On Tuesday, Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ), NJ TRANSIT, and Amtrak leadership held a summit in Newark to discuss infrastructure and future work.
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00:00I'm hyper-focused on NJ Transit.
00:03Just to give you a little bit of a sense of what's happened last year, and Tony will, I'm sure, address this,
00:09Amtrak spent specifically on areas that are germane to this relationship,
00:16$12 million, three and a half miles of new catenary, replacement of more than 9,500 hardware components,
00:23inspection of all catenary wires from Trenton to New York City, including by helicopter,
00:31increased pantograph inspections on both systems, with more to come.
00:39And then right now, I think, Tony, I don't want to speak for you, this fiscal year looks like another up from that,
00:45I think you mentioned $40 million in particular, that's the fiscal year,
00:49but in particular a 12-week intense period right now with work being done between the two systems
00:55to get that work out of the way before the summer heat hits us.
01:00You'll recall there's a consensus that heat and the component parts don't get along terribly well,
01:08so being preemptive, anticipating that has been a big part of the partnership as opposed to only reacting to challenges.
01:18Another step that's been agreed upon, which I think is quite notable,
01:23that in the dispatch room in Penn Station, NJ Transit will now have a senior member of its team
01:29right alongside the Amtrak folks, and that particularly at busy times, at special events,
01:37that will be a huge boost.
01:39And I want to thank the Amtrak side, Roger in particular,
01:42for making that happen to allow us to have that senior presence in the control center.
01:49And we have a lot coming up, period, in New Jersey and in the region,
01:54but in particular in the warm weather.
01:56So MetLife has a record concert schedule this spring and summer.
02:01We have the first-ever World Club Cup in soccer,
02:04where we've got nine matches, including a quarterfinal, both semis, and the final at MetLife.
02:10We have the World Cup itself next summer, eight matches, including the final,
02:15which will be the most witnessed, bless you, event in human history.
02:21So this partnership and the timeliness of the partnership could not be more important to either organization.
02:27Again, I want to thank both teams for that spirit of partnership.
02:32This is as far from a blame game as you can imagine right now.
02:37Facts are facts, but this is the spirit of coming up with a better customer and commuter experience,
02:44as good an experience as possible.
02:47Before I turn to Tony, I'll make two comments.
02:49Notwithstanding the progress, the specific steps that have been taken, the spirit of partnership,
02:55that doesn't mean a train's not going to break down tomorrow.
02:57So it's very hard to bat 1,000 in this line of business.
03:05But having said that, my last point, I think we all agree,
03:08if the exact same set of facts were presented to us this summer as were presented last summer
03:14in terms of weather and what broke down and where it broke down,
03:20we would have a meaningfully better commuter experience this summer.
03:24That gives you some sense.
03:26We can't bat 1,000 on the one hand, but on the other hand,
03:29a lot of progress has been made that would have a tangible and specific impact positively
03:34on the commuter experience going forward.
03:37Again, I want to thank both sides.
03:39And with that, turn things over to the chairman of Amtrak, Tony Kosher.
03:43You have to shut these off if I apologize.
03:50It's okay.
03:52Thank you, Governor.
03:53And let me begin by thanking the Governor for his leadership on getting us to this meeting,
04:00getting us to this point of creating that kind of focus.
04:03I mean, the reality is that I could spend a lot of time talking about the challenges that we have,
04:09the challenges of having, you know, the 400 trains a day that use this system,
04:15the challenges of the 200,000 people who commute every day,
04:20the challenges of a legacy system that has been in place in some cases for 50, 60,
04:26even 100-year assets that we're relying on.
04:28But that's all sort of irrelevant to the commuter who every day gets on a train and expects to,
04:34in a very safe, reliable way, get from one point to another.
04:38I think this session is about reminding everyone and sort of reporting to everyone on a tremendous amount of work that's taken place
04:47between Amtrak and New Jersey Transit on trying to do the best we can to assure that everyone has that safe, reliable commute.
04:54And then we don't experience, as the Governor mentioned, the issues that we had last year.
05:00We've made a lot of progress.
05:01We've made a lot of progress in terms of creating a whole new regimen of inspecting assets.
05:06The best way to deal with an asset that's old and has the risk of not performing is to identify it before that failure takes place and to fix it.
05:16The best way of being able to do that involves finding the best state-of-the-art technologies that are available
05:22to make that inspection as meaningful as possible, and we've done all of those things.
05:27As the Governor mentioned, we have replaced almost 7,500 components around the system.
05:33We've replaced catenary wire.
05:34We've done a tremendous amount of work to try to upgrade it.
05:38All of this is sort of a challenge, as I mentioned, to a system that is old and a system that has a number of points of potential failure in it,
05:46all of which we've worked really hard to try to address in advance so that we could remedy that.
