By THOMAS K. WRIGHT  president of the Regional Plan Association  

AUG. 21, 2015

 

PRINCETON, N.J. – THIS has been a tough season for commuters in the New York region: the Amtrak crash in May, trains stuck in Hudson River tunnels in June, subway service disrupted by never-ending summer construction. Still, more than 5.6 million people take the subway each weekday, the most since 1949; New Jersey Transit’s ridership into the city has risen 75 percent in the past 15 years, and Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor carried a record of nearly 12 million riders last year.

Why are our transit systems faltering just as more people than ever want to use them?

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