New Official Policy - Schedules May Not be Available in Stat

I asked NJT why you can't get a schedule in the station anymore, at least not at Lindenwold, and their response was, we're saving trees, check our website, or get the schedule at your local library. Meanwhile, there are 4,000 printed schedules delivered to Terminus Atlantic City for people trying to leave AC, so why can't the other stations hold any schedules to get people TO their supposed weekend destination?

NJT used to distribute a case of schedules at the Lindenwold station and instead of scaling back to appropriate numbers they decided it wasn't adding value at all, and keeping the schedules a secret will save them money.

IMO, the new schedule doesn't have to be a booklet, it just has to exist in some form. They should have a trifold that just shows the train times at each NJT station. Print it on black and white paper if you can't afford to run full color spreads. PATCO connection times shouldn't necessarily be printed on the page, because they take up a lot of space, and are too fluid (due to trackwork) and can't be guaranteed because of intermittent delays on both lines anyway. A simple blurb about 28 min to 15/th Locust should suffice, or 24 min to 8th/Market, and the fare which is $3. PATCO runs often enough, but not at the same time every day. What they try to provide with the train schedule showing combined lines effects nothing but confusion from newbs who think that the second line of Lindenwold times are both going toward AC when in fact one is arriving from a different system.

MODERATOR'S NOTE: Edited thread title.

Launcher wrote:I asked NJT why you can't get a schedule in the station anymore, at least not at Lindenwold, and their response was, we're saving trees, check our website, or get the schedule at your local library. Meanwhile, there are 4,000 printed schedules delivered to Terminus Atlantic City for people trying to leave AC, so why can't the other stations hold any schedules to get people TO their supposed weekend destination?

NJT used to distribute a case of schedules at the Lindenwold station and instead of scaling back to appropriate numbers they decided it wasn't adding value at all, and keeping the schedules a secret will save them money.

IMO, the new schedule doesn't have to be a booklet, it just has to exist in some form. They should have a trifold that just shows the train times at each NJT station. Print it on black and white paper if you can't afford to run full color spreads. PATCO connection times shouldn't necessarily be printed on the page, because they take up a lot of space, and are too fluid (due to trackwork) and can't be guaranteed because of intermittent delays on both lines anyway. A simple blurb about 28 min to 15/th Locust should suffice, or 24 min to 8th/Market, and the fare which is $3. PATCO runs often enough, but not at the same time every day. What they try to provide with the train schedule showing combined lines effects nothing but confusion from newbs who think that the second line of Lindenwold times are both going toward AC when in fact one is arriving from a different system.

Sounds like another attempt by NJT to discourage ridership.

Why would Njt try to discouragement ridership? I'm an employee and it's the first time I've heard that one.
I got my usual supply of the new timetables today, at my station, Middletown, NJ.
When I was visiting Italy forty years ago, the railroad there didn't give away timetables. It had large poster style time tables on the wall, and you copied the information you wanted.

it would be nice if NJT had an offical app, but it doesnt seem something they can handle. MTA has about 5 apps. the trees comment really means , we don't want to spend money.

This is not a step in the right direction. Sometimes I need a clear schedule at an intermediate stop so I can plan my trips beforehand. Smartphones make looking at PDF schedules a bit clumsy, on top of it are not very printer friendly, and departurevision and mybus only work if you need a train/bus in a pinch; not useful for planning trips. If you are going to cut one thing, at least make it up in another form.

Steampowered wrote:it would be nice if NJT had an offical app, but it doesnt seem something they can handle. MTA has about 5 apps. the trees comment really means , we don't want to spend money.

just google njt mobile and it takes you to a very easy to use page similar to an app.

Saving trees? The schedules are all ready printed on 100% recycled paper with soy based ink... You can't get much more "green".

I think they don't want to put schedules in a station where it's probably not needed. I'm sure it's frustrating for the few folks looking for one, though. I use the PDF's for SEPTA, as the stations i use have no paper schedules available after 12:00 weekdays and not at all weekends.

Newark Penn had plenty of the new ones for the NJT rail lines.

