N.J. Transit Wants a Big Fare Increase. Riders Want Better Service.

Unlike many of his fellow New Jerseyans, Ian Whelan seems too polite to broadcast his gripes about the state’s much-maligned commuter railroad. But a new plan to raise train fares by 15 percent set him off.

Mr. Whelan, whose wife, Tamara, regularly rides New Jersey Transit to and from her job at Carnegie Hall, posted on social media last week challenging Gov. Philip D. Murphy to improve the service before asking commuters to pay more.

“It just feels like it’s gotten progressively unreliable,” he said after calling out the governor. “If it felt like it was going in the right direction, it might feel like this is a little more warranted.”

Mr. Murphy’s response sounded like a reprise of “Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?”

Improvements in reliability, safety and on-time performance, the governor said last week, justify the proposal to raise fares for the first time since he took office six years ago. Just days before, he had told a group of bond analysts that the state had “in many respects fixed N.J. Transit through the customers’ lens.”

But New Jersey Transit’s own figures and customer surveys reflect a different view of the agency’s operations.