Transit Briefs: NJT, NJT/Amtrak, LACMTA, CTDOT, STV, NCTD, BART

NJT

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy delivered his ninth and final budget address on Feb. 25, outlining spending priorities for Fiscal Year 2026 (FY2026), which starts July 1. According to his office, the $58.05 billion budget proposes:

• “Largely capping all new discretionary spending; 
• “A more than $6.3 billion budget surplus, to ensure that the next Governor will inherit a surplus more than 15 times greater than that which the Murphy Administration inherited;
• $815 million in funding from the Corporate Transit Fee dedicated to support NJ Transit and moving forward in fully modernizing NJ Transit by replacing every outdated railcar and bus in the agency’s fleet;
• “Providing $1.233 billion for critical investments in State, local highway, and bridge projects, and another $767 million for NJ Transit capital projects;
• “Making the full payment into New Jersey’s pension system for the fifth straight year, increasing the State’s financial stability and ensuring our public servants can retire in dignity; and
• “Reforming technical parole violations so that the State can close East Jersey State Prison, which would save taxpayers a projected $30 million in FY2026 and an additional $20 million in FY2027.”

According to a northjersey.com report, if the proposal is passed “as is” by the state Legislature, NJT “would receive a combined $1.44 billion in state revenue to support its budget, more than double the $670.1 million the agency received in the current fiscal year.”

For FY2026, NJT can use the $815 million from the Corporate Transit Fee for its operating budget, the media outlet said, and for “any local match required when applying for federal grants for capital projects.” According to Northjersey.com, NJT can also use these state subsidies for its operating budget: “a proposed $470 million from the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, $70.1 million from the Clean Energy Fund, and $87 million from the general fund. These are all the same amounts as the agency received for the current fiscal year, except for the general fund amount, which is $58 million less than what was provided for in fiscal year 2025.”

“Another $767 million in state transportation trust fund dollars would go toward the agency’s capital program, which Murphy said would help ‘begin replacing every single outdated bus and rail car that remains in the agency’s fleet,’” northjersey.com continued.

Not included in the budget proposal was the creation of a dedicated funding stream for NJT, northjersey.com reported. “When the [FY2025] budget was signed in June last year, the Murphy administration said in a press release, ‘The new Corporate Transit Fee included in this budget will create another dedicated funding stream for NJ Transit that will provide fiscal support for the next five years,’” the media outlet said. “And State Sen. Paul Sarlo, who chairs the budget committee, said in June last year amid the budget negotiations: ‘Every dollar will go to NJ Transit, dollar for dollar. No diversion whatsoever.’ But in fact, less than four years’ worth of the corporate transit fee, which expires at the end of 2028, will go to NJ Transit.”

According to northjersey.com, “[t]he first year of collections from the fee — including the amount retroactive to Jan. 1, 2024, about $1.023 billion — is being directed to the state’s surplus fund, which Murphy proposed last year, a move not everyone agreed with during last year’s budget negotiations.”

“State Assemblywoman Nancy Muñoz, R-Union, said last year that the money collected in 2024 should have started going to NJ Transit immediately to help stave off a looming fare hike,” according to the media outlet, which noted that NJT increased fares by 15% last July, “the first increase in nine years.” NJT, it continued, “also absorbed $96 million in internal cuts and ‘efficiencies’ that forced agency officials to eliminate a popular discount ticket program, cancel a conductor engineer class, and nix bonuses for newly hired bus drivers even as the agency struggles to staff routes on a daily basis.”

According to northjersey.com, due to state deficits, Gov. Murphy this year “asked all departments, including NJ Transit, to find 5% budget reductions” and rider fares will increase another 3% “because of an automatic fare increase also approved by the agency last year.”

There is concern among transit advocates “about the future of the corporate transit fee and whether it will continue going to NJ Transit as planned,” the media outlet reported. “Because it’s not constitutionally dedicated, the money can be diverted to other programs or costs on a year-to-year basis or based on the priorities of a new administration.”

New Jersey Policy Perspective policy analyst Alex Ambrose told northjersey.com: “The corporate transit fee needs stronger dedication in order to ensure that any future lawmaker doesn’t use the funds for unrelated purposes, and the only way to guarantee that is a constitutional amendment.”

NJT/Amtrak

Northjersey.com on Feb. 26 reported that the third and final arch is in place for the new Portal North Bridge over the Hackensack River in New Jersey. The first arch was delivered in November.

