New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill, Congressman Rob Menendez, Congresswoman Nellie Pou and NJ Transit President & CEO Kris Kolluri showcased advancements in modernizing NJ Transit’s fleet, highlighted by the arrival of the first of 374 next-generation multilevel rail cars.
The Multilevel III railcar will undergo several months of final testing and commissioning in New Jersey before being joined by up to 40 additional new cars, which are expected to enter passenger service later this year. At an event today at NJ Transit’s Meadows Maintenance Complex in Kearny, NJ Transit also displayed a new 40-foot bus, a new Access Link paratransit vehicle, and a new mobile police command center. Earlier this year, NJ Transit unveiled the first of its fully renovated River LINE light rail vehicles.
This represents an investment of more than $3 billion dollars and is a major step forward in the agency’s plan to fully modernize its rail and bus fleets by 2031.
The new Multilevel III rail cars offer improved mechanical reliability. This will allow NJ Transit to retire rail cars built in the 1970’s that operate between 30,000 and 40,000 miles before a mechanical failure and replace them with cars that are 10 times more reliable, traveling roughly 400,000 miles before a mechanical failure.
Customer amenities include additional seating capacity and enhanced accessibility, higher operating speeds up to 110 m.p.h., USB charging ports and new onboard information screens. The new rail cars will replace NJ Transit’s aging Arrow III and Comet II and IV single-level cars.
The first car to be delivered to NJ Transit is a multilevel power car. Power cars are passenger coaches equipped with traction motors.
They can propel themselves and two other passenger cars without locomotives, or they can be combined with additional power cars to operate trainsets of up to 14 cars. Power cars provide faster acceleration than locomotive-driven trainsets. The new multilevel cars are being manufactured by Alstom in Plattsburgh, NY and are among the first of their kind in the nation.
The new 40-foot buses include USB charging ports at multiple seats, brighter LED interior lighting for comfort and energy efficiency, and low-floor design with ramps for faster, easier boarding – especially for seniors and customers with disabilities. The buses also feature improved intercom systems for clearer announcements and enhanced safety and security measures, including onboard security cameras, blind-spot cameras to assist bus operators, and turn-warning systems to alert pedestrians when buses are making turns.
Access Link presented its new BraunAbility ProMaster Low Floor vehicle – a purpose-built, ADA-compliant low-floor vehicle designed to enable faster, easier embarking and disembarking for ambulatory and non-ambulatory clients, including but not limited to senior citizens and customers with disabilities. The vehicles are configured to accommodate five ambulatory passengers and one wheelchair passenger. Access Link plans to place these vehicles into service in the summer of 2026.
The new mobile police command center is a 45-foot state-of-the-art vehicle. It features dual entry points, three separate rooms, including a front operations room with six fully equipped workstations, a middle support area with communications equipment, and a rear conference room with seating for 12, providing a functional and flexible workspace.
The new mobile police command center has the technological capabilities to serve as a centralized command hub for both critical incidents and planned events.
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