Category: Railgram

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Sally Jane Gellert

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October started with a morning in Hoboken, enjoying the good weather and historic trains, in celebration of NJ Transit Rail’s 40th anniversary year. We arrived as NJ Transit staff was setting out information tables and tote bags, and enjoyed photographing the equipment, reading the URHS information boards, and boarding 2 of the historic cars. The…

NJ Transit Honors Its Original Rail Employees

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David Peter Alan

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New Jersey Transit Rail Operations (NJTRO) was founded as 1982 ended and 1983 began: the deadline that Congress had imposed for Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) to give up the local passenger trains that it had been running along the Northeast Corridor (NEC) that Amtrak had owned since 1976. NJ Transit’s rail component was founded at…

NJT Rail Celebrates 40th Anniversary With a Special Train Ride and a One-Day Exhibit in Hoboken

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David Peter Alan

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Although NJ Transit Rail was founded at the beginning of 1983 and started operating at that time, the “official” celebration of its 40th anniversary was held in September and at the beginning of October, as reported elsewhere in this issue of the Railgram. Twenty-eight of the railroad’s original employees were honored at the agency’s Board…

Officer Elections at December Meeting

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Webweaver

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Each December, the Lackawanna Coalition elects officers for the upcoming year; this year, we look to have a full slate and, as always, will take nominations from the floor.Current officers are willing to retain their positions: Running to fill vacancies are the following: All members who have joined before 1 July 2023 are eligible to…

Strike! (but not yet)

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Sally Jane Gellert

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Commentary The vote is in (as of August 31), and it is overwhelmingly favorable to a strike: the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) union voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike (of 494 eligible members, 399 returned ballots; 397 of these voted for strike authorization, and two ballots were ruled void, as reported by…

Congratulations—But Wait!

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Sally Jane Gellert

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Commentary We congratulate NJ Transit on winning its most recent award, for 2023 Outstanding Public Transportation System, from APTA. As the third largest transit agency in the country, and the only one running statewide transit (though density varies), NJ Transit is in limited company, yet that company includes large, prominent agencies, so it is quite…

What Is that Photo?

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Sally Jane Gellert

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Citizen advocate Adam Reich recently brought to our attention a major flaw in NJ Transit’s social media: the lack of ALT text for many of their images, particularly problematical when they have text over the image. Web developers and designers know that for screen readers, text-over-image is not acceptable; basically, that configuration should not be…

LC Members Assist New Riders

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Sally Jane Gellert

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The Lackawanna Coalition realizes that many people are nervous about taking public transportation, and yet for the March to End Fossil Fuels on Sunday, Sept. 17, both for practical reasons (a number of streets near the march route will be closed off, meaning close parking is also less available than usual) and for environmental reasons…

Report from the Chair, Sept./Oct. 2023

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Sally Jane Gellert

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