Comment @ NJT Meeting - TODAY (6/29) @ 9AM

Reminder: If you can, please call into the NJ Transit Board Operations and Customer Service Committee meeting TODAY, June 29, at 9 AM by calling: 1-800-346-7359 and using Conference Entry Code: 701939 to push for public hearings before each fare increase, as the 2018 NJT reform law requires and intends.

Agenda and details from NJT:

“Each speaker will have three (3) minutes to provide comments.”

“TELEPHONE: Speakers who pre-register and participate by telephone will follow the in-person speakers. Telephone participants who did not pre-register in advance,
and queue to speak, will have their comments taken on a first-come-first-serve
basis thereafter.

Speakers participating by telephone can begin calling in at 8:30 a.m. to check in with the
call proctor for the Board Operations and Customer Service Committee Meeting. Once
checked in, participants can press *1 to enter the queue to provide public comments. There
will be a brief tone to indicate you have successfully entered the queue. The toll-free dial-
in phone number is 1-800-346-7359 and the Conference Entry Code is 701939.”

Please be respectful with your comments. Describe your position in personal terms. Things you may wish to point out as you do so:

• We are not seeing service improvements in the absence of public hearings. Rail service cuts took effect on May 31. Some bus routes have also seen cuts. This means we're about to pay more for service that has been cut (and has been painfully unreliable).
• Compare this with PATH service, which saw service improvements this year, including the restoration of weekend services that hadn't operated in 25 years, after the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey took the time to gather rider input through public hearings. 
  Public hearings would allow the NJ Transit Board of Directors and managers to consider a range of options.  Notably, if fares must rise, NJ Transit leadership might find through hearings whether riders would prefer to pay more for enhanced service, as opposed to 3 percent fare increases with service cuts. 
• The 2018 NJ Transit reform law (N.J.S.A. 27:25-8d(2)) requires at least 10 public hearings "[b]efore implementing any fare increase." The obvious intent is that NJ Transit is required to give riders a chance to weigh in through a round of hearings on each and every fare increase before they take effect. In other words, even with "automatic" annual 3 percent fare increases, NJ Transit is still required to hold 10 fare hearings before implementing each July 1 fare increase.
• There is nothing in the law that makes it illegal for NJ Transit to hold fare hearings every year, even with an "automatic" fare increase plan.  This means that regardless of legal interpretation, NJ Transit's Board of Directors and managers are currently making a policy choice to ignore riders for an indefinite period.
• Even if NJ Transit's position on fare hearings is somehow legally sound (it isn't), shouldn't riders get some periodic chance to weigh in on a fare plan (e.g., every few years)? How is it fair or reasonable to have an automatic fare plan that could theoretically ignore riders for decades and beyond?
  NJ Transit President and CEO Kris Kolluri said on a June 9, 2026, News 12 New Jersey broadcast that the question of when, if ever, to hold public hearings again is up to the NJ Transit Board of Directors.
• Accordingly, please insist that each of the board members present speak to what their position is on public hearings and why.
• NJ Transit Customer Advocate Franck Beaumin's position is that "Holding additional fare hearings would be costly and largely redundant. While they would likely reaffirm that customers oppose the increase, they would not change the underlying reality: NJ TRANSIT’s limited revenue streams and ongoing inflation make fare adjustments necessary." This make Mr. Beaumin sound more like a "Board and Management Advocate" than a "*Customer* Advocate". Tell Mr. Beaumin and the board that you disagree and insist that Mr. Beaumin must stand up for riders and press the NJ Transit Board of Directors and management for a commitment to regular fare hearings. 

You do also have the option to attend in person in the 2nd Floor Board Room at NJ Transit's headquarters at 2 Gateway, 283-299 Market Street, Newark NJ 07102, if desired. See the agenda above for more information on how to do so.

Thanks for your support!

-Adam