Coming off a September accident in which a woman was killed and more than 100 passengers injured when their NJ Transit train crashed at the Hoboken terminal, the railroad’s operations will come under enhanced scrutiny Oct. 21 when a joint committee of the Legislature demands answers from railroad executives about repeated safety violations, and how a railroad that once had been considered the “jewel” of the country’s public transit systems fell into decay.
Regulatory reform is unlikely, since nearly all railroad operations in the United States are regulated by the federal government. But because NJ Transit is part of the state Department of Transportation and receives tens of millions of dollars annually in state funding, there are ways that its management structure, funding and employee training can be subject to state legislative reform efforts, the two committee chairmen said.
