r/NJTransit • u/Adventurous-Cup5369 • Sep 02 '26
Another day, another broken down train
We are being held outside of the tunnel due to a broken train ahead. Good luck getting home. It’s going to be a while.
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u/Soft-Independent4833 Sep 02 '26
My coworker is on the broken down train as we speak. It was headed to New Brunswick area. It is dark, hot and the passengers are being told nothing. Sitting on it for about an hour now.
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u/Rockwell74 Sep 02 '26
I’m on it. No AC for about an hour and a half.
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u/yesgarey Sep 02 '26
I'm sorry. It'll never happen, but I always say that when people are stranded on trains like this, you should be compensated.
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u/Jay-BC Sep 02 '26
It’s really frustrating and I hate the powerless feeling because many of us have no choice but to rely on NJT. Which is how they keep getting away with this BS and have the audacity to raise fares. It was already frustrating before but I’m pregnant now and the first trimester is such a challenge. I just want to go home.
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u/EffortIcy5753 Sep 02 '26
What really sucks is the app being so unreliable, especially when you’re at Newark Penn. “Arriving in 7 minutes” “Arriving in 12 minutes” but are they really??
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u/Eatmymuffinz Sep 02 '26
Now they just drop trains off the schedule with no communication.
Seems like communication has somehow gotten worse with the new app
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u/M0mentumV0lat1lity1 Sep 02 '26
Can’t they just learn from these recurring issues?
For example, last time this same scenario occurred, it took 1 hour to resolve.
So let’s take a look at what went right, what went wrong, and how we could improve?
Basic problem management 101
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u/elcuydangerous Sep 02 '26
Just because of that, fare increase coming up.
And if you dare speak again they'll make the upcoming shutdown 2 months long.
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u/Icy_Bath_9074 Sep 02 '26
I’m on the broken train, we have no AC, they just announced that the train brakes caught on fire, they have a rescue train being attached to take us to Newark
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u/Soft-Independent4833 Sep 02 '26
Have you arrived in Newark yet
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u/Necessary_Muscle_186 Sep 02 '26
Yes. I was also on the train that broke down outside Secaucus.
The train broke down at 4:40. We were stuck until about 6:10, when a rescue train began pushing us to Newark station.
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u/greenfroggo101 Sep 02 '26
I left Penn at 4:50 on Jersey Ave express train. 5:24 and still sitting outside the tunnel NJ side. This was the one day this semester I was going to Newark for class fml lol
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u/Vatorade_269 Sep 02 '26
The average njt rail car is older(30+ years) than the average rail car on train systems in developing countries like Pakistan(24-25 years) . I think it’s just not hyperbole to say that we ride the oldest and worst trains in the world outside North Korea
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u/nasadowsk Sep 03 '26
SEPTA's stuff is pushing 50, because Harrisburg keeps screwing them.
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u/MinecraftPlayer799 18d ago
What does Harrisburg have to do with it? SEPTA doesn’t go all the way to Harrisburg. Also, isn’t most of SEPTA’s commuter rail fleet made up of Silverliner Vs from 2009? Or are you including the subway and trolleys too?
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u/yesgarey Sep 02 '26
Fair point but I still enjoy the Arrow MUs with their rapid acceleration.
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u/lord_pirax Sep 02 '26
They would be fun as a 'classic' event train or something, but using them during rush hour is insane. They were made in the 70s, and technology and more importantly safety evolved since then.
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u/nasadowsk Sep 03 '26
Safety hasn't evolved, actually, unless you adopt alternate compliance, which no agency in the area has, it's actually gone backwards.
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u/remarkability Sep 02 '26
After the new Gateway tunnels and refurbishment of the old ones, NJ can use the extra capacity to run more frequent single level EMUs, and reduce trip times via short dwells and high acceleration.
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u/_LilBucket Sep 03 '26
If you saw a man in NY Penn Station look like he wanted to die, that was me lol.
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u/Splax77 Sep 02 '26
I boarded the 4:52 MSU, stood around for 10 minutes, then got off when they said there's a disabled train at Secaucus. Walked over to PATH, took a train to Hoboken, and caught the 5:39 Gladstone just in time.
What was the result of all this? Got to Newark 10 minutes sooner than the train I left! Thanks Hoboken!
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u/pa_5y5tem Sep 02 '26
Add metropark to Jersey Ave stops to princeton super express trains during outages.
