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    NJ Transit Riders to Get a Fare Holiday After Summer of Delays

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    After a spate of breakdowns that caused long delays, an unscheduled “fare holiday” on the statewide transit network will start on Aug. 26.After struggling to provide reliable service to commuters this spring and summer, New Jersey Transit is giving its customers free rides for a week, Gov. Philip D. Murphy announced on Thursday.The unusual “fare holiday” on all modes of the agency’s statewide transit network, which will run from Aug. 26 through Sept. 2, comes less than two months after New Jersey Transit raised all of its fares by 15 percent. The increase received heavy criticism from customers and elected officials.Mr. Murphy and state transportation officials argued that the fare increase was necessary to close a gap of more than $100 million in the agency’s budget. Additional annual increases of 3 percent are scheduled.Mr. Murphy, a Democrat, said in a statement that the fare holiday was a “thank you” to the agency’s loyal customers for enduring a period when “transit service has not consistently met their expectations — or our own.”During an appearance on “Good Day New York” on Fox 5 New York, the governor said, more plainly: “It’s been a really ugly summer. I think June was one of the worst months we’ve had.”Critics immediately took to social media to carp about the choice of the week leading up to Labor Day, a time when many commuters are on vacation.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Googly-Eyed Trains Lift the Spirits of Boston Riders

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      Organizers of a plan to adorn some trains with googly eyes said that if the trains could not be reliable, they could at least make commuters smile.Demonstrators marched to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s Boston headquarters in April with a single, deeply researched demand.Put googly eyes on some trains, they said. Two months later, their demands have been met — at least until the decals wear off.The campaign was organized by two recent college graduates who cast the effort as an attempt to improve commuters’ spirits and promote empathy for the metal contraptions that transport them.“When T trains are delayed, people can at least look into the eyes of the train when it finally arrives, and feel some love and understanding in their hearts,” the organizers wrote before the march to the Transportation Authority’s headquarters.“The T doesn’t want to be late,” they wrote. “It feels bad being late.”The organizers said the Transportation Authority also had “a responsibility to improve the lives of Bostonians.”If the city’s trains can’t be reliable, they wrote, at least they could bring a smile to riders. The system averages about 766,000 riders on weekdays.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      New Jersey Transit Service Disrupted for Third Time in Less Than a Week

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      Rush-hour commuters at Penn Station faced a shutdown of close to an hour, followed by extensive delays, after Amtrak investigated a report of a problem with overhead wires.New Jersey Transit service was disrupted once again on Monday evening, with travel suspended in and out of Pennsylvania Station for nearly an hour because of a report of a problem with Amtrak overhead wires in one of the Hudson River tunnels.Service was suspended at 6:37 p.m. and resumed shortly before 7:30 p.m., but trains were still subject to delays of up to 60 minutes, a New Jersey Transit spokesman said.It was at least the fifth disruption for New Jersey commuters in the last two months, and the third in less than a week. Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains share the portion of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor between New York City and Trenton, N.J., so issues with Amtrak tracks or wires immediately affect New Jersey Transit service.Trains were held in place for about 25 minutes, or in some cases pulled back to Penn Station, according to a New Jersey Transit customer service representative.An Amtrak spokesman said service had been suspended as a precautionary measure after a report of trouble with the overhead wires that provide the electricity that powers trains moving in and out of Penn Station. The inspection turned up no problems, he said, so service resumed after about half an hour.During the shutdown, trains were diverted to Hoboken, N.J., and New Jersey Transit rail tickets were accepted for rides by private bus companies and PATH trains in Newark, Hoboken, N.J., and Midtown Manhattan.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Euro 2024 Tournament Runs Smoothly in Germany, but the Trains Do Not

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      Sweltering train cars, frequent delays and regular cancellations: At the Euro 2024 men’s soccer tournament, Germany’s faltering rail system emerges as a tough opponent.Niclas Füllkrug arrived early at the Adidas campus just outside Herzogenaurach, a picture-postcard town in Bavaria that was to host the German national team before this summer’s European soccer championships. The staff had been told that players would start arriving on a Monday morning, a few days before their opening game. But Füllkrug, one of the team’s forwards, turned up on Sunday night.He had decided to make the 300-mile journey from his home in Hanover by high-speed train on Germany’s national railway carrier, Deutsche Bahn. The company was not just one of the tournament’s sponsors; it was also supposed to be a standard-bearer of the event’s ecological credentials.But years of failure to invest in rolling stock, upgrade railways and digitalize signal boxes have made Deutsche Bahn notorious for delays and cancellations. In a country that has long prided itself on its efficiency and punctuality, Germans — as well as fans — had been warning for months that the problems might mar the tournament.So Füllkrug was hardly surprised when he found himself crammed into a train car packed with high school students on a class trip. He spent the journey fielding their questions about life with the national team.By the time he made it to Herzogenaurach, he had been traveling for several hours longer than expected, hardly ideal preparation for an elite athlete on the eve of a major tournament. Still, the delays had at least vindicated his decision to build in extra time. In Germany, as Füllkrug said, it pays to “have a bit of respect for Deutsche Bahn.”Many of the hundreds of thousands of fans from across Europe — as well as a remarkable number from the United States — who have joined him in Germany will, after an often fraught opening week, doubtless understand what he means.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      NJ Transit Disrupted for Many by Disabled Train at Penn Station

