New Jersey residents have significantly more transit service available to them today than they did in 1997. From 1997 to 2004, the annual vehicle revenue miles (the number of miles traveled by each mass transit bus, train or light rail vehicle while in service) traveled by New Jersey's various state- and privately-operated transit services grew 15.5 percent. Service provided by the largest operator, NJTransit, grew by 23 percent. All together, New Jersey's transit services traveled more than half a million miles daily in 2004.
NJTransit commuter service expanded by 28 percent, while light rail service, with the addition of the Hudson-Bergen and RiverLine systems, more than doubled over the period, increasing 150 percent. In Southern Jersey, PATCO service held constant. PATH service had declined only slightly as of 2004, a remarkable feat given the destruction of the World Trade Center PATH station in 2001.
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Source: FTA. National Transit Database, Transit Operating Statistics: Service Supplied and Service Consumed: Details by Transit Agency DO and PT Service, 1997-2004. |
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Source: FTA. National Transit Database, Transit Operating Statistics: Service Supplied and Service Consumed: Details by Transit Agency DO and PT Service, 1997-2004. |
The state's bus service did not enjoy the same dramatic expansion. NJTransit bus service grew by only 6 percent from 1997 to 2004, and private carrier service grew less than 2 percent. Some rail system and service expansion absorbed bus riders, helping suppress growth in bus riding. Even so, buses provide far more transit service than New Jersey's high profile rail system.
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Source: FTA. National Transit Database, Transit Operating Statistics: Service Supplied and Service Consumed: Details by Transit Agency DO and PT Service, 1997-2004. |