The so-called Summer of Hell will soon commence, and perhaps you are wondering whether New Jersey Transit - the eye-gouging bane of our daily travels and travails - is up to this challenge.

The nation's third-largest commuter railroad is off to an inauspicious start, which is only partly related to its decision to place the entire burden of the Penn Station repair on riders of the Morris-Essex Line, who will be redirected to Hoboken Terminal and then shuttled across to Manhattan via ferry or PATH trains for six weeks.

It's the way the plan was rolled out that echoes the credibility and accountability problems that have turned NJT into the transit equivalent of the '62 Mets, starting with its unique approach to community relations: When elected officials from six towns along the Morris-Essex line showed up in Newark Tuesday for some fact-finding, Executive Director Steve Santoro hid in his office and refused to meet them.

Then came a joint committee hearing chaired by Sen. Bob Gordon (D-Bergen) and Assemblyman John McKeon (D-Essex), which admittedly was not going to mollify anyone, because there is no easy way to explain how the agency will shoe-horn 7,400 more commuters into Hoboken during the morning and evening rush.

What stood out, however, was NJ Transit's continued carping about the dysfunctional landlord-tenant relationship it has with Amtrak, which owns Penn Station. Indeed, it is a problem that screams for a permanent solution, in the form of some new managerial entity that improves the quality of service for the vortex of the Northeast Corridor.

But what NJT omits is its own contribution to the morass buried beneath Madison Square Garden, largely by short-changing its maintenance obligation in the joint benefits agreement it has with Amtrak. NJT used to pay $45 million a year in this capital program. In 2015, it paid nothing. Still, Amtrak - drastically underfunded by Congress itself - is now Gov. Christie's favorite pinata.

"It's the height of hypocrisy for the governor to blame everything on Amtrak, when most problems stem from his starving NJ Transit of the resources it needs," Sen. Gordon said. "And now we see the manifestations of it."

We cannot say there were better diversion alternatives to the one NJT devised for the impending ordeal, which involves closing three of Penn Station's 21 tracks for eight weeks.

But New Jersey Transit always seems to careen from crisis to crisis, and now the riders from its Midtown Direct Line have to pay the price, in the form of a commute that will take an extra 30 to 45 minutes each way.

"And then, there's the lack of communication, a lack of transparency, and poor decision-making," McKeon added.

Yes, NJ Transit is going to have to be at the top of its game from July 10 to Sept. 18, but it doesn't exactly inspire confidence. Nor did the hearings erase skepticism, especially when Santoro said he was unaware of the conditions at Penn Station until his trains started falling off the tracks in March.

It is hardly surprising that Santoro would try that one, given that his boss has raised governmental standards for dodging and demagoguery - always shoving the needle deeper into the red zone on a transportation legacy that includes annual shortfalls, inept patronage hires, alarming breakdown records, federal fines, derailments, rate hikes, and, yes, a fatal crash.

All that was somebody else's fault, in case you haven't heard.

So maybe it's too much to expect NJ Transit to perform like a competent commuter carrier again, now that it has officially adopted the shuck-and-jive technique mastered by our governor. But we'll keep our fingers crossed anyway.

Make our summer, NJT. Dazzle us.

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