NJ TRANSIT AWARDED HIGHEST HONOR FROM THE AMERICAN PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION ASSOCIATION AMONG NORTH AMERICA’S LARGEST TRANSIT SYSTEMS
NJ TRANSIT Receives APTA’s 2023 Outstanding Public Transportation System Award
August 14, 2023
NEWARK, NJ — NJ TRANSIT has been awarded the American Public Transportation Association’s (APTA) highest honor by being named the 2023 winner of the Outstanding Transportation System award. This achievement reflects the hard work and dedication of NJ TRANSIT’s employees that has transformed the agency, delivering significant improvements across every area in the organization, including service, customer experience, technology & innovation, and advancing major capital projects.
“This is a remarkable achievement and a reflection of the improvements we’ve made to once again position NJ TRANSIT as an industry leader,” said Governor Phil Murphy. “During the height of the pandemic, it was critical to maintain full service for essential employees. We called and the hard-working men and women of NJ TRANSIT delivered. And they continue to deliver each and every day, whether it’s major world-class entertainment events, the largest single construction contract in agency history at the new Portal Bridge or the long list of customer facing improvements that benefit New Jerseyans on a daily basis.”
“NJ TRANSIT shares this honor, the highest achievement a transit agency can receive from APTA, with our talented and dedicated employees and our loyal customers,” said New Jersey Department of Transportation Commissioner and NJ TRANSIT Board Chair Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti. “It is because of them that NJ TRANSIT has been recognized with this distinguished award.”
“Receiving the Outstanding Public Transportation System award for 2023 truly validates NJ TRANSIT’s remarkable turnaround since 2018,” said NJ TRANSIT President & CEO Kevin S. Corbett. “This honor from APTA and our peers is akin to winning the Super Bowl for a transit agency. It is not just a recognition of our successes over the past five years, it’s a testament to all the hard work, dedication and contributions of every one of the nearly 12,000 NJ TRANSIT employees.”
The 2023 APTA Awards recognize organizations and transit leaders throughout the public transportation industry in North America that have demonstrated both qualitative and quantitative achievements in leadership, innovation, improving the customer experience, and more. APTA Award winners are outstanding role models of excellence, leadership, and innovation whose accomplishments have greatly advanced public transportation. The association comprises more than 1,500 public and private member organizations across the industry.
Nominees must show specific improvements and achievements in the last three calendar years in the following 12 areas: Safety, Operations, Maintenance, Access, Diversity, Inclusion and Equity, Customer Service, Financial Management, Sustainability, Workforce Development, Attendance and Employee Costs, Marketing, and Community Relations.
In the past three years, NJ TRANSIT has also been nationally recognized for its advancements in safety and security with three other APTA awards. NJ TRANSIT was presented APTA’s Bus Safety and Security Excellence Gold Award in 2023 for its De-Escalation/Operator Assault training program, developed by NJ TRANSIT Bus Operations that now includes an additional module introduced by the New Jersey Transit Police Department and presented to front-line employees to help manage difficult situations and minimize the potential for employee assaults.
In 2021, NJ TRANSIT was honored with the APTA Bus Safety Gold Award for its implementation of the Lytx DriveCam Event Recorder, a system of onboard cameras, data collection, and assessments designed to address safety hazards proactively, to prevent unsafe operator behaviors before they lead to accidents.
Also in 2021, NJ TRANSIT was named the winner of APTA’s Rail Safety Certificate of Merit award for Commuter/Intercity Rail Systems for its work on Positive Train Control (PTC).
NJ TRANSIT is the nation's largest statewide public transportation system providing more than 925,000 weekday trips on 253 bus routes, three light rail lines, 12 commuter rail lines and through Access Link paratransit service. It is the third largest transit system in the country with 166 rail stations, 62 light rail stations and more than 19,000 bus stops linking major points in New Jersey, New York and Philadelphia.
