NEW JERSEY (WABC) — On Friday morning, a rally under the slogan “Stop the Fare Hikes” took place in front of NJ Transit headquarters in Newark.

The rally took place before a 9 a.m. meeting of the NJ Transit Operations and Customer Service Committee.

Protesters are demanding a halt to a 15 percent increase in bus and train fares set to take effect Monday, at a time when New Jersey residents say they are struggling to afford rent, groceries and child care.

Some frustrated commuters believe it is a crime to charge passengers for the costs after years of underinvestment.

“They will pay 15% more with no promise of change,” said Nedia Morsy, lead organizer of Make The Road New Jersey.

Doreen, a NJ Transit rider, says her bus fare will increase from $1.60 to $1.80.

“When you pay more, you want to see improvements. You want to know where your money is going,” Doreen said.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill called on NJ Transit to “pause and reevaluate” the increase.

But Governor Phil Murphy, who controls the agency's board, said he would leave the decision to the board.

On Thursday, the governor held a meeting with the heads of Amtrak and NJ Transit.

The meeting came after a series of major disruptions along the Northeast Corridor. Commuters faced delays and cancellations last week due to power problems and cancelled trains.

Amtrak and NJ Transit officials said they would work together to speed up investigations of outages and improve reliability between New York and New Jersey. Amtrak has promised to increase inspections of tracks and lines on the Northeast Corridor to prevent problems before they occur.

NJ Transit says the money is needed to close a large budget gap and avoid a reduction in service, but protesters say the source of funding, if any, should be the new, controversial corporate transit fee on multimillion-dollar companies that is currently being voted on.

“The money will just stay in the general fund and we should think about whether some of it can be used to alleviate the burden on riders, especially since the service that riders receive is not particularly good,” said Peter Chen, a public transit advocate in New Jersey.

The last fare increase occurred in 2015 under the Christie government.

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