State legislative hearings held after the crash revealed NJ Transit had numerous vacancies in its safety and maintenance departments and had lost veteran employees to other commuter railroads.
“I think the real story goes back to the inability of NJ Transit to staff up its rail safety unit and the concurrent loss of rail managers,” said Martin Robins, a former NJ Transit deputy executive director and director emeritus of the Voorhees Transportation Institute at Rutgers.
Federal lawmakers said they are ready to push to put in place whatever recommendations the safety board comes up with.