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It may not be Disney World, but NJ’s monorail isn’t so bad

Gov. Phil Murphy this week told the Port Authority that the agency needs to either spend $400 million to keep the Air Train monorail open for another 10 years or spend $2 million to replace it.

News 12 Staff

Jan 26, 2019, 1:12 AM

Updated 2,156 days ago

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Gov. Phil Murphy this week told the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey that the agency needs to either spend $400 million to keep Newark Liberty International Airport’s Air Train monorail open for another 10 years or spend $2 million to replace the entire thing.
Murphy took the monorail to his press conference and said that issues with the train delayed its start.
“We are a small number of the more than 11 million passengers that ride it per year and it is the reason we're late this morning,” the governor said.
Murphy said that the monorail is aging and at its breaking point – but the monorail system was built in 1996 – barely 25 years old. Should it be at a breaking point already?
News 12’s Brian Donohue took his own ride on the Air Train to get some perspective. He says that if the monorail at Walt Disney World in Florida can last nearly 50 years, surely the Newark one can.
Donohue spoke to a number of riders, who all said that they haven’t seen any noticeable issues with the monorail at the airport. He says that it’s possible that the governor had some bad luck on the monorail, or he and his fellow passengers had some good luck.
Donohue says that in his opinion, either the Port Authority screwed up by building a disposable railroad that was going to be defunct in 25 years or they screwed up by not maintaining it.
The Disney World Monorail has had major repairs and upgrades over the years and officials there are currently considering another major $250 million upgrade for maintenance.