Welcome Back to Me

It's been a long time. Frankly, the whole fare hike business did me in; I was drained and tired of being obnoxious. Fortunately, I was able to persuade my employer to allow me to work at home two days a week to offset the considerable impact of the fare increase. You cannot imagine how that arrangement has enhanced the quality of my life. It effectively puts $52 a week back into my pocket, not to mention, the laundry is being done, mail is being opened and read in a timely way and I can have a full-on dinner prepared and served before nightfall - all while meeting deadlines and making things happen at work.

So without the hassle of a five-day-a-week commute and the full burden of that expense, I have mellowed out somewhat and only rage occasionally at the bad manners and bad hygiene of some fellow riders.

My current peeve actually has nothing to do with NJ Transit. At the moment, I am concentrating my wrath on people who don't follow escalator rules. We leave the left side free for passing, folks. If you want to stand there and take in the view as we descend into the bowels of Penn Station, be my guest - but do it from over there because I am going to make the 6:13 express by the skin of my teeth ONLY if you MOVE OVER and let me fly down past you. You would think most people would understand the concept of "rush hour." It's not "dawdle hour." I am mad tired and I want to get home - sooner as opposed to later. So when you commandeer the left side of the escalator when I need to be down at my track, and when you don't respond to "pardon me," you need to be prepared for me to cop a little attitude 'atcha.

I am trying to be a warmer, gentler commuter. Even though it's stinkin' hot, the summertime commute is infinitely more pleasurable than it was over the winter. There are more highly attractive people out and about I am just grateful to be working in a terrible economy.

Hopefully, I will be compelled to write about the more pleasant aspects of the commuting experience in the weeks ahead. Be patient as I adopt my new mindset. It is a struggle for me to surrender my curmudgeonly ways...

A Reply to Deb's Comments

Did you serious riders/readers have an opportunity to read Deb's comments on my recent post? Thanks for that, Deb - I think you nailed it. Indeed - last night's delays and lack of communication about train status were a PR nightmare for NJ Transit, although I assume that with budget and service cuts, this is only a preview of what's to come: more lines and equipment down, fewer individuals to service and maintain them, fewer trains overall and more irate riders.

Gonna be a hootnanny!

Listen, as for the hearing, I give you a TON of credit for going. I know your remarks were measured, accurate and well delivered. But you also had to know going into it that NJ Transit was just going through the motions, right? I mean, the "leak" of a memo projecting a 30% increase was likely designed to shock us into accepting a 25% increase (by their hillbilly calculations) was a gift.

If they were really people-focused and heard the valid concerns their riders, they would not have only offered a break to bus and light rail riders, they would have rolled back the hike on train fares as well, wouldn't you think?

So, although I am generally not a conspiracy theorist, (and have limited tolerance for those who are,)as a PR hack myself, I do appreciate masterful manipulation of the masses. And that, my friends, is what happened. Because even though we are all threatening to drive or quit our jobs or hire rickshaws - honestly now - most of us are still going to line up on April 20 to get our May passes just like steer queue up right before they end up on a McBun.

Am I right?

Read it and Weep

This link was forwarded by NJ Transit in an e-mail that did not offer a reply option. I am sick to my stomach.

The Morning After

Today, of course I am in the car with the conductor I chased down after yesterday's free ride. He didn't cop an attitude with me, so he gets points. I should also point out he checked my pass before we even left Jersey Avenue.

Riding The NJ Transit Gravy Train

Carmine,

Whatever action was being taken to address my last complaint apparently did not stick. This morning on the NEC 8:17, I rode from Jersey Avenue all the way past Newark Penn Station before tickets were collected. I actually stopped a conductor when we got off the train to ask him why no one looked at my ticket until after Newark. He didn't know. Of course, he didn't know. And he didn't want to talk about it either.

So NOW what are you going to do?

How can you allow train after train to ferry people for free on such a regular basis? Why in the world do you not have a strategy in place to collect fares from each and every passenger AS THEY BOARD?

It's really just too easy for you to reach into my pocket. I don't like it and I really don't think that you are even really trying.

So, how do you like that? On the very day NJ Transit voted to increase fares, another trainload of rush hour commuters rode from Jersey Avenue past Newark Penn Station for free, free, free.

