If Jon Bramnick is elected governor, he’ll appoint a Commuter Czar and put the office on a New Jersey Transit Train.
“Commuting has become a nightmare. When I’m governor, I will appoint a full-time commuter czar, and the office of the Commuter,” said Bramnick, a Republican state senator from Union County. “Commuting has become a nightmare.”
He made his announcement this morning outside the train station in his hometown of Westfield.
“The Commuter Czar will be in direct contact with me as your governor,” Bramnick said. “And I’m also going to roll back the 15% fare hike.”
New Jersey Transit has had a rough summer, with numerous delays and cancellations.
A version of a commuter advocate didn’t work the last time it was tried.
After he took office, the Murphy administration hired Stewart Mader as New Jersey Transit’s chief customer experience officer at a salary of $127,000. Mader had led the PATH Rider’s Council and had advocated for commuters before joining the other side.
In 2020, Mader took responsibility for sending out an official New Jersey Transit tweet bashing a Bergen Record report that CFO Bill Viqueira suggested the hiring of his brother-in-law as the $128,000-a-year labor relations counsel for the agency.
Following the story, a tweet from the official New Jersey Transit Twitter account bashed the story.
The Murphy administration quickly distanced itself from Mader’s tweet, which the New Jersey Globe found was done by Mader at the behest of NJ TRANSIT chief administrative officer Jeannie Kwon, the central player in a storm over the hiring of a relative of the embattled agency’s CFO.
Then-Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg said at the time that Mader’s involvement in the incident had made her lose confidence in his ability to serve in his position.