Fix-It Central: NJ Transit's Meadows Maintenance Complex Centralizes the Repair and Upkeep of the System's Massive Fleet

This article focuses on New Jersey Transit's Meadows Maintenance Complex (MMC), the facility designed to repair and maintain the fleet of the largest statewide public transportation agency in the U.S. Each day NJ Transit conducts over 250,000 passenger rail trips using 730 trains, 11 lines, and 162 stations. The MMC, which is the workplace of about 600 NJ Transit workers, employs supervisory, craft, technical support, safety and training, and maintenance crews. The complex was built upon the recommendation of a consulting firm hired in the 1980s, which pointed to the diffuse locations of maintenance for New Jersey's large fleet as a hindrance to resource optimization. Although the complex centralizes maintenance operations, it also features a number of different buildings, including a main shop building where all major repairs are conducted, a service and inspection building, the vehicle shop annex, a locomotive pre-inspection building, a load test platform, and a substation and switching house.