How can NJ Transit fix customer complaints? Sherrill wants a plan

SECAUCUS – NJ Transit customers have a long list of improvements they would like to see addressed, such as fixing the unreliable real-time app data, reopening closed escalators, making neglected station repairs, and providing cleaner facilities and vehicles.

Gov. Mikie Sherrill has taken note and is directing the agency to come up with a plan to address those complaints in 45 days.

“Today I’m signing an executive order, the first of many steps I’ll be taking to build a better NJ Transit, a better system with better service, a better rider experience,” Sherrill said at a March 24 press conference where she signed executive order No. 16. “We’re starting with the things we can fix right away.”

Passengers board the bus at the NJ transit bus stop at 9th and Washington Street, Mar 17, 2026, Hoboken, NJ, USA.

That list of improvements is expected to include:

• A plan for repairs to station escalators and elevators.
• Brighter station lighting.
• Improved signs.
• More thorough cleaning of buses, trains, stations and stops, including extra cleaning blitzes.
• Overhauling the NJ Transit app and website and improving live bus and train updates.

Sherrill said the plan will be due to her in May, and then riders should expect to see “immediate results this year.”

In addition to what she heard from residents on the campaign and during her transition, Sherrill said, this directive was inspired by her own experience riding trains — especially to Washington, DC, while serving in the U.S. Congress — and from her husband, who has commuted to New York City for over a decade.

“I, on multiple occasions, had that experience where I’m standing on the platform, and it says my train is coming, and it’s nowhere in sight,” Sherrill said. “That kind of lack of information can make you late for meetings. It can really impact your ability to get home on time.”

'Doing' versus hoping

NJ Transit President and CEO Kris Kolluri said this order should signal to riders that the agency is taking the customer experience seriously.

In his first few months on the job last year, some of Kolluri’s initiatives were to increase cleaning at major stations — he even handpicked the lavender scent for the new sanitizing product — and to accelerate the replacement of NJ Transit’s 13,000 sun-damaged and foggy train windows.

Half of those windows were replaced, and if the agency continues at that rate, it will finish ahead of schedule, Kolluri said.

“You can build a reliable system by hoping for it or by doing something about it,” Kolluri said. “What the governor is saying is we’re going to do something about it, which, frankly, is a departure from how we have thought about reliability over 45 years at NJ Transit.”

Priya Jain, the acting New Jersey transportation commissioner, who also chairs NJ Transit’s board, said listening to customers is going to be essential going forward.

“NJ Transit has made real progress, and that progress matters, but we also know that customer experience hasn’t always been consistent, and consistency is what riders feel,” Jain said. “A key part of this is listening — not occasionally, but as a core part of how we operate.”

Building trust

All of that costs money, and if the Legislature approves the governor’s budget, there will be some extra spending power to make the improvements.

Sherrill’s budget for the next fiscal year — which runs from July 1 to June 30 — would boost NJ Transit’s state aid to $1.67 billion, a $230 million increase from what the agency received for the current fiscal year. It also would increase the agency’s capital budget to $782 million, up from $767 million.

Sherrill said she hopes the focus on improving the customer experience will gain her some trust with riders as officials work to fix longer-term problems, such as replacing the aging fleets of buses and trains. The biggest cause of train cancellations at NJ Transit are mechanical failures, a problem exacerbated by fleets that are decades old and were never replaced.

The first set of new train cars — ordered by the Murphy administration in 2018 — will go into service later this year, and hundreds more will be purchased. Every outdated bus and rail car in the agency’s fleet is expected to be replaced by 2031.

Sherrill said officials will “take those steps to make these improvements quickly, so that we have both the basic things that we’re doing well, and then I think riders are going to trust us with a longer-term plan.”