The $2.3 billion two-track, high-level fixed span bridge will rise 50 feet to allow maritime traffic to pass underneath. This more than doubles the height clearance of the bridge it will replace, a 114-year-old swing bridge, which must open for maritime traffic and often has mechanical issues, resulting in NJT and Amtrak service delays. 

The project is being funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation, New Jersey, New York and Amtrak. In January 2021, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced the signing of a Full Funding Grant Agreement that secured $766.5 million in Federal Transit Administration funding to support the project’s construction. In October of the same year, Gov. Murphy and NJT reported the approval of a $1,559,993,000 construction contract award to Skanska/Traylor Bros PNB Joint Venture.

The Portal North Bridge project spans 2.44 miles of the Northeast Corridor line and includes construction of retaining walls, deep foundations, concrete piers, structural steel bridge spans, rail systems, demolition of the existing bridge, and related incidental works. It is part of the larger Gateway Program, which will eventually double rail capacity between Newark, N.J., and New York.

With the third arch added, bridge construction is 80% complete, according to northjersey.com.

LACMTA

LACMTA saw more than 311,261,332 boardings in 2024, up 8% from 2023, the agency reported Feb. 22. This is the first time LACMTA has reached this level of ridership since before the COVID-19 pandemic. 

LACMTA said it surpassed 1 million average weekday boardings in September and October 2024 and weekend ridership has surpassed pre-pandemic levels for the past 25 months. Overall weekday ridership grew 8.7% year-over-year, while weekend ridership grew 5.8% in 2024. 

What factors influenced ridership? According to LACMTA, they are:

• Improved service. Throughout the year, LACMTA said it improved reliability and frequency of bus service. Bus service changes included more trips on some lines to provide added capacity, the transfer of two lines to Pasadena Transit as the new service provider, and the reconfiguring of some bus lines to improve regional connectivity to LACMTA’s rail system. Bus ridership in 2024 increased 8.8% over 2023. For rail, the reconfigured A and E Lines marked their first full year of operation in June and combined saw a 33.4% ridership increase in December 2024 over December 2023, LACMTA reported. The Aviation/Century Station that opened last year is now the transfer point for those on the C Line to transfer to the K Line providing service to the west side line stations including Mariposa, El Segundo and Douglas, and Redondo Beach Station. These stations are now serviced exclusively by the K Line, LACMTA said. Overall rail ridership grew 5.4% in 2024 over 2023. 
• Increased leisure ridership. Reflecting the evolution of ridership patterns, LACMTA said weekend ridership continues to lead overall ridership growth. Leisure riders are using the service, it said, for weekend events and throughout the year activities such as the Hard Summer Music Festival, college football and Rams and Chargers games, Dodgers games and the celebratory championship parade, plus holiday celebrations like Grand Park’s NYELA Countdown to 2025, and Christmas Eve and Christmas Day celebrations. For many of these special events the agency provided additional late-night service and shuttle buses. LACMTA also provided extended free service on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.  
• Increased safety. LACMTA said that in 2024, it made “significant progress in its efforts to provide a safer, cleaner and more comfortable rider experience by focusing on its three-pronged public safety strategy: working to ensure an engaged and visible presence of uniformed personnel on Metro buses and trains, including law enforcement, Metro Transit Security, and Metro Ambassadors; [e]nhancing access control by stepping up TAP inspections and trespasser checks and ensuring, to the greatest extent possible, that our system is only used for its intended purpose: transportation; [and] [s]trengthening our partnerships to address societal issues that affect Metro [LACMTA], like homelessness, untreated mental illness and addiction.”

In June 2024, the LACMTA Board authorized the agency to launch a new in-house law enforcement agency, the Transit Community Public Safety Department (TCPSD). The TCPSD will be staffed by more than 600 sworn police officers, homeless and crisis intervention specialists, and others.

Ensuring the LACMTA system is being used for the purpose of transit contributes to a safer transit system, the agency noted, and one new enforcement strategy deployed in 2024 was the TAP-to-Exit program that confirmed everyone paid their fare. Fare gates were locked at both ends of the journey so if riders did not pay when they entered the system, fare was deducted from their TAP card when they exited. The program is currently implemented at the North Hollywood Station on the B Line, the Downtown Santa Monica Station on the E Line, and the A Line end-of-line rail stations, Azusa Pacific University (APU)/Citrus College and Downtown Long Beach. Since TAP-to-Exit was implemented less than one year ago at North Hollywood, the program has captured nearly 120,000 unpaid passenger exits, translating to over $130,000 in fares recuperated, according to LACMTA. More stations are expected to be added to this program in 2025, beginning with Union Station this month. 

