She normally boards an express train — #3926 — scheduled to leave Princeton Junction at 7:45 a.m. But for three consecutive weekdays in late July, New Jersey Transit canceled a local train — #3828 — that is supposed to depart nine minutes earlier. On each occasion, Ms. Padden’s express became a local that crept up the Northeast Corridor.

One of those days, she arrived in Newark’s Penn Station, where she switches to a PATH train to the World Trade Center, at 9:05. To her misfortune, she became a victim of the problems that have also been plaguing the PATH train system.

At that time of day, Ms. Padden’s PATH ride is supposed to take 22 minutes. But she did not arrive at work until 10 a.m., a full 2½ hours after leaving home. On the way home that night, more cancellations led to a return trip that was nearly as long, she said. In all, it took nearly five hours to complete a round-trip commute of about 100 miles.

Michael Marino, who oversees PATH for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said complications in switching between sections of the system that have positive train control technology working and those that do not had caused problems during weekday rush hours. The PATH usually has about 98 percent on-time performance, but that fell into “the mid-80s” in some weeks this summer, Mr. Marino said.

That sudden decline led some riders to attack Mr. Marino personally on social media, he said. In a posting he was shown by his grandson, he said, “One guy took my picture and made me look like a Barnum & Bailey clown.”

Overall, the PATH stayed on scheduled about 94 percent of the time in June, the Port Authority said. Mr. Marino vowed the performance would improve and that the PATH would be the only railroad in the region to complete installation of positive train control by Dec. 31. New Jersey Transit is more than halfway toward completing its installation and expects to receive a two-year extension of the deadline, Ms. Snyder said.

For his part, Mr. King has taken to Twitter to sound off about the problems he has encountered trying to get to work from New Jersey. But he said the lack of an adequate response from New Jersey Transit has left him more aggravated and wondering whether it was a mistake to count on its trains to get him to and from work for $420 a month.