Legislators Expand Review of NJ Transit [AUDIO]

A New Jersey legislative committee that's planning to review the failures of NJ Transit during Superstorm Sandy is going to expand the session to review a number of other problems the agency has recently had.

State Senate Oversight Committee Chair Bob Gordon (D-Bergen) wants answers on why NJ Transit was not prepared to handle all of the passengers who took the train to the Super Bowl.  He also has concerns that the NJ Transit website was down for regular maintenance during a recent blizzard when thousands of desperate passengers were seeking information about schedules and delays.

"We're seeing a pattern of problems that suggest there are some major deficiencies in the planning process for any kind of major incident, whether it's man-made and planned or a natural disaster," Gordon said. "An organization like NJ Transit should have a planning process in place in which you have sufficient resources or at least back up plans in place."

Gordon pointed out "we've also had a problem with New Jersey Transit allowing its trademarks to lapse. The logos that New Jersey Transit relies on for its branding don't have trademark protection, or didn't for a while because someone didn't realize they had to refile an application. That reflects an organizational issue.  Someone isn't going through a checklist that they should be, there isn't a planning process in place."

He stressed the idea of the hearing, which will take place in March, is to get to the bottom of what is causing the problem, and fix it if possible.

"In understanding what those problems are we can hopefully correct them.  This is not about pointing fingers of blame or just going for someone's scalp," Gordon said.