Another nightmare morning for NJ Transit commuters

🚉 NJ Transit service was suspended for about two hours Tuesday morning

🚉 Overhead wires were to blame for some of the issues

🚉 NJ Transit fares go up 15% on July 1

Two separate problems on Tuesday morning led to another morning of frustration and delays for NJ Transit commuters in New York.

The nightmare comes as commuters brace for major fare increases next month.

NJ Transit service was first delayed and then suspended at New York Penn Station after 7 a.m.

Service was restored with 90-minute delays around 9 a.m.

An NJ Transit train became disabled and repairs need to be made to overhead wires, according to Amtrak spokesman Jason Abrams. Amtrak owns and maintains the tracks and wires on the Northeast Corridor.

New Jersey 101.5 has learned that a pantograph, which is the apparatus mounted to the top of a train car that collects power from the overhead line, broke off.

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Example of fare increases proposed by NJ Transit (NJ Transit)

Frustration all around

Both commuters and conductors are frustrated at the latest problems.

"They just took us to North Elizabeth even though it’s not one of our stops and there’s no where to go from here without taking an Uber. There’s nowhere to go and conductors have given up," one commuter told New Jersey 101.5.

"The conductors say they don’t know where they are going. We have the same information as you. When the dispatcher tells us to move, we move. When they tell us to stop, we stop.”

Another was not impressed with the resumption of service.

"90 mins is just the same as suspended lol," another commuter wrote on the Delayed on the New Jersey Transit Support Group Facebook page.

NJ Transit rail tickets and passes are being crossed-honored by NJ Transit and private carrier bus and PATH at Newark Penn, Hoboken and 33rd Street, New York. Midtown Direct trains are being diverted to Hoboken.

Numerous wire problems in the past few weeks got the attention of Gov. Phil Murphy. He requested that NJ Transit and Amtrak discuss better coordinating their responses to service outages.

A 15% fare increase on all NJ Transit service begins July 1.

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