Up to $2.4 billion expected in bonds for New Jersey transportation

New Jersey is poised to sell up to $2.4 billion of bonds for its transportation infrastructure, according to a report from Fitch Ratings. 

The New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund Authority is expected to issue $1.3 billion of transportation system bonds and roughly $1.1 billion of transportation program bonds through a negotiated sale in October, the Fitch report said. 

Fitch rated the upcoming bonds as A, a grade that is one-notch lower than the state’s A-plus rating. The bonds are backed by annual appropriations, wrote analyst Douglas Offerman in the report, which also affirmed the state’s outstanding A-plus issuer default rating and the rating of bonds linked to it, including the transportation bonds. The outlook is stable.

Kroll Bond Rating Agency rates the new bonds A, and affirmed its ratings on outstanding New Jersey debt, including the state’s A-plus general obligation rating. The outlook is stable.

Moody’s Ratings rates the transportation debt A2, and revised the outlook to positive Aug. 14 in an outlook revision to the state’s debt, including its A1 issuer rating. S&P Global Ratings rates outstanding transportation debt A-minus with a stable outlook.

The fund is charged with modernizing statewide transportation infrastructure like highways and bridges as well as providing additional capital funding for NJ Transit — New Jersey’s public transit agency. The state is expected to extend as much as $8.8 billion in bonding authorization to the authority over the next five years, or approximately $1.76 billion annually, according to a March press release.

The deal comes after NJ Transit was riddled with a spate of cancellations and massive delays earlier this summer, prompting an investigation into its rail infrastructure. 

While the probe is ongoing, Amtrak and NJ Transit haven’t identified the root cause of the service disruptions, according to a report released Tuesday by the agencies. The report said there were no “systemic” failures to pantographs — which is the overhead equipment that links trains to power wires. Amtrak also didn’t find any necessary critical repairs to substations and maintain that signal and track systems “continue to perform consistent with historic norms.”

Commuters were bombarded with transit meltdowns during a record-breaking heat wave. Last week, Gov. Phil Murphy announced that fares will be waved for all modes of transportation between Aug. 26 and Sept. 2 to provide commuters with some relief after the bruising rounds of delays in June and July.