Lawmakers left blueprint for Phil Murphy to fix NJ Transit. It's gathering dust

Curtis Tate | NorthJersey

Show Caption Hide Caption Gov. Phil Murphy holds an NJ Transit briefing Gov. Phil Murphy speaks as Dianne Gutierrez-Scaccetti (L), Commissioner of Transportation, Kevin Corbett (R), Exec. Director of NJ Transit and senior staff members from NJ Transit Management, listen during an NJ Transit briefing at the NJ Transit Headquarters in Newark on 08/09/18.

Campaigning for office last year, Gov. Phil Murphy promised to restore NJ Transit to the national envy it once was from the "national disgrace" it had become.

Murphy talked of auditing the agency's finances, personnel practices and safety compliance. He said he would seek new leadership for the agency from among the top talent in the field. He said he would increase the agency's funding so it could hire more people and replace its aging buses and trains.

This summer, though, commuters got socked with abruptly canceled trains and sweltering stations. They learned, first through media reports, that train service to Atlantic City would be suspended in September for at least the rest of the year.

If Murphy failed to deliver immediate relief to frustrated NJ Transit commuters, it wasn't for a lack of information.

A joint oversight committee in the state Legislature held 10 hearings on the condition of the transit system, from October 2016 to January, just before Murphy's inauguration.

The fatal crash of an NJ Transit train in Hoboken Terminal in September 2016 prompted lawmakers to take a closer look at the agency, which was suffering from a drain of experienced personnel, low employee morale and problems with safety compliance.

Though Murphy has said he may have underestimated how badly the agency had deteriorated, lawmakers heard plenty of testimony in those hearings reflecting that reality.

"They inherited a garbage pail full of garbage," said Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck.

Where's the audit?

The hearings produced a draft report that hasn't been released to the public. They also produced legislation aimed at changing the agency's governance and improving its transparency. It included simpler fixes such as lifting the requirement that NJ Transit employees live in New Jersey.

That bill, written by former Sen. Bob Gordon, D-Fair Lawn, and sponsored by Weinberg, passed the Senate in June. It awaits a vote in the Assembly.

Rather than act immediately on the 14 months of testimony lawmakers heard, the Murphy administration has opted to wait for the results of a top-to-bottom audit of the agency before it proceeds with major changes.

"I was told, ‘We’re not doing anything until the audit,' " said Weinberg, who said she sought input from the governor's staff on the Senate bill but didn't receive any.

That audit was originally promised within 100 days. Seven months later, it is still not complete.

Meanwhile, NJ Transit riders have endured the near-daily threat of train cancellations, because there aren't enough locomotive engineers to run the trains. Riders on the Atlantic City Line face the prospect of no train service for the remainder of the year, as the agency begins work to install positive train control on track and locomotives.

Lawmakers were told about both of those problems during months of testimony.

"We can all be a little self-critical concerning the crisis with the engineers," said Assemblyman John McKeon, D-Madison, co-chairman of the hearings along with Gordon, who is now a member of the state Board of Public Utilities. "I think we missed that."

HITTING THE BRAKES: Positive train control stops NJ Transit's Atlantic City line in its tracks

MAKING WAIVERS: Phil Murphy's solution to NJ Transit crisis? Hire workers from out of state

A LONGER TRIP: How positive train control could lengthen your NJ Transit commute

THE HARD PART: Sorry, angry NJ Transit riders: Broken agency could take years to fix

Missed opportunity?

McKeon said NJ Transit could have done a better job communicating the Atlantic City Line closure as well. Commuters and elected officials alike first learned about it when news organizations, including the USA TODAY NETWORK — New Jersey, published an internal memo from the agency earlier this month.

"That’s more than a fair criticism," he said.

Murphy administration officials asked Assembly leaders to hold off on voting on the Senate legislation to give them "a chance to get their boots on the ground," McKeon said.

Still, lawmakers had drawn Murphy a blueprint for making initial fixes to the agency. And Weinberg said the residency issue, at least, could have been resolved months ago.

"I don’t know of anything in the reform bill that has to await the outcome of an audit," she said.

Dan Bryan, a Murphy spokesman, said the governor has been "fully engaged" with lawmakers, NJ Transit and others to determine the best way forward for the agency.

"Governor Murphy believes that NJ Transit must be rebuilt from the ground up and will closely review any proposals that seek to create a more reliable agency," he said.

What they heard

Lawmakers were told in the second half of 2017 of staffing problems that foreshadowed this summer's service meltdown. They heard that the agency faced a wave of retirements as the most senior employees reached eligibility. They also heard that younger but experienced employees were leaving the agency to work elsewhere.

The oversight committee heard nearly two years ago that the 2011 residency requirement was an impediment to hiring new personnel. NJ Transit operates in New York and Pennsylvania, but it can't hire workers who live in those states.

A provision lifting the residency requirement is in the legislation the Senate approved. Last week, Murphy asked lawmakers for a stand-alone bill to waive it for NJ Transit.

McKeon said the service disruption last summer because of track repairs in New York Penn Station may have distracted from the underlying staffing problems, including the residency requirement.

"It wasn’t apparent that that piece needed to happen immediately," he said. "We looked at that as a long-term problem."

Inside experts

The Murphy administration could have drawn on the expertise of its own transition team members who delivered a report in January outlining the most immediate challenges.

"It was a rush process," said Martin Robins, one of the authors of the transportation report and director emeritus of the Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University. "We gave it our all."

But after the inauguration, Robins said, he heard nothing else from the new administration.

"The transition didn't continue," he said. "Before we knew it, things started to unravel."

After months of optimistic proclamations at carefully staged press conferences, Murphy has in recent weeks begun to level with commuters about how much work is required to make the system function well again after years of neglect. He's promised better communication from the agency, on subjects from canceled trains to canceled routes.

"They’re going to get there," McKeon said. "It just continues to be painful for the commuters."