Kris Kolluri has just been handed what may be the most thankless job in the transportation business: running New Jersey’s much-maligned transit agency.
A former commissioner of New Jersey’s Department of Transportation, Mr. Kolluri had, until recently, managed the project to build a $16 billion rail tunnel under the Hudson River to New York City. On Wednesday, the board of New Jersey Transit confirmed him to serve as the agency’s chief executive.
Handpicked by Gov. Philip D. Murphy, Mr. Kolluri will now have to face the wrath of the agency’s riders, who have just suffered through another hellish summer of breakdowns and protracted delays that stirred unpleasant memories of how unreliable the service was several years ago.
At the height of rush hour on Wednesday, several lines were delayed up to an hour because of a signal problem.
Mr. Kolluri will have just 12 months — the final year of the governor’s final term — to try to make good on Mr. Murphy’s promise to turn the system around.
Rather than making any bold predictions, Mr. Kolluri pledged in an interview on Wednesday to work toward improvements that commuters should appreciate, including keeping stations clean and older trains maintained until they can be replaced.
But some transit advocates expressed hope that Mr. Kolluri would foster change in a hurry, as Andy Byford did in two years at the helm of New York’s subway system before he left in 2020. Mr. Byford, who rode the subway and interacted with riders, was dubbed “Train Daddy” and credited with getting the trains running on time more often.
“Kris is good at people,” said Zoe Baldwin, vice president for state programs at the Regional Plan Association. “He absolutely has Train Daddy potential.”
Ms. Baldwin was quick to add, though, that some of the agency’s problems are the result of decades of underfunding by governors who preceded Mr. Murphy. After years of urging by advocates like Ms. Baldwin, the state finally devised a steady source of funding for transit this year by creating a surtax on the profits of large corporations.
Supporters of the corporate transit fee said it was necessary to bridge a projected budget gap of about $800 million next year. New Jersey Transit also raised fares by 15 percent this year and said they would go up an additional 3 percent annually starting in 2025.
“Kris is probably going to do everything that he can to keep the agency on the upward trajectory it has been on,” Ms. Baldwin said. But, she added, “one person can’t fix this.”
Mr. Kolluri, 55, balked at any suggestion that he could assume the mantle of “Train Daddy.”
“I’m not looking for accolades,” he said. “I like these kinds of challenges, and I will put my heart and soul into this assignment. But I’m just trying to do my job.”
The job comes with a salary of $280,000 and a long list of potential pitfalls. Among them is a long-running dispute with the union that represents the railroad’s engineers, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. To head off a threatened strike, President Biden last month ordered a presidential board to produce a report on the dispute by late January, just after Mr. Kolluri is scheduled to start.
Mr. Kolluri will succeed Kevin Corbett, who resigned this week after running New Jersey Transit for seven years. Members of the agency’s board praised Mr. Corbett for steering it through several daunting challenges, including the installation of an automatic braking system to prevent collisions and the hiring of dozens of engineers to head off train cancellations that had plagued the system.
“I know that you are a lightning rod for the criticism of this agency and you have taken it,” Shanti Narra, a board member, told Mr. Corbett. “You have kept your chin up, and I very much appreciate that and your stewardship of this agency.”
Mr. Kolluri has had a long career in both transit and in New Jersey politics, having run a nonprofit connected to the state political boss George Norcross. (Mr. Norcross was indicted earlier this year; Mr. Kolluri was not accused of any wrongdoing.)
For more than two years, Mr. Kolluri oversaw the project, known as Gateway, to build a second set of rail tunnels between New Jersey and Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan. He resigned that position last year, saying that he had seen the project through the process of arranging funding from the two states and the federal government and that somebody else should manage the tunnel’s construction.
The governor said that Mr. Kolluri had played “a vital role in our region’s transit infrastructure” and that he was confident in Mr. Kolluri’s ability to lead New Jersey Transit “as we work to deliver the reliable, efficient, and modernized mass transit system that New Jerseyans deserve.”
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