For New Jersey Rail Commuters, a Bad Situation Is About to Get Worse

New Jersey Transit, which has been struggling for months to maintain its already reduced commuter train service, plans to take more trains off its schedule next month and to temporarily eliminate some routes, agency officials said Thursday.

The additional cancellations include 18 daily trains on five of its lines, as well as a suspension of all train service on a short rail segment in Princeton — fondly known as the Dinky — and weekend service on the Gladstone Branch of the Morris & Essex line, they said.

The statewide transit agency has been canceling trains on short notice, infuriating its customers as they have to scramble to get to work on time and keep appointments. New Jersey Transit, the country’s second-busiest commuter rail system, has blamed the failures on its rush to meet a Dec. 31 federal deadline to install an automatic braking system.

Officials have said that many of the agency’s locomotives and other equipment have been sidelined to complete the project. The equipment shortage has been compounded by a lack of engineers to drive the trains, they said. On some days this summer, New Jersey Transit canceled more than 20 trains.

Those cancellations came after the agency curtailed its service in the spring to accommodate the installation of the braking system, known as Positive Train Control. On Thursday, the agency’s executive director, Kevin Corbett, said the project was more than 65 percent complete and was on pace to be completed before the deadline.

Corbett said the additional curtailment of service, scheduled for mid-October, was an admission that the agency’s new management underestimated how detrimental the installation project would be to New Jersey Transit’s ability to maintain its service.

The trains being removed from the schedule include eight on the Morris & Essex line, four on the Main/Bergen County line, three on the Northeast Corridor, two on the North Jersey Coast Line and one on the Montclair-Boonton line.