New Jersey Transit To Groups Of Three: Drop Dead

Redesigned double-decker New Jersey Transit trains will eliminate the dreaded middle seat, leaving only rows of two on either side of the aisle:

New Jersey Transit officials offered commuters a glimpse of their train-riding future here on Wednesday and it was not drab, rigid or strictly horizontal. But what clearly was most appealing to all who beheld it was that it would eliminate the chance of spending more than an hour a day pressed between two strangers.

“The middle seat is gone,” cheered Maxine Marshall, who commutes from Plainfield, N.J., to work for a trust company in Jersey City.

. . .

“That dreaded middle seat is the bane of commuters’ existence,” said [New Jersey state commissioner of transportation and New Jersey Transit chairman] Mr. [Jack] Lettiere, who was on hand for the unveiling. “It becomes a place where people pile things to keep others from sitting there. It’s not what the customer wants.”

The new trains, set to debut in late 2006 will have 225 more seats.