSIT. After nearly a decade of waste and neglect, we began the difficult process of rebuilding the customer experience for NJ TRANSIT riders. Serving under the leadership and direction of Governor Phil Murphy, we rolled up our sleeves and are implementing a corrective action plan, making meaningful changes that will pay dividends for NJ TRANSIT customers for years to come. One of the biggest challenges we faced when arriving in early-2018 was a critical shortage of frontline employees left by the previous administration. Those shortages had a dramatic impact on service delivery, making travel for our Commissioner, NJ Department of Transportation customers unpredictable and unacceptable. Thanks Chair, NJ TRANSIT to an aggressive recruiting campaign, we hired hundreds of bus operators and restarted important Meanwhile, on the rail side, we ordered 113 Multilevel training to increase the locomotive engineer ranks. III rail cars — new next-generation, self-propelled Other key positions have been filled that have put us trainsets that operate without locomotives. Each rail on a path to success. While we are experiencing car will feature the latest in customer amenities such incremental improvements in the area of service as USB charging ports, and visual and audio reliability, we still have more work to do to regain information systems. We also purchased 17 dual the confidence of our customers. mode locomotives, which offer more flexibility by operating under diesel or electric power. Our fleet modernization program will pay dividends for those customers. On the bus side, we continued We continue leveraging new technology to enhance receiving new 45-foot cruiser buses in FY2019, part the customer experience. The number of customers of a strategic multi-year order of 1,100 cruiser buses. who use the NJ TRANSIT Mobile app and MyTix The Board of Directors approved an order of 85 continued to grow in FY2019, with a 35 percent articulated buses that primarily operate in high- increase in mobile app downloads and 32 percent ridership, urban areas, replacing buses that are increase in MyTix accounts. We’re also seeing good more than 15 years old. We’re also in the process results from a pilot program using barcode and of purchasing electric buses and supporting contactless validators on buses that will eventually infrastructure for a pilot program in Camden. expand to more buses, light rail platforms and faregate-equipped rail stations. Meanwhile, Access 6 2019 NJ TRANSIT Annual Report Highlights of Customer Safety & Financial Comm. Dev. & On-Time Messages FY2019 Experience Security Performance Sustainability SCDRTAP Performance Team Link paratransit customers have a new webpage to