NJ Transit passengers who use rail lines that have been suspended or cut back due to safety work will have to wait at least until April for their trains to return, however, some fare discounts will end before then.

NJ Transit officials announced Friday that suspended service on the Atlantic City line, the Princeton Shuttle and Raritan Valley Line service to and from New York will return sometime during the second quarter of the year, which begins on April 1.

Today is 22nd and we are just 7 working days away @NJTRANSIT , need to know about the 10% discount as we have tickets marked with jan 31st expiration date. — Ravi (@ravir9) January 22, 2019

A 10 percent rail system wide fare discount will end on Jan. 31, but a 25 percent discount on Atlantic City rail tickets will continue, officials said.

“It’s reprehensible they revoked the fare discount for long suffering riders when they don’t announce the date when one single train is restored,” said David Peter Alan, Lackawanna Commuter Coalition chairman. “What we are hearing from our constituents is they’re still furious, they want their trains back.”

The announcement came after commuter groups and legislators pressed NJ Transit to give riders a time frame on when service will resume and the fate of the discounts.

“We think this is an important first step. A lot more has to be done to restore communication and trust with riders,” said Assemblyman Daniel Benson, D-Mercer, chairman of the assembly transportation committee, which pressed NJ Transit officials to update riders. “Thankfully, they listened and put this out.”

NJ Transit officials also will hold five meetings with riders of the affected rail lines in Atlantic City, Cherry Hill, Morristown, Princeton and Somerville, he said. Dates have not been set. The committee still may hold a hearing with NJ Transit officials at a time to get the most answers for commuters from officials, Benson said.

Republican lawmakers, led by Assemblyman Anthony Bucco, R-Morris, have pressed for hearings to address commuter complaints about canceled trains, overcrowded trains and delays. Legislators should ride the trains and be on the platform when they learn a train’s been canceled so they feel what commuters experience, Alan said.

Last week, both Gov. Phil Murphy and Kevin Corbett, NJ Transit executive director said the suspended trains would return, but the federal shutdown has prevent the Federal Railroad Administration from reviewing and signing off on plans to resume service. Both said they didn’t want service to be prematurely restored and cut back due to equipment or crew availability.

A great start would be to get NJ Transit's Atlantic City Line started back up with more frequent trains! — Joseph (@bicycleriiights) January 23, 2019

"Our goal is to begin restoring a service that remains reliable and predictable for customers as quickly as possible,” Corbett said in a statement.

NJ Transit officials said the agency continues to address a continuing shortage of locomotive engineers, and equipment availability, as Positive Train Control (PTC) installations, maintenance inspections and testing continues. Earlier this month officials admitted the railroad had to cancel trains this month because of a backlog of locomotives and rails cars that needed to be inspected.

Corbett said he expected the number of canceled trains to dwindle toward the end of January.

NJ Transit met a federally mandated Dec. 31, 2018, deadline to install the first phase of Positive Train Control and filed documents and an application for an extension to complete the work and testing by Dec. 31, 2020. PTC is a computer and radio based system that stops a train if the operator fails to obey speed limits or signals.

Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com . Follow him on Twitter @commutinglarry .

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