After two years of deliberation, public comment and drafts, NJ Transit released its final sustainability plan late last month to mixed reviews from environmentalists, who say key details are missing.
One question they raised had more to do with the political environment than the natural environment — namely, how the agency plans to fund priorities such as replacing diesel buses with electric ones and outfitting garages with the infrastructure to charge them.
“It hits nothing and is missing everything,” said Bill Beren, NJ Sierra Club transportation chairperson, who said he had been reviewing drafts of the document over the last two years.
Environmentalists asked by NJ Advance Media to review the document repeated criticismsabout the draft plan in June 2023, saying it was light on details.
Previous drafts had firmer “objectives and goals,” Beren said, but “now they’re talking aspirations.”
John Chartier, an agency spokesperson, said the plan was “a living document which will grow and develop,” adding more details were coming.
“As we continue to advance, our future efforts by the sustainability team will be to identify the costs and opportunities to implement various initiatives mentioned in the plan.”
Beren compared the New Jersey sustainability and climate change plan to similar documents from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Alameda Contra Costa Transit in California and the Champaign Urbana Mass Transit district plan in Illinois. Those plans provide more details, timelines and cost projections than NJ Transit’s, Beren said.
NJ Transit officials didn’t want to delay releasing the initial framework, which is critical for setting the foundation for the agency’s sustainability efforts moving forward, Chartier said.
John Reichman, an activist with Empower NJ, said the state sustainability plan “describes the importance of transit in meeting our economic, social, environmental and climate goals” as well as what could be achieved with “sustained, reliable operational funding.”
“But it then ignores the elephant in the room, that instead of providing that funding, the state plans on spending tens of billions of dollars on highway expansions all over the state,” he said.
Reichman cited the proposed $10.7 billion New Jersey Turnpike widenings in Hudson County that Empower NJ and other groups oppose, arguing for the money to be spent instead on mass transit.
Doug O’Malley, executive director of Environment NJ, said the NJ Transit plan was “notable for the challenges it lays out,” including electric bus upgrades as well as “needed capital investments for long-delayed projects” like light rail expansions in Bergen and Hudson counties.
But the question of funding is up to Gov. Phil Murphy and Legislature, not NJ Transit, O’Malley said.
“To actually work this plan, NJ Transit will need what every other major transit agency in America has – sustained, dedicated funding to make the necessary capital investments that have been delayed for a generation,” he said.
The plan doesn’t spell out how the agency intends to fund bus electrification to meet Murphy’s climate change goal of an 80% reduction in state-generated greenhouse gases by 2050, said O’Malley and other environmentalists.
The plan acknowledges “projects are only advanced as funding becomes available” and says “additional, reliable funding streams should be explored to aid NJ Transit.”
That document said demand for capital funding has “outstripped” ability to supply state matching money for federal funds.
NJ Transit officials said costs and implementation schedules for sustainability projects will be added to the plan and included when a 5 Year Capital Plan is updated and as projects advance.
NJ Transit’s plan mentions ongoing or proposed initiatives, including the battery electric bus testing underway in Camden since October 2022. Infrastructure work includes building two new state-of-the-art bus garages, one in Union City with a $44 million federal grant and unfunded plans to replace a flood prone Northern New Jersey garage in Oradell. Both will be equipped to charge electric buses.
It mentions plans to equip other garages for electric bus charging, including the Greenville bus garage in Jersey City, which would be equipped to charge up to 24 buses and feature a solar canopy built in an auxiliary parking lot.
A potential design for that solar canopy will be installed and tested at the Egg Harbor Bus Garage. That project is out for bids.
Plans to build a battery electric bus depot at the Meadowlands garage in Secaucus is also mentioned, to allow the use of bigger, articulated electric buses.
The big picture of electric bus deployment is a Zero Emission Bus System Design and Investment Planning Study. Plans and investments needed to transition to a zero emissions bus fleet will be outlined in the study, which has a 2025 completion date.
NJ Transit’s Access Link service for senior and disabled passengers also is a candidate for electric powered vehicles, the plan said.
The agency’s operating budget depends on the governor’s annual budget and fares, which will increase 15% on July 1. Capital funding for major projects and equipment purchases comes from the state Transportation Trust Fund and federal funding, which requires matching money from the state.
Legislation hasn’t been introduced to create a proposed corporate transit fee that places a 2.5% tax on large corporations making more than $10 million in profits. Murphy proposed it in February to fund NJ Transit’s operating budget, but some legislative leaders questioned if the proposal, which faced opposition from business groups, would raise enough money.
“Having an additional dedicated and predictable funding source, such as the Governor’s proposed Corporate Transit Fee, would assist in further developing cost projections and timelines,” Chartier said.
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Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on X @CommutingLarry
