NJ Transit To Raise Fares 15% On July 1

NEW JERSEY - NJ Transit commuters should be prepared to spend a bit extra this summer and beyond.

NJ Transit has proposed a 15 percent rate hike in its 2025 budget which, if approved in April, will take effect on July 1. Subsequent 3 percent increases are also proposed to take effect on July 1 of each year, officials said.

The increase would raise some commuting costs by more than $3 for a one-way ticket. For example, a one-way bus ticket from Toms River to New York City will increase from $21.25 to $24.40 under the hikes; from Princeton to New York City via train, the increase will go from $16 to $18.40.

The new rates would also impact light rail and river LINE modes of travel. You can view the proposed fares here.

"This proposed fare adjustment, along with NJ TRANSIT’s internal efficiencies, savings and revenue enhancements would allow for a fully funded FY25 operating budget that avoids reducing service levels," NJ Transit said in a statement posted to its website.

The proposed rate increases are NJ Transit's first since 2015, the public transit provider said, and come as a result of low pandemic-related ridership that has cost NJ Transit $2 billion in revenue to date. The end of its COVID-19 relief funding in 2025 marks additional budgetary concerns after a $119 million budget deficit identified last year, officials said.

But despite $44 million in cost reductions by offsetting "mandatory, non-discretionary cost escalations," a $106.6 million budget gap remains.

"Included in the FY25 revenue enhancements are the proposed conclusion of the FLEXPASS pilot and the implementation of 30-day expiration dates on all one-way tickets," NJ Transit added. "Internal savings and revenue enhancements alone, however, are not sufficient to eliminate this budget gap."

The public transit provider also cited $30 million in operational costs, contractual wage increases for unionized employees, skyrocketing healthcare costs, and inflation impacting pricing for fuel and materials as reasons for the fare hikes.

Nearly a dozen public hearings from Bergen to Atlantic counties will take place March 4 to 8; public comments can also be submitted to [email protected] through March 8.

Unsurprisingly, several Republican lawmakers were quick to blast the proposal, with Assemblyman Christopher DePhillips (NJ-40) blaming the Murphy administration for laying the track work for the proposed fare hikes.

“After years of taking credit for no fare hikes, the Murphy administration is not only raising fees, but also making up for lost time,” said DePhillips, a member of the Assembly Transportation Committee and the GOP conference leader.

“A better approach is to find ways to restructure the agency for cost savings before raising fare hikes,” he argued. “Instead, [the Murphy] administration nibbles around the edges, leases an unaffordable new NJ Transit headquarters from a friend, and raises ticket prices.”

Other critics, like Assemblyman Christian Barranco (NJ-25) - another member of the Assembly Transportation Committee - argued Democratic lawmakers are “keeping the failing agency afloat” using federal COVID-19 relief funds and other dedicated state agency funds.

“Democrats were warned for years, and now the rate hikes are here, and all they can do is put out statements of faux-outrage over where we find ourselves not-so-suddenly,” Barranco said. “It’s too little, too late for the people struggling to make ends meet."

But it's not just Republicans blasting the potential fare hikes.

Over the past year, several advocacy groups in New Jersey have called for the state to extend a business tax they say could be used to bridge NJ Transit’s funding gap and keep more money in riders’ pockets.

That tax – the corporate business tax – expired on Dec. 31, despite last-gasp efforts to pass a law to keep it intact. Related: Controversial NJ Business Tax May Survive If New Bill Becomes Law

“Forcing riders to foot the bill and relying on farebox revenue to bridge the financial gap is not just inequitable, it’s bad policy,” New Jersey Policy Perspective policy analyst Alex Ambrose said.

According to Ambrose, policymakers “chose corporations over New Jersey’s working families” when they “gave ultra-wealthy businesses like Amazon and Walmart a $1 billion tax cut” by refusing to extend the corporate surcharge tax.

Eric Benson, a campaign director with For The Many NJ (a statewide coalition of dozens of public advocacy groups) also suggested raising taxes on “the wealthy and powerful” to make up for the looming shortfall.

“Fare hikes on everyday New Jerseyans does nothing to make the state more affordable and shows why we need to have fair sustainable revenue like the corporation business tax surtax,” Benson said.

“While big corporations are getting $1 billion in tax cuts, New Jersey's leaders have no plan to fill budget holes and instead are throwing the costs to working families.”

-With reporting by Eric Kiefer.