Tom Krosnowski

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Sep 28, 2026, 6:30 AM

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Updated

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New Jersey Transit's monthly train on-time percentage hit its lowest point in six years in June 2024 - 83.2%. That began what was known as the "Summer of Hell." Since then, the summer months have fared better. This summer, the average on-time percentage during June, July and August was 88.2%.

Is that enough for the customers that continue to pay higher fares?

"I don't see no improvements. Same thing," said rider Ben, of North Plainfield. "I could see if they did upgrades and all this fancy stuff, but I don't see nothing to call home to mom about."

"There were a lot of advisories after storms and things like that," said rider Iris, of Belleville.

This summer, the category NJ Transit calls "unpreventable," which includes weather-related issues, caused the most cancellations.

"The Morris-Essex line in particular, every time a huge storm went through, multiple trees were down, and they took down catenary systems," said NJ Transit president and CEO Kris Kolluri. "In some cases, that shut down the system for a couple of days. We are certainly working with our research institutions to see if there is anything we can do to climate-proof."

Mechanical failures were another leading cause of cancellations.

"NJ Transit in 2020 was traveling about 90,000 miles before breaking down, and that got down to 55,000 in 2024," said Danielle Zanzalari, the author of an NJ Transit performance report for the non-partisan think tank Garden State Initiative. "That is seven times worse than the Metro-North Railroad."

The report finds the agency's budget has increased by 46% since 2020.

"Where is 15-20% of that budget going, and why aren't we seeing a 15-20% increase in performance?" asked Zanzalari.

"This does not mean, by the way, that I don't understand or acknowledge the price people are paying to use the system," said Kolluri. "What I can say is the fact that we have gotten brand-new buses coming into the system. We are getting trains that will be coming into the system in December or January, and we now have a full roster of train operators."

That new fleet will be fully operational by 2031 at a cost of $3 billion, with a promise to improve reliability.