05:51You know, the thing about all of this is that there is no sort of magic manual here.
05:57There isn't sort of an identified set of principles that if we all follow them, every single train that we run will run on time.
06:04Right now, New Jersey Transit is running at a 90% on-time rate on our railroad.
06:10We're hopeful we can keep that up and we can continue it, and as the weather becomes uncooperative, we hope that we've found ways to address it.
06:16But we have no way of assuring that and guaranteeing it.
06:19So what we have done is we've put in place mechanisms that allow us to invest, and the governor mentioned that we are now on a path to invest over $50 million in those day-to-day upgrades of replacing aged catenary wire, replacing other mechanical components on the system.
06:35We've also developed a way of being able to respond much more quickly when an incident happens.
06:41People have a reason to expect that when they hear about a failure of a train that we're not sort of sitting around waiting for a period of time for crews to respond, for people to deploy assets necessary to do that.
06:52We've upped our game in terms of being able to do all of that.
06:55But also, as the governor mentioned, there is no way that we could guarantee that we're not going to have issues going forward, but we have done an incredible amount of work between the two entities of trying to make sure that we can manage that in the best way possible.
07:09I'll say this, too, that, you know, just as I said there's no manual here, there are a lot of good ideas out there about how to run the system better.
07:17There are lots of concepts out there about things that have been done both in this region and around the world where people have been able – had to deal with legacy systems and come up with creative ways of trying to solve some of those problems.
07:30We are open to that, and we have to all remain open to that.
07:34We have to all remain open to making the system better and better every single day.
07:38And so, with that, Governor, I will turn it back to you and to Chris.
07:43Before Chris jumps in, Tony, thank you.
07:46By the way, all of us basically had to walk across the street or walk down the hall to be at this meeting.
07:51I want to reiterate, these five folks run a national rail system, and the fact that they're taking the time, not just day in and day out, to be in New Jersey today means a lot.
08:01I'm getting back to my regular pattern of taking NJ Transit I took a couple of days ago, Chris.
08:05On time, I have one of the new window seats I could see, actually, outside.
08:11Incredibly pleasant experience.
08:13Over to you.
08:15Thank you, Governor, for your leadership, and thanks for the feedback.
08:19And Tony and Roger, thanks for the partnership and the collaborative effort that we're all undertaking.
08:26Governor, if I could, I want to frame what I want to say within the context of, perhaps, preparation and our response.
08:34As Tony said, we have 72% of our rail commuters going to New York every single day.
08:41That is about 144,000 daily trips that happen.
08:45For those folks, they care about on-time performance.
08:48They care about making sure they get home and to work in a safe and efficient manner.
08:52That is our singular obsession.
08:55So what we've been trying to do since last summer is to focus on how to make sure we get to our reliable system.
09:03So I wanted to just talk to you about a few things that are ongoing and a long-range plan.
09:08In the first instance, just starting in March and for the next, until June 1st,
09:16Amtrak has requested outages from us to make sure they can make the necessary catenary improvements.
09:21That is happening.
09:22It's already happening on the Raritan Valley line.
09:24It's going to happen on other segments of the Northeast Corridor, and that's a good thing.
09:29We internally understand that the mechanical systems of our rail rolling stock also need to be conditioned properly to handle the summer months.
09:38So we're working on a preventive inspection and a maintenance program to make sure those component parts that are susceptible to heat can be maintained properly.
09:50And should the temperature of those systems go up, we will monitor them and resolve the problem before it starts.
09:56Equally important, we already have in place, since last summer, pro-tech crews, which we work with Amtrak very closely,
10:06that are located in various important parts of the Northeast Corridor.
10:11So should there be a problem, the response time to manage the problem is a lot shorter than it was last summer.
10:17You talked about dispatch and the senior-level staff that's going to be in the control center.
10:22This was an important objective for us, and I'm so appreciative of your leadership, Governor, and Tony and Roger, for working with us.
10:31Ultimately, we care about on-time performance for Amtrak as much as we do for ours.
10:36So this, we think, is a mutually beneficial program.
10:41Let me talk about communications for a second.
10:43One of the things that you emphasized in my very first meeting with you is the need to make sure we communicate in real time
10:50and with a frequency that the customer has not been used to.
10:54We already do that in coordination with Amtrak.
10:56Every time there's a problem on our system, we tell them exactly what the root cause of the problem is
11:01and, if possible, how long it's going to take to fix it.
11:04And we do that on all platforms across our platforms, and we do the same thing with Amtrak.
