(The following article by Khurram Saeed was posted on the White Plains Journal News website on September 15.)
NEWARK, N.J. — Roger Herman has taken the train from Suffern to Hoboken since 1989, riding on it about 226 days a year.
“I never sit in the middle seat,” said Herman, who manages a computer payment system for KBC Bank in midtown Manhattan. “It’s just too uncomfortable.”
Two years ago, Herman was given the chance to live out a train rider’s dream: He was one of 14 NJ Transit commuters asked to help custom-design 231 new rail cars.
The results: no more middle seat, upper and lower seating levels, more legroom, a padded leaning station for passengers who like to stand, extra storage space, a public address system you can understand and electronic destination screens to keep riders informed, among other amenities.
“If people don’t like it, they’re going to blame us,” Herman said, laughing. “But they’ll be happy.”
Herman was on hand at Newark Penn Station yesterday when NJ Transit officials unveiled the multilevel car.
The first of the new cars are expected to be on the tracks by fall 2006. They will serve NJ Transit’s busiest routes — trains that operate to and from New York Penn Station on the Morris & Essex Lines, the Northeast Corridor Line and the North Jersey Coast Line.
Rockland residents will be able to the catch the new trains from Hoboken or Secaucus Junction.
The new trains will replace the oldest single-level coaches in the agency’s fleet, including the 33-year-old Comet I series, which are used on the two lines that serve Rockland commuters.
“This is about our riders and our customers,” said NJ Transit chairman Jack Lettiere, who is also the state’s transportation commissioner. “We didn’t go into a back room and design this car and have our riders put up with it.”
The agency soon will begin testing three prototypes in New Jersey. Four other prototypes will be sent to the Federal Railroad Administration test track in Pueblo, Colo. The cars will be mass produced after extensive testing, with the first car expected to arrive next spring and be on the tracks in the fall, NJ Transit officials said.
Each new car will cost an average of $1.9 million. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey paid for the first 100 — 48 coach cars without restrooms and with 142 seats; 37 coach cars with handicapped-accessible restrooms and 132 seats; and 15 cab cars with handicapped-accessible rest rooms and 127 seats.
“It’s an investment in the future of this state; it’s an investment in the future of this region,” Port Authority Chairman Tony Coscia said.
Susan Sodano, who lives in Chester, N.Y., and used to commute daily from NJ Transit’s station in Harriman to Manhattan, also was part of the focus group.
In the summer of 2003, they went to Montreal to inspect a mock-up of the rail car at Bombardier Transportation, which will manufacture all the cars.
Sodano wanted to improve the small, ordinary items that make a commuter’s ride comfortable.
That meant adding more bathrooms and trash receptacles, anti-skid flooring and proper climate control and widening aisles.
“They did a fabulous job,” Sodano said. “I think it’s state of the art. It’s really amazing.”
Maxine Marshall, a NJ Transit rider from Netherwood, N.J., and a focus group member, was pleased with the improvements to lighting, seat fabrics and the interior’s color, a denim blue shade.
“If you spend more than five minutes on a train, you want it to be comfortable,” Marshall said, “and you want it to be efficient.”