What to Know
- Gov. Murphy said Wednesday there would be no NJ Transit fare hike in 2018
- It would have been the third fare hike since 2010; the last fare hike came in 2015, when riders faced a 9 percent jump
- Riders had been bracing for potential fare hikes since the cash-strapped agency lost $25 million during Amtrak's "summer of hell"
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy declared Wednesday that a fare hike for NJ Transit in 2018 is "off the table," music to the ears of commuters who already pay some of the highest mass transit rates in America.
Murphy made the announcement at an NJ Transit board meeting in Newark.
Riders had been bracing for potential fare hikes since the cash-strapped agency lost $25 million during Amtrak's "summer of hell" of Penn Station repairs last year, NJ.com previously reported. NJ Transit has also faced declines in ridership.
In November, NJ.com reported Murphy had the ability to save commuters from the third fare hike since 2010 by stabilizing funding.
Fares make up about half NJ Transit's operating budget, that report said. And the agency has made less fare revenue than it predicted since 2015, which officials blamed partly on low gas prices that made it less expensive to drive.
The last fare hike came in 2015, when riders faced a 9 percent jump. Five years earlier, NJ Transit hiked fares by up to 25 percent except for in-state bus riders and got rid of off-peak discounts.
