Posted: Tuesday, 09 March 2010 5:19AM
Federal Stimulus Dollars Boost NJ Transit Projects
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A few days after announcing a 25 percent fare hike and service cuts to each of its 11 lines, New Jersey Transit received Monday $52 million in federal economic stimulus funds as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The money is designated for work projects at the Pennsauken Transit Center and pedestrian and traffic improvements at Newark-Penn Station, as well as maintenance of more than 2,000 buses. In all, officials say, 4,000 jobs will be created. However, the infusion of cash won't do anything to roll back the fare increases and service cuts announced Friday.
At a news conference inside Newark-Penn Station's main waiting area, Senator Bob Menendez (D) said the money would help relieve some of the transit agency budget pressures while improving customer service.
"Obviously the Recovery Act, at the end of the day, is about getting our economy working again, having people have jobs, which this certainly creates, and doing so in a way that creates long-term economic development," Menendez said.
New Jersey Transit executive director James Weinstein said had it not been for past stimulus funds the agency's budget would have had a $150 million dollar hole this year. Next year NJT is facing a $300 million deficit, thus the fare hike and service cuts.
"This year -- in the current fiscal year -- we've used about $150 million in federal funds, some of it stimulus money, to offset rising costs in our operations," Weinstein said. "Those monies' helped us go another year without a fare increase."
There will be public hearings before the proposed fare increases and service cuts would go into effect May 1.
"No one wants to have fare increases. At the end of the day that depressed ridership," Menendez said.
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