NJT: Montclair-Boonton Line Has 88.3% On Time Rating

WAYNE, NJ – New Jersey Transit commuters have a new tool to track performance and service changes.

The agency now has a dashboard available online that tracks delays, cancellations and service issues on its trains and buses dating back to 2017.

The data was made public following an executive order from Gov. Phil Murphy, who has said improving NJ Transit is one of his administration’s main goals.

Click here to see the dashboard.

The tool displays data from January 2017 through October 2019 for rail operations, as well as current data for bus, light rail and access link. It’ll be updated each month with figures for the previous month’s service, according to NJ Transit.

According to the dashboard, trains on the Montclair-Boonton line were on time 88.3% last month. NJ Transit officials say a train is considered on time if it arrives within six minutes of its published schedule, which is an industry standard used by other commuter rail lines.

Top reasons for October 2019 Montclair-Boonton line train cancellations

• 42.1% - Unpreventable (Incidents such as inclement weather, flooding, power failures, medical emergencies, trespassers and local police activity)
• 26.3% - Mechanical issues (Issues with locomotives and rail cars, including doors, cab signals, electrical, propulsion, brakes or other equipment-related failures)
• 26.3% - Crew/engineer availability (Shortage or unreliability of locomotive engineers or train crews)

Montclair-Boonton: On-time performance

• January 2019: 87.8%
• February 2019: 86.3%
• March 2019: 90.4%
• April 2019: 92.2%
• May 2019: 89.4%
• June 2019: 89.5%
• July 2019: 90.7%
• August 2019: 92.3%
• September 2019: 90.1%

Statewide, trains were on time 91.1% last month and the availability of crew and engineers accounts for nearly 30% of October's cancellations.

NJ Transit reported there’s been a 35% decrease in train cancellations on all of its lines between 2018 and 2019.

The dashboard also highlights the progress made by NJ Transit since January 2018 to fulfill mandatory safety requirements, modernize the fleet, communicate real-time service status and recruit new bus operators, locomotive engineers and assistant conductors.

Kevin Corbett, NJ Transit's president and chief executive officer, said the tool "goes above and beyond to provide an unprecedented level of transparency" for the agency's performance.

He said, "We’ve made it easy to use and easy to understand, because we want customers to be able to measure our progress.”