[Music] they restored full service to the hoboken rail terminal this morning it was a rare bit of good news from NJ transit which is at a low point in its 37 years the once award-winning transit agency the third largest in the country has been listing leaderless and insular since its last full-time executive director left in 2015 since then it's been a series of mishaps from the fatal bus crashes in the lincoln tunnel in downtown newark to the train crash in Hoboken that injured scores of people and killed a woman on a nearby platform last month I think this is the worst string of bad incense that has ever happened to New Jersey Transit Martin Robbins is a former deputy executive director at NJ Transit who remembers those better days there still remain lots of good people there but they have fewer and fewer resources and they constantly are told that they can't do this and they can't do that because they don't have any money and that starvation diet is having an impact in recent months published reports say the agency has been under tough federal scrutiny for its finances and safety records add it all up and the result is a call by a joint legislative committee for hearings on what some are calling the New Jersey Transit crisis I think it's certainly time for more transparency more accountability more funding if need be and at least this an executive director appointed that executive director Steven Santoro was named just last week and didn't have much to say about the agency at its board meeting the first at New Jersey Transit in four months they also didn't return our call for comment today the agency's safety record not counting the most recent Hoboken incident has not been stellar according to analysis from the Federal Railroad Administration forty five percent of all rail accidents in the state over the previous three years have involved New Jersey Transit and that includes path Amtrak and six other rail operators in the state what happened this year after year in order to keep the lights on and the wheels turning new jersey transit needs to transfer money out of their capital budget and into their operating budget and this started back in nineteen ninety with about 90 million dollars that's 6.5 billion since 1990 says turn its funds that could have gone to repairs to trains track and station improvements or safety measures like the installation of positive train control what we've got to do is make sure that this industry is is maintained and expanded as appropriately and I have concern that they're just really has been little cheering going on out of Trenton toward New Jersey Transit to keep it going to make it better and we're suffering the consequences well the agency's got Trenton's attention now with the joint legislative committee scheduled to hear testimony beginning on Friday among the question is expected to be asked by lawmakers are what safety issues were discovered as a result of this federal audit did the governor's office know about them and why didn't the legislature in the newsroom I'm David Cruz and Jay TV news [Music] you