LACMTA reported that other safety improvements and initiatives that began last year include: 

• The testing of various weapons detection systems to prevent riders from carrying weapons on LACMTA 
• Keeping the train doors at end-of-line stations closed until one minute before the train is set to depart to ensure the trains are properly offloaded and cleared. According to LACMTA, this ensures people are leaving the station/platform at the end of the line, helping to ensure only people on the system are those using it for the purposes of transit.  
• The roll-out of an improved Transit Watch App that supports communication in 14 languages, in-app messaging, and video and location sharing so riders can share what they observe with LACMTA security 24 hours per day, seven days per week. 
• Improved lighting on buses, trains, and at stations, and the installation of upgraded CCTV cameras.  
• The retrofitting of 100% of LACMTA’s active bus fleet with new, expanded barriers made of shatterproof, tempered glass that fully enclose drivers. According to LACMTA, this has led to an 18.5% decrease in assaults on its bus operators per one million boardings. 

As a result of these efforts, LACMTA reported that violent crime decreased 15.5% per 1 million boardings in 2024 compared with the previous year. 

According to LACMTA, several of its programs support making transit more affordable for all riders. Reduced-price transit passes, such as the student GoPass, which offers free transit passes to K-12 and community college students, and the LIFE program, which provides free rides and reduced fares to low-income customers, are increasingly helping these qualified riders. 

In 2024, the GoPass Program saw 19,665,051 total boardings vs. 17,720,181 in 2023, an 11% increase. The LIFE Program had a 27% increase in ridership in 2024 with 20,873,250 boardings over 16,411,583 boardings in 2023.  

“I’m proud of the Metro [LACMTA] team for putting people first and for prioritizing what matters most to our riders: safety, cleanliness, reliability, comfort, and ease, and insisting on quality from the beginning of the customer journey to the end,” LACMTA CEO Stephanie Wiggins said. “For more than two years, transit ridership has been growing in L.A. County. To me, that speaks to the fact that our efforts are making positive differences. We’re excited to welcome more riders in 2025, as we expand our system to LAX Airport, the San Gabriel Foothills and the Wilshire Boulevard Corridor.”  

CTDOT

The Connecticut Mirror on Feb. 26 reported that there were nearly 33.1 million passenger trips on Connecticut’s commuter railroads last year, according to the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT).

“While overall ridership remained well below pre-pandemic levels, month-over-month figures show an upward trend in ridership on each of the state’s three main commuter rail routes — the New Haven Line, Hartford Line and Shore Line East,” the newspaper said.

But progress has been “uneven,” according to the newspaper. “The Hartford Line, which launched in 2018, and the Waterbury Branch of the New Haven Line are the only commuter lines to have surpassed their pre-pandemic ridership figures in any of the last five years,” it reported. “Last year the Hartford Line carried 817,219 passengers, an increase of nearly 12% compared to 2019. The Waterbury Line carried 269,352 passengers last year, for an increase of nearly 11%. Meanwhile, the main stem of the New Haven Line ended the year carrying 30.3 million passengers, which was nearly 25% less than in 2019. Among the other branch services, the New Canaan and Danbury lines were each around two-thirds of their pre-pandemic numbers.”

Shore Line East, which runs between New Haven and New London, “has struggled the most to attract riders after having the frequency of trains slashed compared to pre-pandemic service levels,” The Connecticut Mirror reported. In 2024, it had 193,451 riders—“less than one third of its pre-pandemic ridership.” But November saw 20,840 trips taken—the best since March 2020.

“While lawmakers were able to restore some of those cuts through a one-time, $5 million appropriation last year, advocates say the line continues to suffer from chronic under-investment,” reported the newspaper.

STV

STV on Feb. 26 reported celebrating the recent completion of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport’s expansion of its APM service, known as the Plane Train, which moves a growing number passengers across seven concourses. The firm served as lead architect as part of a progressive design-build (PDB) team, which was led by designer Delve Underground and contractor Clark/Atkinson/Technique JV. The PDB team extended the Plane Train’s tunnel by 700 feet, including a 133-foot spur at the system’s terminus, according to STV. This extension, it said, “streamlines train turnaround operations and significantly reduces train headway, thereby boosting the system’s capacity.”

