New Jersey lawmakers are expected to grill NJ Transit officials at a hearing at the Statehouse tomorrow after riders have faced repeated train cancelations and delays in the past few weeks.
Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick says Republicans intend to ask transit officials why customers didn’t get advance notice about cancellations.
“Where was the information for the commuters? Why weren’t they getting that information? Was it disorganization within New Jersey Transit? Was it simply they didn’t have the answers?”
Assemblyman Anthony Bucco says it’s disturbing the transit agency did not foresee the problems that have left commuters waiting on platforms for trains that didn’t show up.
“New Jersey Transit realized that they’re dealing with Positive Train Control. They’re dealing with a lack of staffing. And it was their responsibility to be able to provide communications to its ridership far enough in advance for them to make alternate arrangements.”
Assemblywoman Nancy Munoz questions why transit officials didn’t have the same kind of planning like they did last year for track construction work.
“We anticipated a summer of hell, but it was not a summer of hell. We say buses in place at those train stations to take the place of trains that couldn’t get into Penn Station. We saw that there was a coordination with NJ Transit and through the state with a ferry service, which is private service.”
Providing those extra travel services could be costly and Assemblyman Bucco says the legislature would have to determine whether the state could afford them and how to pay for them.