Thank Goodness for Redundancy in Mass Transit

For the third time this week there were power problems on New Jersey Transit.  If you are really interested read about it in The Asbury Park Press.  To quote the article "Some of the infrastructure on the corridor, especially the overhead wires and equipment that distributes electricity to the wire to power trains dates to the 1930s-era electrification done by the Pennsylvania Railroad."  IMHO an once of prevention is worth a pound of cure.  Amtrak owns the tracks and the right of way, and thus New Jersey Transit customers are second class riders.  I really think more effort must be placed into maintenance to prevent these failures before they happen.

Today, I encountered delays both going and coming to work. I arrived at Penn Station about 7:30 and saw that no trains were running to New Jersey.  I immediately walked over to 6th Avenue and 33rd Street and took the PATH.  Thank goodness for redundancy in mass transit.  If I had to go further, I would have no other choice but to wait.  Going home as I boarded an NJ Transit train in Newark, an announcement was made that there were problems with the catenary wire problems.  I immediately left the train and for the second time in a day took the PATH.  If the train had been caught between stations I would really have been out of luck.

It seems that whether you drive or use public transportation, there will always be problems.