DETAILS: Midtown Direct to be diverted to Hoboken this summer
I also have wage works, I'm wondering if anything that's paid through full price will get refunded later on. A couple years ago I ended up paying for two monthly's and they did credit my account for the duplicate ticket. hopefully njt gets on the ball here.
iwasmim,
it was me. I have CommuterDirect and I called them about a month ago and they informed me once the dates were official, they would adjust our ticket fares based on those dates.
Wageworks obviously isn't on the ball like CommuterDirect! But the more I think of it, the more likely it seems that something will occur when they go to buy a $227 ticket and pay only $91 for it. They are certainly prepared to increase the payroll deduction when prices go up, so hopefully they'll manage to decrease it when fares go down too. I am interested that they blamed NJT for not notifying them, which they claim is the usual protocol. One more reason to hate NJT!
I canceled my July commuter card with Wageworks as soon as I heard about the reduced fares. I will be on vacation for two weeks in July anyway and will just purchase tickets. But I just went on the Wageworks website to order an August pass and the fare still came up as $227. I'll wait and see if it changes on the website.
Today NJT responded thusly to my complaint that they did not notify our ticket suppliers of the fare reduction (so I guess my beef is with Wageworks after all) --
We are replying to your feedback of 6/12/2017 regarding subject: Amtrak Renewal Project. Thank you for contacting NJ TRANSIT. Wageworks and all of the Third Party Administrators were provided with the discounted rates and related details well in advance of the cut off for July monthly pass issuance.
Sincerely,
Ruby Unger NJ TRANSIT Customer Service Team
In happier news, I was able to exit the west end of an NJT train arriving on Track 11 into the new Farley Post Office building concourse this morning.
In case anyone is as confused as I was, the Customer FAQ is the most helpful thing I found on the NJT site.
Mind you, the bus option from South Orange is still a bit vague. Not sure what the "107 bus route" is - where it leaves from, and whether it is express or not - should it not be overcrowded and therefore not require the "supplemental" buses.
And here is the Fare Schedule.
jasper said:
In case anyone is as confused as I was, the Customer FAQ is the most helpful thing I found on the NJT site.
Mind you, the bus option from South Orange is still a bit vague. Not sure what the "107 bus route" is - where it leaves from, and whether it is express or not - should it not be overcrowded and therefore not require the "supplemental" buses.
And here is the Fare Schedule.
107 is an established bus route (not new just for the summer) that starts at the SO train station and goes along Irvington Avenue in South Orange and Maplewood. Some buses run express, others local. Final stop is Port Authority Bus terminal.
"Summer of Hell" story from this morning's Brian Lehrer Show.
http://www.wnyc.org/story/comm...
Featuring the Mayor of Maplewood towards the end. I liked his plea for the two Governors to essentially "write an excuse note" to employers on behalf of their commuting constituents - maybe allow more working from home.
Not loving the summer Hoboken schedule. In terms of fast trains into Hoboken there is a big gap of 50 minutes from about 7:25 to 8:15. Essentially they have taken out the 8am morning train and there is no substitute.
Does anyone know if this question has been posed:
If you get up early enough to take the train into NY Penn station but have to catch the train home from Hoboken, will you be charged the extra fee going into NY in the morning if you have a monthly to Hoboken?
MrSuburbs said:
Does anyone know if this question has been posed:
If you get up early enough to take the train into NY Penn station but have to catch the train home from Hoboken, will you be charged the extra fee going into NY in the morning if you have a monthly to Hoboken?
No. During July, your Hoboken monthly is also good for trips to NY, according to Maplewood's most recent statement:
"NJ Transit Update - June 18, 2017 Monthly Rail Passes – If you are purchasing a monthly rail pass for July, buy the reduced Hoboken monthly pass and not the NYC pass.
You will be able to use the Hoboken monthly pass on the NYC trains before July 10"th and for the early morning trains to NYC starting on July 10th. The Hoboken monthly pass will be used for cross honoring with PATH, NY Transit buses and the ferries. You will be able to use the Hoboken monthly pass on weekend trains directly to and from NYC.
Maplewood Jitney
The Township Committee asked municipal administrators to explore starting the jitneys earlier to accommodate commuters riding the very early NYC direct trains (5:04 and 5:49). The balance of the jitney schedule will be adjusted to meet NJ Transit’s revised morning train schedule. The evening jitney schedule will be adjusted to meet NJ Transit’s revised evening train schedule.
