New leadership for NJ Transit after frustrating year for commuters

🚄 Head of NJ Transit resigns

🚄 Delays and suspensions plagued NJ Transit riders this past summer

🚄 He has taken a position with a New Jersey university

The president and CEO of NJ Transit has resigned after nearly seven years of leading the state's mass transit system.

Kevin Corbett sent a letter to Gov. Phil Murphy on Monday. He will leave the position effective Jan. 15, 2025.

"I love the guy," Murphy said when asked about his resignation at an unrelated event in Princeton on Monday. "He's done a hell of a job under extremely tough circumstances."

The governor said they were working to find a replacement to lead the agency's 12,000 employees.

Frustrations for NJ Transit commuters

Murphy said that Corbett had inherited a mess when he was nominated for the position in 2018.

The governor blamed "ancient Amtrak infrastructure" for the countless delays and service suspensions that NJ Transit riders experienced this summer.

Most recently, commuters on the Northeast Corridor and NJ Transit's North Jersey Coast Line were stranded last Monday. The cause of the issue involved overhead wires on the Northeast Corridor, which is owned and maintained by Amtrak.

Overhead wires were often cited as the driving force behind New Jersey's "Summer of Hell." However, a joint report from Amtrak and NJ Transit found no systemic failures from either agency.

Frequent critic New Jersey Assemblyman Christopher DePhillip, R-Bergen, said it was a positive day for New Jersey commuters.

“Kevin Corbett has been tone deaf to the daily hell that New Jersey Transit commuters have faced for years, and that is why I called for his resignation when he finally came before the Assembly Transportation Committee on Nov. 14," DePhillip said.

READ MORE: NJ Transit needs complete reform not new tax, lawmaker says

NJ officials list recent NJ Transit wins

While most of the focus on New Jersey's mass transit has been on its failures, Murphy's office and Corbett's resignation letter pointed to several accomplishments under his leadership.

Corbett led NJ Transit through the pandemic and was in charge when the American Public Transportation Association crowned NJ Transit “North America’s Most Outstanding Public Transportation System.”

Over the last seven years, the agency has also hired more locomotive engineers and bus operators to prevent unnecessary scheduling issues, introduced new fleets of rail cars, and introduced its first electric buses.

NJ Transit also fully implemented Positive Train Control in December 2020 just weeks before a national deadline. Barely any progress had been made on the federally required breaking system when he arrived nearly three years earlier.

Looking toward the horizon, work on the new Portal North Bridge over the Hackensack River continues. The $1.6 billion contract reached 75% completion over the fall, according to Amtrak.

New job for NJ Transit CEO

In his resignation letter, Corbett said he was taking a new job "with one of our state's prestigious universities."

"I look forward to continuing to champion the importance of public transportation in my next role, which will allow me to remain deeply connected to the transportation sector, focusing on practical innovation, infrastructure, and advocacy for public transit in our region," Corbett said.

Corbett did not reveal the job title or for which university he would work.

The governor's office only said that he had taken a job in academia.

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