NJ Transit Goes Fare Free for a Week

Newark, NJ: For a historic first time, New Jersey Transit eliminates fares throughout the whole system for an entire week. This “fare holiday” as NJ Transit call it, begins tomorrow, August 26th, and continues through September 2nd. Fares will be required again on transit beginning September 3rd.

On the back of a summer full of accidents, delays, a massive equipment shortage on the RiverLine, and a 15% fare hike, NJ Transit shows it’s appreciation to riders who stuck through them with this fare holiday.

“The fare holiday is a gesture of sincere appreciation for our customers’ continued loyalty and patronage, especially during a period when the service has not consistently met their expectations or our own.” – NJ Transit

How Does this Work

Beginning on August 26th, the following transit modes will be entirely free. This means passengers can enter and disembark transit vehicles on the following services without presenting fare or ID:

• NJ Transit operated bus service using NJ Transit branded buses
• NJ Transit Light Rail Lines (RiverLine, Newark Light Rail, and Hudson-Bergen Light Rail)
• NJ Transit operated commuter Rail Lines

These services are not affected, and will still require fares, despite operating within the state of NJ:

• Academy operated bus service
• Jitney Bus Services not operated by NJ Transit
• Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Service
• Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) Service
• Port Authority Transit Company (PATCO) Service
• Port Jervis Line
• Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) Service

Passengers who purchased NJ Transit monthly passes for the month of August will receive a 25% discount on September Monthly passes through the app and ticket vending machines.

For the transit enthusiast who put off riding NJ Transit due to a confusing fare system, now is your chance to explore!

About the author: Dash

I have been with Virtual Transit Center since it's conception as the "Dash Forums" back in 2008. Since then, I have been writing and doing YouTube side by side, focusing both on Transportation and Gaming. Most of my knowledge comes from SEPTA as I lived in Philadelphia for most of my life. As of 2021, I am on YouTube as DashTransit, Dash5155, and TheDashOfficial.

As for the name DashTransit itself, it actually stems from my YouTube channel.

DashTransit was originally called "njt5329" and the channel was just clips of buses. Mostly SEPTA and NJT. A Fujifilm Finepix was used in this era.

Starting in July 2011, the Canon SX130IS camera became the camera of the channel, bringing HD documentary-style videos much like my buddy (trainman1971) did for DVD for many years past. This is when the channel became known as "Transit Action Series"

In May 2012, the original Canon SX130IS retired, and then all videos were recorded off a mobile phone until eventually uploaded proved too difficult due to hardships IRL

Starting in 2017, I used a Canon SX200IS from Bastranz to reboot the channel that otherwise was dead for a whole year prior.

Between April 19th, 2019, and January 21st, 2021, all videos were recorded by a Canon SX710 HS camera. The channel was renamed DashTransit 4/19/19.