People who have transportation problems that may be preventing them from getting vaccinated now have a way of getting help -- New Jersey Transit is offering free rides to and from vaccination sites.
Each person is entitled to two round trips. New Jersey Transportation Commissioner Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti said people can’t be left in the lurch.
“It’s important that we make sure that they don’t only get that first shot but they get the second shot,” she said, “because that will be what allows people to feel confident about coming back to transit.”
Tickets are offered through the NJ Transit mobile app or through NJ Transit customer service, which you can call or visit. People can use them to go to public or private vaccine sites.
NJ Transit CEO Kevin Corbett said the more people get vaccinated, the safer people will feel on mass transit.
“We see people coming back, we see our ridership returning, more heavily on bus, but we’ve seen the last few weeks where it’s coming up in rail,” he said, “and comparing with our colleagues at Amtrak they’ve also noticed a real uptick.”
The free ticket program has gotten $120,000 worth of financial help from the drug company Novartis.
“We’ll provide 10,000 rides to transport people to and from vaccination sites twice using NJ Transit bus, rail, light rail, and access link services,” said Rob Kowalski, US head of global drug development at Novartis.
Catalent, a New Jersey-based provider of drug delivery technologies, is donating $12,000 to help launch the VAXRIDE program.
Other companies who wish to become sponsors are encouraged to contact NJ TRANSIT at vaxride@njtransit.com.