STV’s team planned and designed improvements for 35,500 square feet of space at multiple levels of the main terminal (Terminal T), including the domestic baggage claim station, which experiences peak traffic of about 4,500 travelers per hour. It also designed reconfigurations for this station’s vertical transportation core to facilitate smoother transitions between the Plane Train platform and the main terminal, which serves various ground transportation options.

Additionally, the STV team designed four new escalators and two ADA-compliant elevators to increase circulation and ease passenger flows. “The redesign features a dramatic multi-level escalator structure that extends from the APM platform, through the station mezzanine and terminal apron, up to a post-security exit lobby, where it connects to the baggage claim and ground transportation access level and the retail and concessions atrium,” the firm reported. “STV’s architects prepared the designs for the floors, walls, ceilings, parapets, escalators, elevators and stairs.”

STV said it also developed the lighting scheme for the new spaces in coordination with other members of the PDB team. The final signage design, based on airport standards, is the result of iterative working sessions with ATL’s management team, according to the firm. The most significant enhancement to wayfinding at the terminal level is the addition of a large, real-time LED projection screen showing arriving passengers as they emerge from the domestic baggage claim station escalators, according to STV.

STV also designed two structures to house the expanded tunnel’s ventilation system and emergency egress facilities, and developed the alignment geometry for the new tunnel and structural designs to support the load from the terminal building above the tunnel.

“Our team’s ability to innovate and collaborate with our partners was crucial to the success of this expansion,” said Bob Drake, Senior Principal and Technical Architecture Director at STV. “We’re proud to have contributed to enhancing the efficiency and capacity of the Plane Train system, ultimately improving the travel experience for millions of passengers at Atlanta Airport.”

NCTD

NCTD has proclaimed Feb. 25 as Crystal Trent Day. Trent is currently Supervisor of Operations for COASTER commuter rail and made history as the first African American woman to serve as a locomotive engineer in San Diego County.

Trent has 14 years of transit industry experience, starting her career at NCTD as a SPRINTER train operator and transitioning to the role of a COASTER conductor. In 2020, Trent became a locomotive engineer, and in 2024 was elevated to Supervisor of Operations for COASTER. Her story, NCTD said, is one of “determination and commitment.”

The agency asked Trent about her first experience as a locomotive engineer, and she shared: “Operating a locomotive can be intimidating, but I learned to compartmentalize my fears and focus on what’s in front of me versus what’s behind me. Passengers trust you with their lives. My job is to ensure that I represent their trust and ensure they make it home safe. It’s a huge responsibility, and I’m proud to be a part of it.”

She credits her father, a Navy diver, as her inspiration. “He made a name for himself when opportunities were limited,” Trent told NCTD. “He taught me the importance of determination and hard work; I made him proud.”

Reflecting on her career, Trent emphasized the importance of community and support in the workplace. “I believe in bringing people along with me,” she told NCTD. “Sharing knowledge and encouraging your team is just as important as self-growth.”

According to the agency, one of Trent’s career highlights includes helping a runaway teenager find a safe way back home and escape a potentially dangerous situation. “You see something; you say something,” Trent said. “It’s all about being part of the community.”

NCTD CEO Shawn M. Donaghy said: “NCTD is proud to recognize Crystal for breaking barriers in our industry and is appreciative of the support of the San Diego City Council. The success of our organization is centered in the incredible contributions of our employees by ensuring there is an environment for all to be unapologetically authentic.”

Added Patricia Cola, Director of Rail Operations at NCTD: “Crystal is an exemplary employee to NCTD. She takes pride in the work she does on a daily basis. We are proud to have her on the team.”

BART

BART on Feb. 26 shared a report on its cleaning team, which has just five minutes to complete work on each train. Railway Age reproduces it in full below.

How much can you accomplish in five minutes? Could you clean two 75-foot-long BART cars? Sweep them, mop them, spritz them in the short amount of time the train dwells at an end-of-line station before starting its next run? And—no pressure!—that five minutes is a hard deadline. Even a brief delay can disrupt the highly choreographed network of trains that make up the BART system.  

If you’re one of BART’s nearly 100 end-of-line cleaners, that’s just another day on the job. You see, in five minutes, an end-of-line cleaner accomplishes more than most people can get done in thrice the time.  

You might say end-of-line cleaners are the Quicksilver superheroes of BART’s robust cleaning operation. They’re the workers who clean the trains between regularly scheduled “thorough cleans” and “standard cleans,” which require cars be out of service. Unlike these cleans, end-of-line cleans have a time limit five-to-ten-minute deadline, depending on the station, that can’t be compromised. Even a small delay can reverberate across BART’s system.

