New Jersey’s commuter railroad has the money and the green light for real-time train tracking — now it needs a company to build it. NJ Transit President and CEO Kris Kolluri said Monday, July 6, that Gov. Mikie Sherrill has authorized the agency to spend $12 million on a live, GPS-based system that will show trains moving in real time and give riders accurate arrival and departure times. The work is not live yet. Kolluri put the rollout at the next several months, and the agency is still lining up the vendors who will do the building.
The platform is called NJT LiveView, and it is the centerpiece of the digital overhaul inside the Rapid Action Plan, the customer-service roadmap Sherrill ordered and unveiled in May. Kolluri called live tracking the single upgrade commuters asked for most.
“This was the single biggest thing that people have asked for,” he told News 12 New Jersey, crediting the governor with clearing the money to get it done.
The spending is still moving through procurement, which is where the opportunity sits for New Jersey’s technology sector. In June, NJ Transit issued a request for information asking companies that build real-time transit communication systems to spell out what they can deliver — the step agencies take before formal bids open. Contracts tied to NJT LiveView and the wider digital rebuild are now moving toward award, and the $12 million authorization gives bidders a concrete budget to size their proposals against.
Here is the problem the system is meant to solve. Right now NJ Transit figures out where a train is by reading trackside switches — the junction points where trains move from one track to another — rather than the train itself. That method is coarse and runs a step behind reality, which leaves the agency’s own app and station boards out of sync with the actual train. Riders who wanted a true live map have had to rely on outside apps.
NJT LiveView is designed to pull precise GPS coordinates directly from each train and turn them into one authoritative feed that powers arrival countdowns, service alerts and push notifications across the redesigned NJ Transit app, station display screens and third-party navigation apps. The buses already operate on similar technology; now the trains are catching up.
The business stakes are significant because the ridership is substantial. More than 300,000 New Jersey residents ride NJ Transit on a typical weekday, many commuting into New York City, tying northern New Jersey’s workforce directly to the reliability of the rail network. When riders cannot trust arrival times, the consequences go beyond inconvenience. Missed shifts, delayed meetings, late daycare pickups and uncertainty all carry real economic costs. Accurate real-time information is one of the most cost-effective ways an agency can improve the customer experience without adding new tracks or expanding service.
The timing also increases the pressure. NJ Transit raised fares by roughly 3% on July 1, meaning customers are paying more while expecting improved service. At the same time, the agency is preparing for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, when massive crowds will rely on the rail system to travel to and from matches. A GPS-based tracking system becomes especially valuable when platforms are crowded and even small delays can ripple throughout the network.
The funding is not coming from a new tax or special appropriation. The Sherrill administration has said the Rapid Action Plan will be financed within NJ Transit’s existing budget and will not require additional state funding in the coming fiscal year. Beyond live train tracking, the plan includes expanded station-cleaning crews, repairs to elevators and escalators, enhanced Wi-Fi on buses and a new Real Time Crime Center to monitor security cameras at major transit hubs.
New Jersey Department of Transportation Commissioner and NJ Transit Board Chair Priya Jain, who helped develop the plan under Sherrill’s executive order, has described it as a series of tangible improvements riders will notice. Kolluri, who also serves as Executive Director of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, has said the shift to GPS tracking is long overdue.
For now, the funding has been approved and vendors are being courted. The real test of NJT LiveView will come in the months ahead, when commuters look at the countdown clock and expect it to match where the train actually is.
JBizNews Desk | Newark, N.J.
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