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      New Jersey Transit service into and out of the Midtown Manhattan transit hub was suspended and commuters were rerouted to buses and the PATH train. Amtrak reported 90-minute delays.New Jersey Transit service into and out of New York’s Pennsylvania Station was suspended Tuesday morning for about an hour and all Amtrak trains passing through the station were delayed because of overhead wire issues and a disabled commuter train on the tracks, train officials said.Service for New Jersey Transit was restored shortly after 9 a.m., but riders heading to and from Penn Station were still experiencing lengthy delays. Officials had diverted trains bound for Manhattan to Hoboken, N.J., and directed travelers to take the PATH train or buses instead. The station in Hoboken quickly became overcrowded, according to pictures posted on social media, as commuters tried to make their way to work.The disruption ruined the morning commute for thousands of New Jersey residents as the delays rippled out along the various rail lines in the state. Some riders reported being stranded at stations, waiting more than 45 minutes for their trains to arrive.The problems on Tuesday came on the heels of major rush-hour delays at Penn Station earlier this month, caused by an inspection of tracks owned by Amtrak. Service was significantly delayed for more than an hour.Service was also disrupted in May when an overhead wire used for traffic signals fell and struck a cable in Kearny, N.J., that provides electrical power to trains on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor. Trains were halted on Amtrak and New Jersey Transit in both directions between Penn Station and Newark, and delays stretched to more than four hours.On Tuesday, frustrated commuters used social media to complain about the delays, ask for updates and request refunds.“Without a doubt, delays are frustrating for everyone involved, including us,” Amtrak Northeast wrote in response to one post. “Regarding compensation, your full trip must be completed before we can take this into consideration.” More

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      Judge Orders Rail Operator to Pay $400 Million to Tribe for Trespassing

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      BNSF Railway broke its agreement with the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community when it ran hundreds of train cars a week containing crude oil through the tribe’s land in Washington State, according to a federal judge.A judge has ordered a railway company to pay nearly $400 million for trespassing on Native American land by far exceeding the number of train cars carrying crude oil that it was allowed to run through a tribe’s land, according to documents filed Monday in federal court in Washington State.According to the documents, filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle, the company, BNSF Railway — which operates one of the largest railroad networks in North America — committed “willful, conscious and knowing trespass” when it ran several 100-car trains carrying crude oil every week through the Swinomish Reservation, which spans about 15 square miles on Fidalgo Island in the western part of the state.Under an agreement between the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community and the rail company, one eastern-bound train, and one western-bound train, of 25 cars or less, were allowed to pass through the tribe’s land each day. But from September 2012 to May 2021, BNSF exceeded that allowance, with at least six 100-car trains traveling in each direction per week, according to a 2015 lawsuit filed by the tribe.Each week, the trains passed through the far north end of the tribe’s land, near a casino, gas station, convenience store and R.V. park, lawyers for the tribe said in the suit. They noted that crude oil, notoriously dangerous cargo, had resulted in derailments, deadly explosions and spills, as well as environmental contamination. BNSF ignored repeated demands by the tribe to cease its “unauthorized use,” according to the suit, and said it would continue running the same number of trains through Swinomish land. In a trial earlier this month, it was determined that the rail company had “breached the contractual obligations” of its agreement with the tribe, and that it should be stripped of the net profits gained through its unauthorized use of Swinomish land, Judge Robert S. Lasnik said in court documents that were filed Monday.In an email on Monday, BNSF refused to comment on the case, and lawyers representing the company did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Steve Edwards, the chairman of the tribe, said in a statement on Monday that the group was thankful that Judge Lasnik had ruled in its favor. He noted that the large sum the judge had ordered the rail company to pay reflected the “enormous wrongful profits that BNSF gained by using the tribe’s land day after day, week after week, year after year over our objections.”“This land is what we have,” Mr. Edwards said. “We have always protected it, and we always will.” More

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      Rush-Hour Delays Again Hit New Jersey Transit Commuters