Schedules have reappeared at Lindenwold station. I am glad the new schedules are available again, after we spent the majority of summer it seems without having any schedules available despite multiple (at least 4 attempts that I am aware of) of fellow riders and I calling in to request they be sent. Lindenwold is not yet exactly a web friendly patronage, as evidenced by how quickly the paper schedules move when they are available.

No trees were spared, as I have indicated, hundreds upon thousands of schedules are in Atlantic City, helping people leave. And, I think it bears repeating, the schedule for this particular line only needs to be a trifold, not a full color book!

Launcher wrote:Schedules have reappeared at Lindenwold station. I am glad the new schedules are available again, after we spent the majority of summer it seems without having any schedules available despite multiple (at least 4 attempts that I am aware of) of fellow riders and I calling in to request they be sent. Lindenwold is not yet exactly a web friendly patronage, as evidenced by how quickly the paper schedules move when they are available.

No trees were spared, as I have indicated, hundreds upon thousands of schedules are in Atlantic City, helping people leave. And, I think it bears repeating, the schedule for this particular line only needs to be a trifold, not a full color book!

NJT schedules are printed on 100% recycled paper..... using soy ink. I guess you missed it the first time.

Launcher wrote:I asked NJT why you can't get a schedule in the station anymore, at least not at Lindenwold, and their response was, we're saving trees, check our website, or get the schedule at your local library. Meanwhile, there are 4,000 printed schedules delivered to Terminus Atlantic City for people trying to leave AC, so why can't the other stations hold any schedules to get people TO their supposed weekend destination?

NJT used to distribute a case of schedules at the Lindenwold station and instead of scaling back to appropriate numbers they decided it wasn't adding value at all, and keeping the schedules a secret will save them money.

IMO, the new schedule doesn't have to be a booklet, it just has to exist in some form. They should have a trifold that just shows the train times at each NJT station. Print it on black and white paper if you can't afford to run full color spreads. PATCO connection times shouldn't necessarily be printed on the page, because they take up a lot of space, and are too fluid (due to trackwork) and can't be guaranteed because of intermittent delays on both lines anyway. A simple blurb about 28 min to 15/th Locust should suffice, or 24 min to 8th/Market, and the fare which is $3. PATCO runs often enough, but not at the same time every day. What they try to provide with the train schedule showing combined lines effects nothing but confusion from newbs who think that the second line of Lindenwold times are both going toward AC when in fact one is arriving from a different system.

There may no longer be brochure-type schedules but there is still almost always a large posted schedule and map from the stations that I've seen. Also, I believe NJT is realizing that the vast majority of adults (or at least one person in their party) these days have a smart phone and able to navigate NJT's relatively simple mobile site. These types of things being phased out are good thing, its cuts litter, its adapting to a more connected NJ, and its saving money, however inconsequential the amount.

I understand that NJ Transit wants people to use your phones to look up schedules.

That doesn't help those people who use dumbphones at the age of 23 because of a crazy principle.

I will say though, that NJ Transit's keeping of multiple schedules on the platform is nice to have. I wish LIRR and MNR made schedules that are as easy to read and are available.

I'm a ticket agent and I've had three very unhappy customers in the last two days, who missed trains because they read schedules wrong on their phones. It's easy to read any schedule wrong if you are not careful, but especially when only a very small portion of it appears on the cell phone screen at one time.

Launcher wrote:Schedules have reappeared at Lindenwold station.

Maybe someone on Transit read the complaint here; or possibly they were never meant to be eliminated at Lindenwold, but just ran out.

philipmartin wrote:I'm a ticket agent and I've had three very unhappy customers in the last two days, who missed trains because they read schedules wrong on their phones. It's easy to read any schedule wrong if you are not careful, but especially when only a very small portion of it appears on the cell phone screen at one time.

I've seen both on LIRR - yes people do occasionally misread web schedules, but far more common is the inability to understand the paper schedule, from reading the wrong side (weekday/weekend) to not realizing AM/PM, etc. And that's before even considering the notes.

Question for you as a ticket agent - back when there was peak/off peak pricing, was there lots of confusion from the discretionary travelers? There sure is on our side.