KEVIN CORBETT, president and
CEO of NJ Transit since Febru-
ary 2018, oversees the second-
largest commuter rail agency in
the nation — one that has faced
significant challenges in fund-
ing and manpower shortages.
In conversations in January
and July, Corbett discussed his
agency, which offers commuter
rail, light rail, and bus service.
Its 12 rail lines serve over
300,000 passengers daily, second
only to the Long Island Rail
Road. The interviews have been
edited for length and clarity.Q What makes NJ Transit dif-
ferent from the Long Island
Rail Road, Metra, Metrolink,
and other commuter railroads?
If you were trying to sell NJT to
a client, what would you say?A One of the things about our
job is it is an amazing entity on
the rail side, the largest state-
wide one in the country. The
complexity for this, the mostdensely populated state, is there
are many interesting things
from transportation policy to
operational challenges. ...
We are looking at how do
we get from the fleet that we
have now. ...What I see is a
more private-sector approach,
like on the freight railroad side.
What’s the optimal fleet? ...
Potentially, it will be more
equipment than we really need
to have. Sometimes there are
problems with procurement,
whatnot. Sometimes we canni-
balize for backup for parts, so
we could really get our money’s
worth with modern systems.
I’m looking to get the ideal
fleet, like Frank Lorenzo — he
was the guy that took Conti-
nental Airlines and really built
it up. He realized that Conti-
nental had acquired different,
smaller, regional airlines ... a
real mish-mosh of fleet, which
was killing growth possibilities.
He cut a deal with Boeing and
obtained modern fleet manage-ment and
maintenance,
which really
brought
down oper-
ating costs.
We t a k e
our legacy
from the
19th-century
and 20th-century railroads,
which had both proud legacies
and cultures. How do we take
that and bring in with the lead
time we need on the Bombar-
dier purchase order we just put
in? How do we get the funding
and lead in a 20-year period?
How do we have a modern rail-
road with the funding for it to
really [be] a modern railroad?
How do we not lose the unique
attributes of all those individual
histories but make it merge
functionally, and operate more
as a solid entity?Q Is there a level of frustra-
tion about not having control6 OCTOBER 2019News
LOCOMOTIVE P. 1 6 • PASSENGER P. 1 8
NJ Transit CEO oversees nation’s second-largest commuter rail agency
THE TRAINS INTERVIEW
Kevin Corbett
ALP-45DP locomotive No. 4506
is in push mode as it powers an
NJ Transit North Jersey Coast
train across the Raritan River en
route to South Amboy in
December 2016. Eugene Armer
Kevin Corbett