NJ Transit Slow-Walked Crucial Safety Upgrades as Costs Doubled
- ‘Negative public reputation’ and other warnings, records show
- Late jump on deadline, and more torture for NYC-bound riders
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A New Jersey Transit safety project that’s strangling train service to Manhattan was slowed by years of agency foot-dragging while staff warned of soaring costs and a “negative public reputation,” according to documents obtained by Bloomberg.
Even alarms raised by NJ Transit’s own contractor had little effect, if any, at the nation’s second-biggest commuter railroad. As the cost of the project more than doubled to $320 million, the cash-strapped agency fell behind on rail maintenance, let its ranks of train engineers dwindle and triggered a federal operations audit. Even if NJ Transit makes its Dec. 31 installation deadline, it will take as many as two years to deploy safer trains while the system is tested.