Posted on 05/16/2025 2:19:32 AM PDT by Libloather
This ain’t your garden-variety travel headache.
New Jersey is on pace for a nightmare summer spanning planes, trains and automobiles — as sinkhole-ridden highways, persistent chaos at Newark Liberty International Airport and a likely transit strike threaten to upend travel plans at the worst possible time.
And there are no easy, or quick solutions in sight.
As the clock ticked down Thursday to the first NJ Transit rail strike in 40 years, one expert told The Post that efforts to remedy the labor dispute — which would see 350,000 daily riders stranded — are the lucrative contracts being handed out by the MTA just across the river.
But even if a last-minute deal is reached, the confluence of problems has made the Garden State ground zero for delays, traffic jams and flight cancelations — with the potential for even more in the pipeline.
Either way, Jersey commuters are having to build in more time to get into the city — and shell out even more money for tolls, cabs or parking.
“I don’t have the option to work from home,” said Lisa Monroe, 53, who takes NJ Transit trains into New York City five days a week.
Between tolls, congesting pricing and parking, she’ll have to pay $425 a week to get to work if the trains stop, she estimates — and she’s not sure she can afford it.
“Honestly, I don’t know what I’m going to do. It sounds like I’m going to be paying a lot of money,” she said.
Trouble on NJ Transit NJ Transit has suffered cascading problems in recent years, from an aging fleet of trains, chronic reliability issues, cost overruns and a more than $750 million budget hole.
The agency, which has proposed a $3.2 billion budget for fiscal year 2026, Friday morning.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Serves them well,
The electric train drivers should be replaced.
No big deal just look at them.
A real job would do them good.
And the replacements would raise the bar.
Spent my first 18 years there. Must’ve been in the good part. Hoagies and real Italian pizza. Even worked in a German bakery. Good times.
DOGEs fault
Perhaps if Dim Governor Murphy didn't flush so much $$ down the drain for windmills off the South Jersey coast, this state could've had 80 opened up by now. And the windmills boondoggle has now lost funding since Shell and Orsted have pulled out.
I guess I don’t need to ask why NJ is such a shathole.
At some point, bankruptcies are going to be the only way out of bloated union contracts, both current parolls and unfunded liabilities in the pension health insurance systems.
It won’t be limited to NJ Transit and similar subsidiary systems. Municipalities and states will follow.
It would be a shock, but it’s not the end of the world if retirees in a pension system that is 30 percent underfunded take a major haircut. They’ll still have richer pensions than most of the proles in the private sector. They’ll still have Medicare and can pay for their own Medigap coverage like the rest of us do. It’s long past time that public “servants” in states like NY, NJ, IL and CA rejoined the rest of America.
The important thing in the short run is that there be no federal bailouts. I’m not optimistic there. Trump just caved on the SALT deductions, and the MAGAbots on the Hill don’t have the backbone to hold the line there. Trump commands. They obey. Subsidize blue state democrat hellholes. MAGA!!!!
We’re doubling down on subsidizing the blue sinkhole because Trump is inclined to pander, and the political dynamics on public sector bailouts will be exactly the same. Just wait until the police, firefighters and teachers unions line up for their bailouts.
No bailouts. And then let’s keep focused on the replacement systems after bankruptcy. The bloated payrolls, bloated salaries, early retirement scams and insanely corrupt pension padding gimmicks have to end. The public sector in too many places is being run as a conspiracy against the public.
The schools should be privatized. There is no reason they can’t be run competitively. Police, fire protection, roads, rail transit, and water, sewer and electrical utilities involve natural monopoly situations and are more vulnerable to union extortion.
Does this mean folks in NJ may have to learn how to pump their own gas as well? The horror... They’ll never survive.
No reason to visit libtard NJ anyway.
I was there just once. Spent the night in the Newark airport. Any future vacation plans will not include NJ.
forced?
You people know morning about NJ. We are going to be just fine. Why? Cause we have Governor Phil Murphy and when it comes to these challenges, HE IS ON IT!!
Soon we will all be happy and declare joy.
“forced?”
If you want the trains to run...
These government entities run monopolies, with all the ensuing problems attached.
I guess I had better cancel my planned two month vacay to wonderful New Jersey.
LOL!
It’s easy to give Jersey crap, but take away Newark, Trenton, and half of Camden and it could be one of the prettiest states. It has the rolling hills, backwaters, and seashore.
EC
You must have lived here in South Jersey. North and South are like two different states.
I grew up in South Jersey (Haddon Township). The south is a suburb of Philly, and the north is a suburb of New York. Different food. Different attitudes.
You grew up in a nice town. I didn’t grow up here, but I raised my children in this area.
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