Governor signs executive order directing NJ Transit to release monthly train performance data to the public
Governor Phil Murphy Monday signed an order requiring that New Jersey Transit rail performance metrics — including cancellations, on-time performance and other data — be shared with the public via the agency’s website on a monthly basis.
The move to provide the data to the public follows an independent audit of the agency’s operations that was ordered by the governor. The results were released last October.
“Improving communication with customers has been among the most important objectives in our efforts to improve NJ Transit performance, safety, and reliability,” Murphy said. “The step we’re taking today requiring performance metrics to be released monthly will give rail commuters the information they need to make informed decisions and provide accountability to the public in real time.”
New Jersey Department of Transportation Commissioner and New Jersey Transit Board Chair Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti said that formalizing the reporting requirements through an executive order will ensure that NJ Transit will be held accountable for its performance “for administrations to come.”
New Jersey Transit President and CEO Kevin Corbett said that the agency has taken aggressive measures to address recruiting, Infrastructure needs and languishing capital projects. “As a result, we are rapidly restoring the depleted ranks of employees and seeing improved performance that indicates we’ve turned a corner,” he said. “But make no mistake, we still have a lot of ground to make up. I will not be satisfied until our customers are. Increased transparency and improved metrics will hold our organization accountable at all times.”
The key performance metrics contained in the monthly releases will include the total number of cancellations each month and a listing of the specific types of cancellations, on-time rail performance and the mean distance between failures of each New Jersey Transit line, and other information that the commissioner of transportation deems appropriate to inform commuters about rail performance.
New Jersey Transit will provide the public with a uniform progress report beginning with data for October 2019, to be released in November. The release will also include historical month-by-month information dating back to January of 2017.
A copy of Executive Order No. 80, can be found online here.
Krystal Knapp is the founding editor of Planet Princeton. Follow her on Twitter @krystalknapp. She can be reached via email at editor AT planetprinceton.com. Send all letters to the editor and press releases to that email address.