Fare hikes, service cuts for NJ Transit
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
By: Phil Gregory
philgregorynews@gmail.com
New Jersey transit will likely raise fares and cut service to close a $300 million dollar budget gap.
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New Jersey Transit Executive director Jim Weinstein says the nation's third largest public transit system will cut 200 people from its workforce and is reducing the salaries of its top 12 managers by five percent. Contributions to workers 401k retirement plans will be reduced, and there's a freeze on spending not related to operations.
Weinstein says even with those moves, there's still a shortfall of about $270 million.
Weinstein:"We'll be talking about fare increases and service cuts that will add that up and we continue to look for other ways to generate new revenue for the company so that our fare payers don't have to bear the full burden of it."
Public hearings on the fare increase will be held at 11 different locations around the state starting March 25th.