See here: NJ Transit to finally address the No. 1 rider complaint

🚆The cloudy windows on NJ Transit rail cars cannot be cleaned

🚆NJ Transit will spend $18.5 million to replace them within 3 years

🚆It is the #1 complaint from riders, according to NJ Transit's CEO

NJ Transit will solve one of its most complained about problems: cloudy windows on its railroad passenger cars that no one can see through.

The windows are nearly impossible to clean with regular chemicals. The material used to make the windows causes them to become cloudy over time because of acid rain, heat and UV rays. That means passengers cannot simply look out the window to see where they are by reading station signs.

"We take the feedback that our customers give us very, very seriously. Franck Beaumin, our customer advocate, focuses a lot on talking to our customers. This is one issue that comes up all the time," NJ Transit CEO and President Kris Kolluri said Wednesday.

NJ Transit first went to the Rutgers Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation. When they concluded that the damage to the windows could not be reversed, the agency decided to replace the windows.

"The decision we've made is to now replace all 13,000 windows not in six years or eight years as was originally thought of but within three years. We will replace them at a rate of about a third a year," Kolluri said.

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Replacement challenges

The total cost for materials will be $18.5 million, according to Kolluri. The replacement project presents several challenges to NJ Transit. One to make sure that that there is shop time to both replace windows and do regular maintenance work on the rail cars. The other is getting the materials.

"We are about to enter, I think, into an uncharted territory on supply chain. I'm sure all of you have noticed what is happening in Washington and in other parts of the country as it relates to tariffs and others," Kolluri said. "My approach is always is to be conservative at first. We think three years is the right time frame to navigate through the supply chain issues and the shop maintenance issues we have."

Kolluri said that Gov. Phil Murphy proposed modernizing its entire fleet. The budget proposal calls for $815 million in funding from the Corporate Transit Fee and $767 million for NJ Transit capital projects. It's not clear where funding for the replacement project is coming from the proposed budget.

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