Rail pain redux: New day brings more delays on NJ Transit and Amtrak
NEW YORK (WABC) -- In what seems to be an almost daily occurrence, rail service in and out of Penn Station was snarled by another incident during the Tuesday morning commute, this time because of a disabled train.
The 30-minute delays started just before 9:00 a.m. and continued for a couple of hours.
The latest chapter of commuting mayhem follows a service suspension and delays due to overhead-wire issues during the Monday evening commute that also impacted both NJ Transit and Amtrak.
Commuters last week endured delays and cancellations due to power problems and disabled trains.
On Tuesday, the entire New Jersey Congressional Delegation demanded that Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg launch an investigation into the problems along the Northeast Corridor that have caused thousands of hours of delays for New Jersey commuters.
Text of the full letter to Buttigieg can be found here.
NJ Transit CEO Kevin Corbett also released a statement last Friday calling the issues "unacceptable."
The state does have a tentative agreement in place with the state's most profitable companies to temporarily pay higher taxes to fund NJ Transit.
Under the plan, the 600 corporations in the state that make at least $10 million a year in profits will pay a 2.5% tax on all earnings for five years.
In return, the state will not pursue restoring the sales tax to 7% from to 6.625%, a major point of contention for the businesses, who strongly oppose increasing the corporate tax rate.
Both the "transit tax" and a final state budget still need to be approved by the Legislature next week. The budget expires June 30.
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