“It was an excellent railroad and running quite well until the last seven years, and it has been in constant decline,” said Martin E. Robins, a former deputy executive director of the agency.
Under the administration of Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, the state subsidy for the railroad has plunged by more than 90 percent. Gaping holes in the agency’s past two budgets were filled by fare increases and service reductions or other cuts. And plans for a new tunnel under the Hudson River — one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects in the country — were torpedoed by Mr. Christie, who pushed for some of the money to be diverted to road-building projects.
This is almost totally unrelated, but I was quite surprised a few years ago when driving through South Jersey how things were obviously pretty fucked up. Hotels had been converted into weekly and monthly stay places (and not for the discerning business traveler), suburban homes were boarded up, roads were a mess, etc.