It would be interesting to see the same list back ten or twenty years.
As far as I know the first time any ridership was taken was by the fledgling New Jersey Dept. of Transportation back in either the summer of 1966 or 1967. They did both rail and bus. The bus was done by sampling with people who counted on/off passengers by bus stop. A friend of mine was one of a few people hired to ride every line in the state that summer. I don't know how they did the rail counts. It would be interesting to know the both absolute and relative counts back then compared to today.
A little known station on the Gladstone Branch was Mine Brook. It was exactly 1.5 miles east of Far Hills. All it had was a ten by twenty foot pole shelter with a roof. When I got my driver's license in 1961 one day I counted morning boardings and evening arrivals. There were two cars parked there. Two morning and four evening trains stopped or flag stopped there. With a couple of car poolers and drop offs I think the count was about ten.
Railroad Forums
Moderators: lensovet, Kaback9, nick11a
pdman wrote:It would be interesting to see the same list back ten or twenty years.Yes, that is a quaint little spot still. No sign of the station, but the land is still there where it was. Right now, there is no need to re-institute it as there isn't much of a community there. Anyone wishing to ride the train could always go to Far Hills or Bernardsville. But, with two cars there and anybody else being dropped off, one can see why it was shut down.
As far as I know the first time any ridership was taken was by the fledgling New Jersey Dept. of Transportation back in either the summer of 1996 or 1997. They did both rail and bus. The bus was done by sampling with people who counted on/off passengers by bus stop. A friend of mine was one of a few people hired to ride every line in the state that summer. I don't know how they did the rail counts. It would be interesting to know the both absolute and relative counts back then compared to today.
A little known station on the Gladstone Branch was Mine Brook. It was exactly 1.5 miles east of Far Hills. All it had was a ten by twenty foot pole shelter with a roof. When I got my driver's license in 1961 one day I counted morning boardings and evening arrivals. There were two cars parked there. Two morning and four evening trains stopped or flag stopped there. With a couple of car poolers and drop offs I think the count was about ten.
~Nick O.: Moderator: NJT Rail
Moderator of the "widely popular" NJT Rail Forum! What once was first is now seventh!
Moderator of the "widely popular" NJT Rail Forum! What once was first is now seventh!
Getting on the train at Radburn tonight got me wondering. That is the 2nd biggest station on the Main/Bergen Line route but there is only 1 TVM. Other small stations like HoHoKus and Allendale have 2 and Route 17 did have 3. Is this because NJT wants people to have to buy their tickets on the train so they can collect more money from them?
SecaucusJunction wrote:Getting on the train at Radburn tonight got me wondering. That is the 2nd biggest station on the Main/Bergen Line route but there is only 1 TVM. Other small stations like HoHoKus and Allendale have 2 and Route 17 did have 3. Is this because NJT wants people to have to buy their tickets on the train so they can collect more money from them?Perhaps it's becasue Radburn still has a ticket agent? I think it's part time, M-F 0500-0945.
Ridgewood, Ramsey and Suffern are the other "open" stations on the Main Line.
That makes sense. I've just noticed the long lines off peak at the Radburn train station and wondered why there was only one machine. Does HoHoKus still have a ticket agent? I know they did up to a couple years ago...
here's another while we're at this: why do so many stations still have no TVMs? I'm not much of a cash person, and sadly, conductors refuse to take those plastic things known as credit cards 
Paul Borokhov
Last RRPicArch addition – NJ Railfan.
Moderator of the NJT and California commuter forums
Last RRPicArch addition – NJ Railfan.
Moderator of the NJT and California commuter forums
Its not that they refuse to accept credit cards, its that they can't!!!
Unless you wanna just GIVE them your credit card, im sure they won't mind!
Unless you wanna just GIVE them your credit card, im sure they won't mind!
On the RR, "believe nothing you hear and only half of what you see"
John, aka "JTGSHU" passed away on August 26, 2013. We honor his memory and his devotion to railroading at railroad.net.
John, aka "JTGSHU" passed away on August 26, 2013. We honor his memory and his devotion to railroading at railroad.net.
They could actually take credit cards. Nextel has phones that process credit cards. Credit Card processing companies also sell terminals that wirelessly authorize and process payments. I use this for my work.
geoffand wrote:They could actually take credit cards. Nextel has phones that process credit cards. Credit Card processing companies also sell terminals that wirelessly authorize and process payments. I use this for my work.ok then if you want to pay for that equipment you should be willing to pay a $25 instead of $5 surcharge.
With decent negotiating skills the machines are either provided for free or heavily subsidized by the credit card processing company, much like cell phones are.
There is a wireless transaction fee in-line with the cost of sending a text message, along with the usual per transaction fee. This would actually cost NJT more since the credit card processing company takes a percentage, but if you bought the ticket at any other TVM or agent with a credit card, NJT is still losing part of the transaction to the CC company.
NJT should upgrade their phones and the phone service that is already (as I understand it) provided to conductors so they can process plastic.
This will prevent people from getting on the train knowing full well that they only have enough cash to cover their ticket and not the surcharge. When they say, "But all I have is a twenty" the conductor can point into their open wallet overflowing with shiny little plastic cards and say, "But now we take those!"
Oh yeah, after the first card is declined yell out "I am sorry Mister/Mamm, but your credit card is DECLINED!, I'll let you ride for free this time, but don't let it happen again." Most people will learn their lesson, red faced and all.
There is a wireless transaction fee in-line with the cost of sending a text message, along with the usual per transaction fee. This would actually cost NJT more since the credit card processing company takes a percentage, but if you bought the ticket at any other TVM or agent with a credit card, NJT is still losing part of the transaction to the CC company.
NJT should upgrade their phones and the phone service that is already (as I understand it) provided to conductors so they can process plastic.
This will prevent people from getting on the train knowing full well that they only have enough cash to cover their ticket and not the surcharge. When they say, "But all I have is a twenty" the conductor can point into their open wallet overflowing with shiny little plastic cards and say, "But now we take those!"
Oh yeah, after the first card is declined yell out "I am sorry Mister/Mamm, but your credit card is DECLINED!, I'll let you ride for free this time, but don't let it happen again." Most people will learn their lesson, red faced and all.
geoffand wrote:With decent negotiating skills the machines are either provided for free or heavily subsidized by the credit card processing company, much like cell phones are.that's or just call NJTPD and have a ticket be written.
There is a wireless transaction fee in-line with the cost of sending a text message, along with the usual per transaction fee. This would actually cost NJT more since the credit card processing company takes a percentage, but if you bought the ticket at any other TVM or agent with a credit card, NJT is still losing part of the transaction to the CC company.
NJT should upgrade their phones and the phone service that is already (as I understand it) provided to conductors so they can process plastic.
This will prevent people from getting on the train knowing full well that they only have enough cash to cover their ticket and not the surcharge. When they say, "But all I have is a twenty" the conductor can point into their open wallet overflowing with shiny little plastic cards and say, "But now we take those!"
Oh yeah, after the first card is declined yell out "I am sorry Mister/Mamm, but your credit card is DECLINED!, I'll let you ride for free this time, but don't let it happen again." Most people will learn their lesson, red faced and all.