By Michael Aron
Chief Political Correspondent
It took the New Jersey Transit board less than fifteen minutes to confirm its new interim executive director. Dennis Martin is a longtime NJ Transit executive. Transportation advocates in the room were enthused.
“He fixed the Gordion knot of the p.m. rush hour at the Port Authority Bus Terminal,” said advocate Joe Clift. “The mess they had, he cleaned it up.”
“I think it’s a good choice. Mr. Martin is a problem-solver and I’m looking forward to his doing a great job as interim executive director,” Orrin Getz, Coordinator of the New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers, said.
“Dennis Martin has 40 years experience in transit, especially in buses. He’s a go-to guy. He’s an operations guy. I thought it was a smart move not to put a political person in, but to put somebody who can actually handle the organization,” Suzanne Mack, chair of the North Jersey Advisory Board to NJ Transit, said.
In 2014, Martin was put in charge of NJ Transit’s effort to improve the Port Authority Bus Terminal. By accounts NJTV News heard today, he turned around a bus station that had become the bane of commuters lives and fodder for comedians.
Even the bus drivers union leader, who sits on the NJ Transit board, likes the appointment.
“He has years of experience here. He grew up in NJ Transit. Great leader. Works very well with the unions,” Raymond Greaves said.
Martin replaces Ronnie Hakim, who starts on Monday as Executive Director of the MTA in New York City. Meanwhile, there’s a move in the state Assembly to rein in NJ Transit fare hikes. The agency hiked fares by 22 percent in 2010, and again by nine percent in October.
Assembly Transportation Committee Chairman John Wisniewski is one of seven Democrats pushing a bill that would get the Division of Rate Counsel involved in the analysis of any proposed transit fare hike.
“To ask the commuting public to come in and dig behind a lot of what they views as artifice in terms of the numbers presented by NJ Transit is very daunting. To have somebody, a watchdog, for the transportation public is going to be very important,” Wisniewski said.
Dennis Martin was not made available to the press. His new job starts Monday.
“He’s being appointed interim executive director and what I’m asking the board to do is to support him in being an effective real director, rather than a placeholder. Sometimes an interim is a placeholder, but in this case they really need someone to be effective,” Clift said.
A search will be conducted for a permanent executive director. In the meantime, every voice that spoke in this room seems comfortable with the appointment of the interim, Dennis Martin.