Increased Investments, Stable Fares

The NJ TRANSIT Board of Directors adopted the agency’s Fiscal Year 2021 (FY2021) Operating Budget and a five-year Capital Plan on October 21st. Among the highlights: stable fares, significant investments in frontline personnel, infrastructure and equipment, and additional funding to reduce the spread of COVID-19. 

The budget and capital plan both support the agency’s 10-year Strategic Plan – NJT2030 – announced earlier this year by Governor Phil Murphy, ensuring the reliability and continued safety of our transit system, delivering a high-quality experience for all customers with their entire journey in mind, powering a stronger and fairer New Jersey for all communities, promoting a more sustainable future for our planet, and building an accountable, innovative and inclusive organization that delivers for New Jersey.

Key goals in the operating budget include: restoring a full roster of locomotive engineers and bus operators; enhancing customer engagement and feedback capabilities; ongoing COVID-related response, including aggressive cleaning and disinfecting of stations and vehicles and the continued availability of PPE; implementing safety initiatives; and achieving savings on targeted health benefit reforms.

The capital plan continues state-of-good-repair investments in transit stations and infrastructure, investments in the Northeast Corridor, fare modernization, safety initiatives, bus and railcar purchases, station upgrades, Positive Train Control installation, resiliency projects and support for local mobility programs.   

The $2.6 billion operating budget is funded by a combination of passenger and commercial revenues and state and federal resources. The three-year cumulative state operating subsidy under Governor Phil Murphy is $836 million more, or 73 percent higher, than during the period of Fiscal Years 2016-2018.

The $17 billion unconstrained five-year capital plan consists of $11.21 billion worth of projects already funded and another $5.78 billion worth of vital, proposed projects for which funding has not yet been identified.