When we arrived at New York Penn - late, by the way - I confronted a conductor to ask which car the card game is in so I can join him tomorrow morning. He got that deer in the headlights look and I watched the cogs come to life and begin to turn the wheels in his head while he figured out this was heading nowhere good, and that he should am-scray before I got wise and checked his breast pocket where his name is embroidered. (Embroidered!) Needless to say, I was so transfixed by watching him figuring out how to deal with me, I actually did forget to grab his name. (He was one of those people who process with their whole being; his physical bearing changed as he took hold of himself. I was really fascinated by that and it did pull me off my game just a little.) Not that it matters. I wouldn't really want to single out one guy when he's not the only one futzing around.

Being a train conductor is not a job I would want necessarily, but you have to agree it's a pretty decent gig. You have a union behind you that negotiates your way out of doing unpleasant things like - say - wresting puking Ranger fans from their seats, or mopping up the hotdog-popcorn-Budweiser-Jägermeister vomit that winds and sloshes on the floor under the seats to where my tan suede loafer-clad feet happened to be planted unsuspectingly. Collecting fares and sticking to a schedule also seem to be tasks the union smartly assigned to the "Optional" category.

Well, I'm pretty well resigned to the fact that my commute will be jacked to $400+ a month and I will be the beneficiary of even fewer amenities and pleasantries on NJ Transit. So with that said, I better get back to work because I am going to need this job to pay for the privilege of getting here late and irritated five days a week.

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.

Thanks for Nuthin'

In typical but ever-so-frustrating fashion, NJ Transit is deferring complaints to an online form. So basically, I had a live human being on the phone who told me she could not accept my complaint. Now, hear me when I tell you the lady on the phone was very nice and professional to the extent that call-center operators can be. I mean to say that generally, folks in call centers have very little authority or discretion to make whole people who are dissatisfied. They follow a script and they follow direction unless you ratchet your complaint up to the level of a supervisor. Clearly, the direction she received was to send any fare-related issues to a highly impersonal, dialogue-deficient channel that is on the NJ Transit website. She did listen to me for a while, though -- that is, before she told me to go to the website. And I have to tell you, she was genuinely perplexed about why last night's free ride from New York would irritate me. Free is good, no? NO! Because it's not free!

But I digress. Here is what I had to say to NJ Transit about last night's junket:

A live human at your customer service call center directed me to this site. For the record, it should be the other way around. Authentic customer service is personal -- it engenders relationships. Writing on a form makes me feel like I am wasting my time. (And I have no reason to believe otherwise... given that these comments are not posted publicly -- where do they go? What happens to them? Who reads them? Will I hear from someone? Will that person be someone in authority?) You cannot call this 'customer service' when the customer is doing all the work and all the talking. Something more apposite would be 'customer disregard.'

Anyway, my issue: Last night, I rode the 5:54 from NY Penn all the way to Jersey Avenue and not a single fare was collected from anyone on that train. If NJ Transit is so strapped for revenue that it is proposing a double-digit fare increase, how is it that people on a very full rush hour train can ride the entire length of a route and not be asked for tickets?

How in the world can you justify taking more money from me when you have operational inefficiencies that allow hundreds of fares to go uncollected? Isn't this your primary and most consistent revenue stream? People who buy your tickets to ride from Point A to Point B? At least twice a week, I see how folks riding to Newark and Secaucus get on and off without having their fares collected. It's like a game - a game those of us father down the line have to finance.

I have put up with late trains, trains with doors that don't close, trains with conductors who make announcements starting with "you people...", post-hockey game trains with people so loaded they vomit on the seats and on the floor, and trains so overcrowded that I stand for more than half of the ride, even though your conductors can clearly see I am wearing a cast on my foot.

For the increases you are proposing, it is only slightly more expensive for me to drive to New York every day. Given the fact that I will arrive on time and will not run the risk of vomit on my shoes, I think that will indeed be my preference over paying higher fares for the minimal to mediocre service currently being offered by NJ Transit.

If you are prepared to address your current inefficiencies and answer to the fact that people routinely ride without being charged, I would love to know about it.

Also, you should know that I called customer service as soon as I got off the train last night. The auto-operator told me my wait would be less than five minutes. It was in fact, 43 minutes when I finally gave up. How would you read this situation if you were in my seat?

And here is the response I received back from NJ Transit, which basically confirms that there is to be no dialogue, no acknowledgement and ultimately, no accountability:

Dear Morgan,

Thank you for your feedback. Your comments have been received and will be entered into the public record. You will not receive a further response to this submission.

If you wish to comment on an issue other than the fare/service proposal, please click here to contact NJ TRANSIT Customer Service.

Sincerely,
NJ TRANSIT

Nothing like a form letter to cultivate the alignment and engagement of your customer base, eh?