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.

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?