New Jersey Transit’s Rush on Safety Work May Worsen Hellish Commute
- Months, maybe years of crowding amid braking-project scramble
- Hundreds of locomotives heading to sidelines for retrofitting
Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
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New Jersey Transit commuters who thought they’d escaped another summer of canceled trains may have celebrated prematurely. Soul-sucking misery could be around the bend.
The nation’s second-biggest commuter-rail operator is canceling trains for 2,000 riders as it struggles to outfit locomotives with automatic braking systems ordered by Congress. With just 13 percent of hardware installed, among the slowest progress by U.S. passenger railroads, NJ Transit won’t rule out more service cuts as federal officials press the agency to speed up the job.