NJTransit's cost per vehicle increased at a rate much lower than New Jersey's consumer price index, only 1.1% for rail and 8.2% for buses to the CPI's 11%. The result gives NJTransit the second lowest operating cost per vehicle among the systems compared. But this may reflect an agency spending less on needed upgrades and service as much as it does administrative belt-tightening. This suspicion gains ground in other statistics. Costs per passenger mile during the same period showed no growth whatsoever, and the average age of the bus and rail fleets increased by close to two years. The study found that 53% of buses have been in service for more than twelve years and 28% of vehicles in the commuter rail fleets are older than twenty-five years.

What these numbers likely don't reflect are the 650 new diesel-powered transit buses and 1,400 new diesel longer-distance cruiser buses that NJTransit has ordered and has received or will receive within the next few years. The agency also intends to obtain 200 single-level rail cars next year and 200 new bi-level cars by 2004. New trains and buses will mainly replace the aging fleet rather than boost its size.

Although brief, the presentation of study results is likely to help impress state legislators on the need for both increased mass transit capital and operating funds in coming years.