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      A track inspection held up travelers for more than an hour, two weeks after a suspension of service stopped all Amtrak trains into New York’s Penn Station.Another round of delays at New York’s Pennsylvania Station on Wednesday night gave commuters flashbacks to the meltdown two weeks ago, when fallen electrical wires in New Jersey forced Amtrak to suspend train service on the entire Northeast Corridor between New York and Washington for most of the night.Wait times this time around were not as severe. Trains leaving Penn Station for New Jersey faced 45-minute delays starting at 5:16 p.m. because of an inspection of tracks owned by Amtrak in Secaucus, N.J., according to an Amtrak spokesman.Large crowds gathered inside the station after 6 p.m., as at least 10 New Jersey Transit trains were unable to depart on time. Only one Amtrak train was delayed by 33 minutes, said Jason Abrams, an Amtrak spokesman. The track inspection was complete by 6:25 p.m., Mr. Abrams said, and service began to return to normal.The delays are an “ongoing issue,” said Antonio Shaw, 33, who arrived at Penn Station at 5:45 p.m. for a train to Rahway, N.J. “It’s frustrating as a commuter,” he said.The Northeast Corridor is the busiest section of passenger rail track in the United States. The section between Newark, N.J., and New York includes some of the nation’s oldest train infrastructure, including rail yards in Kearny, N.J., and a pair of tunnels under the Hudson River, which were built to service the original Pennsylvania Station in New York, which opened in 1910.Parts of the line are failing. In 2014, Amtrak said it would be forced to close at least one of the tunnels by 2034 because of damage caused by age and chemicals left behind by floods from Hurricane Sandy in 2012.At least in part because of that aging infrastructure, commuters who rely the most on train lines using the Northeast Corridor face the most frequent delays. New Jersey Transit lines that don’t use the corridor, including the Main-Bergen and Pascack Valley Lines, arrive at their destinations on time more than 95 percent of the time, according to the agency.The New Jersey Transit line from New York to Trenton, N.J., follows the Northeast Corridor the entire way. It has the agency’s second-worst performance, with 86.6 percent of its trains arriving on time.At Penn Station on Wednesday evening, commuters said they were growing tired of trains running late.“It has been insane the past six weeks,” said Annika McTamaney, 23, a New Jersey resident who canceled a date on Wednesday because of the delays.Aimee Ortiz More

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      Activist Ancora Wins Three Norfolk Southern Board Seats but Will Not Oust CEO

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      An activist investment firm failed to replace the railroad’s top executive and all its directors, but did win three seats on its board.Shareholders of Norfolk Southern, the beleaguered freight railroad, on Thursday voted down an attempt by an activist investment firm to remove the company’s chief executive and take control of its board.But the activist, Ancora, a Cleveland firm, managed to secure a foothold at the company, after shareholders voted to place three of its directors onto Norfolk Southern’s 13-member board. Ancora had hoped to take control of the company’s leadership with an aim to cut costs and increase Norfolk Southern’s profits and stock price.The result is a partial victory for Norfolk Southern’s executives, who had to defend themselves against criticisms of the company’s safety record and its lackluster financial performance. A company train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed last year in East Palestine, Ohio, forcing residents to evacuate.The results of the shareholder vote, which are preliminary, were announced Thursday morning at a virtual company annual meeting.During the meeting, Alan Shaw, Norfolk Southern’s chief executive, said he looked forward to working with the new directors.“Norfolk Southern persevered through several challenges over the last year,” he said, “We have met every challenge and never lost sight of where we are taking our powerful franchise.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      U.S. Charges 8 in Beer Heists That Targeted Trains and Warehouses

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      The men stole hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of beer, mostly Modelo and Corona, by robbing rail yards and warehouses across the Northeast, federal prosecutors said.Eight Bronx men were charged on Wednesday with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of beer, mostly Modelo and Corona imported from Mexico, by robbing train yards and warehouses in dozens of thefts across the Northeast over the past two years.An indictment unsealed by federal prosecutors in Manhattan accuses Jose Cesari as being the mastermind of what it describes as the “Beer Theft Enterprise” and says he recruited other participants in the brazen heists via Instagram posts.In one post, the indictment says, Mr. Cesari wrote, “Need workers who want to make money.” The post had a “Yes” or “No” button, a moneybag emoji and a railroad track in the background, the indictment says. In another, the indictment says, he offered a “guarantee” that those he hired would “make 100k+ in a month” by following the “beer train method.”Mr. Cesari, 27, who was at large on Wednesday, was charged with conspiracy to steal from interstate or foreign shipments by carrier and six other counts. The seven others face the same conspiracy charge, and several were also charged with other crimes.Those charged as Mr. Cesari’s co-defendants are Kemar Bonitto, 38; Justin Bruno, 23; Miguel Cintron, 32; Antonio Gonzalez, 33; Luis Izquierdo, 40; Wakeim Johnson, 31; and Deylin Martinez-Guerrero, 28.“Today’s arrests reinforce that the Beer Theft Enterprise’s staggering thefts will not be tolerated,” Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More