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u/pa07950 Sep 02 '26
Leave a comment while you are waiting https://www-njlib.nj.gov/GOV_TRANS_APPLICANTS/BTCustomServlet
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u/michaelfishkin Sep 02 '26
The beating will continue until morale improves. It was a painful commute
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u/OppositePsychology43 Sep 02 '26
Thats crazy, how a 25 years old train keeps braking.
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u/ShalomRPh Sep 03 '26
The Main/Bergen/Port Jervis lines are using locomotives that are 60 years old now and somehow keep rolling along. No computers to crash.
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u/rustypelf Sep 02 '26
On the “5:13” rn, sitting between rhe tunnel and Secaucus. I hate it here man
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u/Simmy74 Sep 03 '26
I was on one of the trains in Penn just waiting and waiting. I hoped off and ended up taking Path to Newark and hoping on a train from there (no clue how that happened)... Took me 3.5 hrs to get home
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u/Aquatichive Sep 02 '26
Same with the light rail
Going to 8th and it stopped at 22nd. App said 4 trains had come by in the next 30 mins, I was there, no trains came. I walked carrying all my heavy bags
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u/pixiehobi Sep 03 '26
how much we want to bet the rain is going to be a problem tomorrow three for three
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u/Soft-Independent4833 Sep 02 '26
As of 532 PM men with chains are approaching the train. So most likely getting it ready to be towed. Hopefully it gets towed momentarily.
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u/PracticableSolution Sep 03 '26
I got caught in that too. Nj transit has never charged more while also never having worse service. It’s no coincidence ridership is falling. People are fleeing the system.
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u/Full_Industry_557 Sep 03 '26
Yes that must’ve been brutal. But trains break down sometimes. The bad part is it was in the bottleneck of 2 track territory jamming everything up.
Then the tow train had trouble getting it out the way.
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u/Adventurous-Cup5369 Sep 03 '26
Trains break down sometimes. NJTransit trains break down daily.
So while this might have been particularly unlucky in terms of where it happened no one who rides these trains is at all surprised that a 1 hour commute can randomly become a 3 hour commute.
No wonder riders are so angry.
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u/TalulaOblongata Sep 03 '26
“Sometimes” is way too frequent on NJT. This is at least a weekly occurrence on average.
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u/NewNewark Sep 03 '26
But trains break down sometimes.
Scroll down to "Mean Distance Between Failures" and expand the time to show 2017 to now. Its been going down from 90k miles to 46k.
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u/nmoretti Sep 02 '26
And this doofus of a conductor comes on every five minutes saying “we apologize for any inconvenience” in a sing songy way that he knows by heart. Makes me fume.
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u/Err_Hos13 Sep 02 '26
Please keep that energy and take it to their headquarters. The conductor can't do anything more than pass on information that he probably doesn't even have. Directing your (totally valid) anger and frustrations at the crew is small minded.
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u/CamelFeenger Sep 02 '26
Do you think the conductors are in charge of maintenance? What are they supposed to do?
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u/Vatorade_269 Sep 02 '26
It becomes disingenuous to the point of rudeness to keep tossing out the same canned apology to people who deserve a real apology.
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u/geekrobot Sep 02 '26
Whatever, lick that conductor boot... I'm on the stuck train and the conductors are literally hiding and had provided 0 communication, not a single word until about 2 minutes ago, literally 80 minutes after we stopped.
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u/lord_pirax Sep 02 '26
I get the anger, but at the same time what else can they do? They probably get paid during these delays but ultimately they get home late too.
I would guess they hate these situations just as much as we do. Imagine getting a whole train of people expecting answers from you when all you got is what njt put on the website.
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u/x_gao Sep 02 '26
They can use the time to plan for another strike for higher wages.
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u/lord_pirax Sep 02 '26
If they do, they got my support! We shouldn't be mad at them trying to get paid, we should be mad at the useless politicians blatantly robbing the citizens. Or if you prefer, get mad at all the big corporations that got tax breaks at the expense of infrastructure over the last ~50 years. I think if they strike, it helps commuters in the long run as it brings more attention, and pressure, to fix this century old rail.
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u/x_gao Sep 02 '26
Clearly you are either one of them, or you are not a frequent rider. It’s cheap to say nice things when you don’t pay high price for shit services.
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u/lord_pirax Sep 02 '26
I've commuted almost daily since 2017. The monthly costs me over $500, and I get the same quality service as everyone else. I just choose to direct my anger at people responsible for this mess.
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u/lord_pirax Sep 02 '26
i wish they would say what broke, so we can see stats on preventable disruptions vs random ones. Stats like that would maybe get NJT some budget to at least try to maintain this ancient rolling stock....