After push by Gov. Murphy, NJ Transit will give a date by week’s end for Atlantic City rail line to resume service

Gov. Phil Murphy on Tuesday said he has instructed New Jersey Transit executive director Kevin Corbett to say this week — not “in three weeks,” as Corbett told angry riders last Thursday — when the suspended Atlantic City and Princeton rail lines will resume service.

“I would say this, with great respect for Kevin’s efforts and his team’s efforts: They can do better, we all have to do better,” Murphy said in remarks prior to speaking at a news conference on paid sick time held at the offices of Princetel in Hamilton Township.

Tuesday afternoon, NJ Transit agreed to the new timetable for an announcement -- by the end of the week -- though the embattled agency still gave no clue as to the actual restart date for the train lines.

“As per the Governor’s direction, by the end of the week we will be providing customers with a date certain for the restoration of service on the Atlantic City Rail Line and the Princeton Dinky,” the statement said.

A meeting last week in the unheated, dormant Atlantic City Train Station was widely panned by elected officials, commuters, and Atlantic City entrepreneurs, including the organizers of the massive Atlantic City Beer Festival, which in past years had thousands of people riding the train to the weekend event at the end of March.

NJ Transit officials showed up with no sound system, no chairs, and no answers, beyond the vague three-week timeline for a possible answer and an outside date of the end of June.

“I’ve heard from commuters who have been dealing with these service interruptions and waiting for these lines to start back up,” Murphy said. “They want clarity. Who can blame them. They are right. They deserve a clear indication when that will happen.”

Corbett has been under increasing pressure to restart the Atlantic City-to-Philadelphia line — or even just to give a date when that will happen — since the initial target date of January came and went. The line was suspended in September to allow, state officials said, the installation of Positive Train Control safety measures by the end of 2018.

That deadline to install Positive Train Control was met, Murphy said Tuesday.

“With that crisis behind us, our full attention is turned to restoring services,” Murphy said. “I’ve instructed Kevin to give restoration dates not in three weeks but this week, so commuters can better prepare.”

NJ Transit has scheduled another public meeting for 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Carman Tilelli Community Center in Cherry Hill.

Also Tuesday, three state legislators from Blackwood and Washington Townships issued a statement calling for the reopening of the rail line, saying its absence has “unjustifiably disrupted the lives of thousands of South Jersey residents and has suppressed economic prosperity in the region.”

“[T]he residents of South Jersey deserve to see this shutdown come to an immediate end,” Sen. Fred Madden (D., Washington Township), Assemblywoman Gabriela Mosquera (D., Blackwood), and Assemblyman Paul Moriarty (D., Washington Township) said in the statement.

“Displaced riders dependent on public transportation are forced to endure bus routes that, in many cases, more than double their commute times,” they said. "The time of our residents is valuable and we cannot afford to see any more of their time wasted.”

After Murphy’s remarks, Assemblymen Vince Mazzeo and John Armato, Democrats who represent the Atlantic City region, issued a statement calling on NJ Transit to heed the governor’s instructions and announce the date for resumption of service.

“We’ve waited for answers from NJ Transit for months on end and we’ve been stonewalled at every turn,” Armato said.