So, what can end-of-line cleaners accomplish in just five to ten minutes? It turns out, quite a bit.

BART Communications recently had the opportunity to follow a group of end-of-line cleaners at Dublin/Pleasanton Station, the last stop on the Blue Line. Each team consists of three to four cleaners, and all the shifts overlap to make sure there’s coverage for every moment BART is in service, including during the cleaners’ breaks and lunches. An additional cleaner joins the team between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.—BART’s busiest hours.  

Carmen Williams, a utility foreworker who oversees Dublin/Pleasanton and Berryessa/North San Jose stations, said she has more cleaners on her team than ever. As part of its Safe and Clean Plan, BART has hired additional part-time end-of-line cleaners to ensure the cleanliness of train interiors during daily revenue service. At the end of revenue service, trains head to maintenance yards for nightly standard cleans conducted by BART’s car cleaning team. BART also recently doubled the number of times we deep clean trains. These end-of-line cleaners’ work holds the trains over until it’s time for their until their nightly cleanings in the yard. You can read more about these cleanings here.  

End-of-line cleaner Lorinzo Haley is the day shift co-team lead with Eric Santos. He says the job is never stressful for him because he is “prepared for any and every situation at all times.” 

As you can imagine, the situations cleaners like Haley and Santos face vary widely. There’s the regular wear-and-tear from shoes and sticky fingers—these trains carry thousands of people, after all—but also accidental messes and, in some cases, intentional misuse. On busy days, it’s not uncommon for each cleaner to get off the car with a full bag of trash. For events and parades, those trash bags are often filled with feathers, glitter, and confetti.  

“We hire experienced janitorial people that have at least a year of industrial janitorial experience before coming to BART, so these are people that are knowledgeable about the equipment and how to pick up spills,” said Juan Matta, Manager of Transit Vehicle Cleaning. “We give them additional training at BART as far as how to clean on a moving train safely, how to keep yourself safe around patrons, and how to keep the patrons safe.”

Here’s how the typical end-of-line clean goes: Three to four cleaners are stationed at the ready on the platform. Their trash bags are filled with supplies, and their brooms and mops are strategically positioned on the platform for easy access. The train pulls in, the passengers disembark, and then the clock starts ticking.

The cleaners split the train in order to cover every car. If the team has been alerted to a mess before the train arrives, they prioritize that first.

The first step is cleaning up any biohazards and offensive graffiti. Cleaners wear gloves throughout their shifts, no exceptions, and receive training to handle biohazard materials. They also carry wipes soaked in a special graffiti removal solution to scrub away graffiti as quickly as possible. From there, they prioritize spills, left-behind garbage, and grime.

After addressing these top priorities—and if the short amount of time on the clock permits—cleaners will sweep the floors, including under seats. If they spot a sticky seat or grimy wall along the way, they’ll whip out their towels and spray bottles filled with antibacterial solution to take care of them.

Then, it’s mopping time. On some trains, Haley would start by sweeping a car, and Santos would come behind him with a mop and a bucket. Rather than slippery soap, the buckets contain a water-bleach solution that dries quickly and is specialized for the train’s flooring.

“My team knows my biggest pet peeve is dirty water,” said Williams, who started her BART career as an end-of-line cleaner. “They are changing it constantly. It has to be clean, and it has to be hot!”

The finishing touch: a spritz of lemon-scented air freshener.  

Rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat. Haley and Santos said they clean around three trains an hour, or forty trains a shift.

The job requires you to be in near-constant motion. While waiting for a train to arrive, the cleaners dispose of biohazards, refill their supplies, change their gloves, and most importantly, fill up those buckets with hot, clean water!  

When asked how many miles they walk each day, end-of-liner cleaner AJ Garman pulled out his phone and reported back: about 15,000 steps a day, equivalent to around seven miles.  

It’s tough but rewarding work said Haley.  

“This is the best job I’ve ever had—and I’ve been working since I was 12,” the father of six said. “The sun is out, the air is fresh, and the hills are green. I want to come to work, and I have never said that about a job.” 

He and Santos said it’s not uncommon for regular riders to come up to them on the platform and say hello and thanks. Haley is no stranger to patron hugs, either.   

Said Santos: “I like when people who’ve never taken BART come up and ask me for help. It’s nice to know you’re making a difference.” About three minutes after saying this, a couple approached Santos and asked, “How do we get to the Financial District?” 

“Told you,” he said. 

Watch the team in action on this video: