is not right. However, Christie's political gamesmanship with the NJ Transportation Trust Fund has consequences. Hundreds of road projects stopped in mid-construction. Maintenance deferred. NJ Transit starved of 21% of its operating budget. Of course actions like this have consequences.
Why did transportation experts warn of a crash at NJ Transit?
Everything written about NJ Transit in the foreseeable future is likely to be viewed in the context of the Hoboken tragedy, so we start with this disclaimer: No one knows what caused the crash, and we trust the Legislature will do the right thing by investigating it thoroughly.
But the investigation must begin with this immutable truth: NJ Transit is missing 21 percent of its budget – shelved during that political pie fight known as the Transportation Trust Fund negotiation – and independent rail experts have been issuing warnings for months that this shortfall increases the risk of an accident and puts passengers in peril.
Amid these warnings, NJ Transit had cancelled every public board meeting since June 8.
Earlier this week, Martin Robins of the Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers – the éminence grise for transit matters in our state – said that he was startled that 222 NJ Transit projects remain on the shelf, suspended by Gov. Christie back in June.
Robins' prescience was almost chilling: "Maybe nothing catastrophic has happened, but maintenance cannot be deferred," he said. "It's absolutely wrong, when you're operating something as potentially dangerous as a rail system. So this lack of transparency is alarming."
Or, as Janna Chernetz of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign put it Thursday, "If it is determined that this tragedy resulted from mechanical failure and not human error, the question that will arise is whether NJT is adequately funded to keep infrastructure safe."
She added that NJ Transit's lack of transparency is "completely baffling" given all the unanswered questions created by its budgetary limitations.
After Hoboken, the funding issue is an anvil hovering over our entire state: How well is the country's third largest transit system operating, and what must its 955,000 daily riders – already irritated by strikes, fare hikes, chronic delays, audio surveillance, and now a deadly crash - brace for next?
Read the rest here:
http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/09/how_is_nj_transit_operating_with_its_budget_hole_h.html#incart_river_home
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