TRENTON – Governor Murphy today announced a transit fare holiday for all customers from August 26 through September 2, 2024. During this period, fares will be waived for all modes of transportation, offering free rides across the NJ TRANSIT network as a “Thank You” to the hundreds of thousands of loyal customers who depend on public transit.

Monthly pass holders who have already purchased an August pass, which covers travel through the end of the month, will automatically receive a 25% discount on their September monthly pass purchase through the mobile app, at Ticket Vending Machines (TVMs), or ticket windows.

The fare holiday is a way to express the sincere appreciation for customers’ continued loyalty and patronage, particularly during a time when transit service has not consistently met their expectations—or our own. NJ TRANSIT recognizes the impacts these service issues have had over the past few months and remains committed to improving the travel experience for transit customers.

“Understanding that our commuters have faced many disruptions this summer, we are providing a one week fare holiday for NJ TRANSIT riders,” said Governor Murphy. “As we work diligently with Amtrak to investigate and address the issues that have occurred this summer, especially on the Northeast Corridor, we hope this fare holiday offers our commuters some relief.  We also encourage New Jerseyans to take advantage of this opportunity, and we continue to be thankful to the many New Jerseyans who depend on public transit.”

Many of the recent service disruptions have occurred on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor (NEC). NJ TRANSIT has been working tirelessly advancing the joint plan with Amtrak announced immediately following Governor Murphy’s meeting with NJ TRANSIT and Amtrak leadership on June 27, 2024, to improve service on this critical rail line – the busiest corridor in the country. While the root causes of these incidents have not yet been identified, significant short-term actions have already been taken and there has been noteworthy progress. NJ TRANSIT personnel have increased equipment inspections on platforms, while Amtrak has stepped up its efforts in inspecting and repairing their catenary (overhead wire), track signal systems, and substations along the NEC. These collaborative efforts have already led to a noticeable decrease in infrastructure-related incidents.

Additional longer-term actions to address state-of-good-repair of Amtrak infrastructure include adding resources to increase testing of transformers in substations and evaluating opportunities to expand work windows with service adjustments to accelerate repairs and upgrades. In addition, NJ TRANSIT is working with Amtrak to support overall capital renewal by pursuing additional grants to expedite the replacement of catenary, substations, and transmission and signal lines, through the Fed-State Partnership Grant Program.

NJ TRANSIT also recognizes that the River LINE light rail service has not been meeting its performance standards over the last several weeks. NJ TRANSIT implemented a supplemental bus plan earlier this week as an interim measure to improve service reliability and predictability for customers traveling on weekdays. At the same time, we are holding NJ TRANSIT’s contracted operator accountable to expedite necessary repairs and upgrades to the light rail vehicles to restore reliable weekday light rail service as quickly as possible.