11:08We also, on top of that, have ambassadors who are in person at Newark and in New York
11:15who are there in the mornings and in the afternoon rush hour
11:18so a customer can speak to somebody in person to understand what's happening on the railroads
11:23so they can get real-time information.
11:26Let me just end with this last point.
11:29Ultimately, the way you get to a reliability of the system is what you committed to in your budget address.
11:34You said by the time you leave office, you'll fully modernize the entire fleet,
11:41and that is exactly what's about to happen over the next several months.
11:46Before your term is up, Governor, we will have taken action with Chairman O'Connor
11:51as the lead at the New Jersey Transit Board
11:53to make sure we have the authorization to modernize the entire rail fleet by 2031.
12:00That has never happened in the 45 years of New Jersey Transit history,
12:04and you'll be the first governor to do it,
12:07and that is how you get to a reliability that our customers are asking for
12:11and that you have demanded.
12:13Thank you, Governor.
12:13Thank you, Chris.
12:16Thank you, and by the way, thank you for those comments and leadership on the NJ Transit team.
12:22Fair to say you all are upgrading your entire rolling stock.
12:25Is that right?
12:25Got to get that timing down.
12:31Yes, we are in the largest procurement of rolling stock in the country.
12:38We have at this point, mostly through the benefit of the Infrastructure Act funding that we were able to receive,
12:45we will be upgrading virtually every piece of rolling stock in the Amtrak system,
12:48beginning with the new Acela's hopefully this spring and continuing with the Aero system,
12:56which will replace the sort of workhorse regional trains that everyone rides on.
13:00But, you know, within the next five to ten years,
13:03every piece of rolling stock in the Amtrak system will be replaced.
13:08And we announced 200-something buses, clean state-of-the-art buses last week.
13:17So with that, we'll take any questions that you may have.
13:20I'll ask Tony to comment on that, because this is largely Amtrak infrastructure.
13:39But the fact that they're spending between last year, we might want to cut that, Marcel, if we could,
13:46between last year and this year, $52 million on very specific, very desperately needed upgrades,
13:55and NJ Transit spending significant capital on their side is certainly a start.
13:59But I think Tony made the point when we've gathered the two times before.
14:04These are decades-long underinvestments that Amtrak is pushing back against,
14:10and I'll let him take it from there.
14:15The reality is, and the governor, what the governor just mentioned, is what we're facing,
14:20which is that the passenger rail infrastructure that exists in the United States
14:26is a classic industrial asset that, you know, has been underinvested for decades.
14:32And only within the last 10 years have we started to make significant investments.
14:37And, in fact, I'd say only in the last five years have those investments started to ramp up.
14:42And the truth is that, you know, we still have a long list of things that need to be invested in
14:48to create a state of good repair that creates the level of reliability that we think all of our passengers, you know,
14:54expect and should be able to expect.
14:57But we are sort of attacking each of those one at a time.
15:00In the interim, what is really, really important is that we are smart about the investments that we're making,
15:05that we are investing the resources we have, even if they are limited,
15:10in the ways that will have the biggest impact and have the longest effect.
15:13We do feel optimistic that right now there is a consensus around wanting to make these investments,
15:19and it is really up to us to make them as prudently as possible to continue to encourage that to happen.
15:26You know, I know a lot of you were around for this, but, you know,
15:29the governor was a very early and very, you know, effective supporter of the Portal Bridge.
15:35And so the Portal Bridge is a project that, in and of itself,
15:39will end up replacing a significant segment of the catenary and sort of traditional infrastructure
15:45that trains between New York and New Jersey rely on.
15:48So that one project is, in and of itself, going to have a meaningful impact on the reliability
15:53of the railroad infrastructure that people use because it's the kind of asset renewal that really has a lasting impact,
16:00as opposed to what we do try to do, which is find those specific areas where we think there's a vulnerability
16:05and replace those components of it.
16:09Things like the Portal Bridge, Gateway Program, those are projects that are going to have a lasting impact.
16:15And if we are good stewards and we're able to see those investments through,
16:19the experience that people have using rail infrastructure a decade from now will be very different from what existed a decade ago.
16:30We're hoping to cut a ribbon before we hang up our cleats, and Gateway, as Chris ran it,
16:44even since the last time we had one of these little mini summits,
16:48there's been a lot of really good progress on the Hudson River Tunnel Project.
16:51Sorry about that.
16:53Can you speak more to the outages that are coming in a little more detail about which lines are going to be impacted?
16:58Is it weekend? Is it overnight? Is it both?
17:00And then the second part to that question is, I know Amtrak has had challenges with force account work
17:06and having workers available, so, you know, as transit is able to give you those hours,
17:10are you going to have enough people working to get, you know, the full impact of those, you know?
17:16Let's go to Chris and then maybe Roger on the Amtrak side.
