NJ Transit Responds

Yippee! I received a reply to my Friday afternoon telephone inquiry seeking to find out why no one bothered to collect fares on a rush hour train last week.

Dear Morgan,
We are replying to your feedback of 3/26/2010 regarding subject: Collection of fares.

I hear and appreciate your frustration and concerns. NJ TRANSIT is aware of reports regarding incidents where train fares and tickets have not been collected on some of our trains. The information you gave us has been incorporated into our on-going system-wide effort to investigate employees who are engaged in the behavior you have described. This has already yielded some positive results. Though crowded trains and other situations may sometimes prevent 100 percent fare collection, this does not excuse employees from making every attempt to perform their assigned duties. Those employees who refuse to comply with this directive, if caught, will face appropriate corrective action.


Details and results of this investigation are kept confidential so as to not compromise our efforts, and to honor contractual obligations with the employee unions.

Rest assured that NJ TRANSIT is taking action to address this issue.


Thank you for contacting NJ TRANSIT.

Sincerely,

Carmine Melillo
NJ TRANSIT Customer Relations Specialist

Okay, Carmine (since we are all friends and on a first-name basis now,) I really do appreciate the reply. But can you imagine for just one instant how ridiculous this situation would be if the agency in question were, say, Delta? Or even Amtrak? How is collecting fare ever an option, particularly for a cash-starved agency that already committed to cutting jobs and raising ticket prices? It is, in a word, unacceptable.

A lousy prep school headmaster (NOT Ted Lingenheld ♥)- once called me a "math paraplegic," but even with paralyzing dyscalculia, I can do this arithmetic: MORE PEOPLE ON THE TRAIN = MORE MONEY. Yet, NJ Transit seems to be okay with a really backwards formula: more people = less money because it's too difficult to get to everyone on a full or overly full train.

Huh?

Wouldn't you think that if you ran the operation you would make it a priority to to maximize your revenue from the really crowded trains? Wouldn't you consider those peak hour trains to be your cash cow? And wouldn't you do everything in your power to maximize your take? Or if the packed trains really constitute an impediment to efficient collection and quality service, can't conductors simply close up cars when they reach capacity? How will NJ Transit ever be prepared to address collection issues when they cut service and eliminate jobs? More people on fewer trains with less staff to inspect tickets? Does this make sense to anyone?

Assuming that it would be awkward and overly time consuming to collect tickets from people as they board a commuter train, I propose some sort of EZPass or an electronic swipe key that would read your ID and automatically deduct fare from a pre-paid account as you board. It cannot be so cost prohibitive to retrofit trains with an electronic eye, particularly when it would certainly result in a higher rate of collection.

Carmine, I don't envy you your job and I am sure that you're on overload going into this fare hike circus. Seriously - thank you for writing. And I hope you know that when I slam customer service at NJ Transit, I am not slamming you or the call center staff I spoke with who have been, without exception, patient and professional. It's the approach to customer service at NJ Transit that infuriates me - the idea that it's okay to slide here and there because you have a "system-wide effort" in place, or because, as one employee on your Facebook fan page suggests, you are the only game in town. (Who is that person, by the way? Does she understand she's not doing the NJ Transit brand any favors by being a smart aleck on Facebook?)

Listen, nothing would make me happier than to get off this rant and find something more cheerful to write about. Let's get some serious plans on the table to ensure NJ Transit explores every avenue to eliminate waste and inefficiencies before we let it sink its clammy hand into my pocket.