Direct Buses to NYC
NJ Transit has refused to put buses at the Maplewood Train Station or other Morris and Essex Train Stations other than South Orange and Newark Broad. We are exploring if we have the capacity to run a jitney bus to take Maplewood commuters to South Orange to board the NYC direct buses. We also are speaking with a private bus service (Skedaddle) to see if there is a way to get bus service provided from Maplewood. This service will be at a premium price and there will be no cross honoring with a NJ Transit rail ticket.
PATH Cross Honoring
According to NJ Transit, operational and layout restrictions will allow it to honor Hoboken rail tickets only at Hoboken, 33rd Street and the World Trade Center. NJ Transit rail tickets will not be cross honored at Christopher, 9th, 14th and 23rd street stations.
Parking at the Maplewood Train Station
Commuters with valid Maplewood parking permits will continue to be able to park on the streets surrounding the train station. The Police will issue an operational order allowing commuter parking with a permit earlier than 6am to allow for boarding the earlier trains to NYC and Hoboken.
NJ Transit Ambassadors
We asked and NJ Transit agreed to have ambassadors at the Maplewood Train Station before July 10th and the first week of the Hoboken diversion to answer questions and assist commuters in making the best travel decisions.
We will provide updates as more information becomes available.
Please visit the FAQs NJ Transit has put up on its website – njtranit.com/theupdate"
Has anyone seen the schedule for the 39th Street ferry? It's not on the NY Waterways site. How well this connects to our trains is going to be critical in determining journey length.
That's the other ferry terminal in Hoboken, that one normally runs to Midtown and isn't near the train station.
For the new ferry, they said it runs every 15 minutes from 7 to 10. So I'd assume it's just on every quarter hour. The trip should take about 10 minutes.
j_r said:
The ferry schedule is on the NYWaterway site here.
I've not seen anything to imply that we should expect it before July 10th, so I wouldn't expect it before then.
lainie65 said:
Now is that ferry service already running or not yet?
Ok thank you, I seem to remember hearing it was orginally supposed to start running in September, but that they would be pushing up the date on it.
dr_matt said:
Has anyone seen the schedule for the 39th Street ferry? It's not on the NY Waterways site. How well this connects to our trains is going to be critical in determining journey length.
Check the on-line M&E summer schedule. I seem to recall it includes some ferry and PATH schedules towards the end of the document.
Apologies, I didn't realize there was more than one ferry to 39th from Hoboken. Good to know!
They are supposed to be adding it as permanent service in September, but this is - apart from being pretty much the same thing - not necessarily directly related. This is just contingency service. NY Waterway hasn't said anything about the permanent service that I know of.
lainie65 said:
Ok thank you, I seem to remember hearing it was orginally supposed to start running in September, but that they would be pushing up the date on it.
FYI to Hoboken commuters. They have cancelled the 4:33, the 5:01, and the 5:04 and are making the 5:08 into a local.
Four trainloads of passengers are being jammed onto one 3-car train.
jimmurphy said:
FYI to Hoboken commuters. They have cancelled the 4:33, the 5:01, and the 5:04 and are making the 5:08 into a local.
Four trainloads of passengers are being jammed onto one 3-car train.
None of those trains are ones I usually take (we have seen each other on the 5:28) but the alert I had received on that day (for going to Maplewood) said:
"M&E train #0333, the 5:04pm from Hoboken is CANCELLED due to an operational issue. Customers may use train #429 the 5:01pm."
I find when they use the term operational issue is because they don't have enough crew. Similar to the euphemism they use for trespasser strike (a legalese CYA way to put the fact that a person was hit by a train).
For some reason I see at least one of those types of cancellations every few weeks but the one you posted about above sounded pretty bad, combining all 3 trains - here's one I got on June 8 [yes, I am deleting these old emails as I realize how many I stupidly kept]:
"M&E train #337, the 5:39pm from Hoboken is CANCELLED due to an operational issue. Customers to train #433 departing Hob at 5:39pm making additional stops TODAY."
Anyone know if the ferry to Pier 11 is cross honoring daily NJT tix? I see no mention of it on their website and the price reflected is $7/way.
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I spent a long time on the phone today with Wage Works as well. The initial people were unaware of the NJ Transit situation. They had already seemingly charged me the full fare and couldn't reverse that -- but after a long time with a supervisor they reported that my payroll department should only deduct the partial amount. I won't know for a while if that turns out to be true.