If you think HBLR shuttle buses are bad, NYC Subway shuttle buses can be absolutely brutal. I also guess you've never ridden the Bayonne section of the line south of Danforth Ave, max operating speed is 56 mph.

>max operating speed is 56 mph

Doubt, but not overwhelmingly so

The trackage in that area is actually good for 80mph but top speed is limited to 56mph. I recently good book that covered the planning, design and construction of the HBLR by one of the guys involved in the system and it was mentioned.

OK fine, top POSSIBLE speed. What speed do they run at? Because it feels significantly slower than that

Dont forget leg work outs hopping the turnstiles vs walking into the lightrail

> 3 lines and barely goes anywhere

Weird statement... its for getting around Hudson county which it actually does really well at. If only the weekend service wasn't trash.

> slowly pulls in the station

Only sometimes

> aerodynamic

> sleek

I've never seen these words used to describe the light rail trains. They are not lookers exactly.

> bent your metrocard

This hasnt been a thing for a while. Who living on the NJ side is still using MTA cards? Can just tap with anything.

And its missing for the light rail:

> Too shy to reliably meet up on the weekend

As far as I'm aware from documentation I've seen and my personal experience, on the Bayonne Branch south of Danforth Avenue trains operate at a max speed of 55-56mph. I was able to double check a NJDOT State Safety Oversight document from 2021. It states "The HBLR operation is bi-directional with reverse signaling. The Available speeds for operation are in increments between 5 and 55-mph. Two additional speed control limits are available for specific circumstances, namely a 15-mph Yard speed and a 35-mph Street Running mode."

You're citing books as to what they can operate at, not what they do. I've been on that line plenty and seen it going a lot slower than nearby car traffic, hence my doubt. I'll try to remember to get a speedometer app next time I use it.

When I have personally ridden that section of the line it does seem from my perspective compared to the traffic on NJ 440 we appear to be operating at that speed or a comparable speed.

You definitely can’t do tap to pay yet on the NJ side. Not rolling out until later this year.

For the light rail, you missed a few things:

"explore the region with the element of surprise as there is no functioning exterior car signage or announcement system"

"enjoy the local rainstorms in platforms and benches completely unprotected from the elements"

"share the roads with the considerate and careful drivers of the greater New York City area"

"you didn't want to go to Bergen County anyway"

My favorite part is when the train's announcements are one or two stations out of sync and you have to guess where you are.

Or better yet, hopping a train bound for either West Side Avenue or 8th Street, but with broken exterior lights, so you get to roll a dice to see which line you ended up hopping on.

People don't use MTA cards?

There’s always the Newark light rail. The worst of both worlds 😍

Yea... I thought it was clear I met tapping for MTA you can use the PATH card and no MTA card for NYC. There's no advantage for doing otherwise, since PATH discounts using its own card and not the MTA card, and for NYC you cant do unlimited on PATH.

For PATH people should be using the PATH card because it is discounted the more trips you load.

All of the MTA has tap to pay (OMNY) now, so there is no reason to have an MTA card. Even the argument for unlimited goes out the window because the tap to pay system gives you free rides after your 12th anyway.

So there's actually no reason for someone in NJ to have an MTA card, there's no benefit.

Oh, I was worried metrocards were phased out. I still have a ton of money on mine because I always flush out excess commuter benefit money to it before it expires. Looks like I need to get me an OMNY card.

Theres a couple reasons you might still want a metrocard. One is that OMNY restarts your 12 ride count every Monday, so if you're visiting from out of town you might be better off with a 7 day unlimited card (depending on which days of the week you'll be using it). They also haven't quite finished rolling OMNY out everywhere; I know the Roosevelt island tram didn't have it as of last month, and maybe there's some other niche services that haven't been updated yet.

Aside from that i really like OMNY, though. They seem to put a lot of thought into it.

Most transit savings plans don’t support ONNY yet, so for people who prefer to use pretax dollars there’s incentive to not use OMNY.

JFK air train only takes metro card :)

Imagine paying for my coffee. I’d rather just hop the counter at Dunkin and pour it myself.

I personally don’t use it because the discount is really small (15 cents??) for the hassle of dealing with an extra transit thing.

What's the complaint here? It was always pretty solid for me through college and when I lived just off of downtown Newark.

Transit Police boarded HBLR about 3 weeks ago around 4:30 PM on a Friday. 80% of riders in my railcar got issued a ticket. In NYC, fair evasion is a misdemeanor, which means violators can be arrested and booked. https://nyc-fare-evasion.csail.mit.edu/

I’m actually only using plastic metrocard for Path. I can tap on every MTA station (that I’ve been to) but Hoboken Path station doesn’t have the tappy thingie, which is incredibly frustrating because it occasionally eats fares off my card

Light rail also covers a longer distance in a shorter amount of time compared to NYC subway. If I’m going to midtown sometimes I take the HBLR to Lincoln harbor and then grab the bus to PABT. Usually faster than PATH to WTC and then 1 train.

the need to build out the transit in JC similar to NYC . more connectivity and greater economic development