COAST LINE ON-TIME RECORD NEAR WORST

DebarkingPassengers arriving at Red Bank in 2006.

Service on the North Jersey Coast Line rail line that serves the Red Bank area was second-to-worst among seven New Jersey Transit lines for on-time arrivals, today's Asbury Park Press reports.

The coast line was "almost tied" with the Northeast Corridor line, which handles Amtrak traffic as well as local service, for worst, according to a Press analysis of monthly on-time data.

From the article:

"It doesn't surprise me. You get used to it being constantly late. You almost ignore the schedule," said Pasquale Cirullo of Middletown, interviewed after he got off the train Wednesday in Red Bank. "I'm used to it not getting to New York when the schedule says."

The report showed the coast line on time at its peak-hour destinations 87.6 percent of the time, better only than the Northeast Corridor line, at 85.1 percent.

The Morris & Essex (90.8 percent) and Raritan Valley (93.7) lines fared better, according to the Press.

Among other impediments to smooth sailing, the article highlights problems with recently installed concrete rail ties, which were supposed to last 50 years but are lasting just four. Those ties are being replaced.

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