17:20So what we intended, just like we did on Raritan Valley, we're working with Amtrak on making sure specific lines,
17:29to the extent that they need outages from us, we not only agree together,
17:33but we tell the customers three, four weeks in advance.
17:36So, Colleen, what we intend to do is publish a list of all the outages we are planning between now
17:43and the first week in June, well in advance, so our customers know.
17:47And we're happy to identify the specific lines in that.
17:55Sorry, I said Roger.
17:57Good afternoon.
18:00Yes, we've been working very closely with New Jersey Transit to work on those outages.
18:04As part of that, ensuring that we did have the force account as well as the materials ready
18:09so that we can do that work productively and effectively, it started last week
18:12and it's already off to a very strong start.
18:14So we feel really good about the plan that we've collectively developed
18:16and our ability to achieve all of the work that we have planned.
18:22Sorry, Laura, you have the manpower you need?
18:26I have it dedicated for this work.
18:33Amtrak is going to close one of the tubes of the East River Tunnel,
18:37which will last like three years.
18:38A lot of people in New York were upset because 25% of Albany service will be canceled,
18:4310% of Long Island Eastbound service.
18:46No service is currently canceled on NJT,
18:49but what I've been told by people at Long Island Railroad is
18:52operational flexibility to get trains in and out of Sunnyside,
18:56your trains, is going to be reduced when you have three tubes running instead of four.
19:02And should there be a signal problem or an equipment failure,
19:05right now they adjust 15 minutes with four tubes.
19:10If you have a signal failure or equipment failure with three tubes at rush hour,
19:15it could make it a much hairier situation.
19:19And are you concerned about that?
19:20A lot of politicians in New York are telling Amtrak,
19:23please don't do the closure yet, find another way.
19:26Let me, I'm going to turn to Governor, if it's okay,
19:28I'm going to have Jimmy answer the specific question on timing.
19:31But let me just, Michael, I want to address this broader issue.
19:34I understand that these outages take a lot of time and they are,
19:42they do inconvenience some people.
19:45But I must say, these repairs aren't a luxury, they're a necessity.
19:50Amtrak is doing it because it's the right thing to do.
19:53If we don't do it, you're going to have a potential catastrophic incident
19:56and choke off the entire system.
19:58So this idea that somehow these repairs will magically happen without inconveniencing people.
20:05Well, and look, I mean, I will tell you,
20:07as somebody who's worked very closely with our team and Amtrak
20:11to coordinate the scheduling of the East River Tunnel construction,
20:15I feel like they have understood what the needs of the railroads are
20:21and they're doing what is necessary.
20:23But this broader point about infrastructure improvements,
20:26I just don't understand from a pragmatic standpoint
20:29how anybody could be opposed to a repairing of a tunnel that is 120 years old.
20:36Jimmy, you want to?
20:39I think you covered it, right?
20:41I mean, trying to compare on this type of infrastructure,
20:44we can let Amtrak speak to it,
20:45under trafficking open for rail service would be nearly impossible.
20:50We've been working with Amtrak for months,
20:52developing a plan that is very robust.
20:56system and new switches.
21:00Speak to it a little bit, Gary.
21:04I mean, first I want to say,
21:06you're not going to modernize the asset unless you do take it out of service
21:09and do the work on it.
21:11We do have plans.
21:12We're working through plans right now,
21:14and we're going to meet with Longer Island next week, in fact,
21:16to talk over the operational issues while that tube's out of service.
21:22It is going to be very tricky.
21:23It is going to be challenging.
21:25And just as you said,
21:26things will happen in one of those other three tunnels.
21:29But we will be prepared to address it quickly
21:32so it impacts everybody to the least amount.
21:35Yeah, I just wanted to add one final thing,
21:41which is to say this,
21:42that before I read my daily news this morning,
21:47I already sort of had the sort of notion
21:52that what we're doing at the East River Tunnel
21:56is likely to inconvenience a lot of people.
21:58I think Chris and Jimmy and Gary have all said it well.
22:06Based on everything that we know,
22:08I'm not sure we have a lot of options,
22:10and I think there's a whole other problem
22:12that happens by us not taking action.
22:14But there is not a day that goes by
22:17that those of us who have a leadership position at Amtrak
22:20don't revisit our assumptions to make sure that they are accurate
22:23or can be improved
22:26or whether there are operational mitigation things
22:28we can take into place relative to inconveniencing people less.
22:32It is a very difficult problem
22:34to wake up after 40 years and say we need to fix this.
22:38But, you know, as I said,
22:40I don't want anyone to think that these decisions are made
22:44and then we sort of put them to bed and just move on.
22:47Every day we're revisiting whether or not there's something we missed.
22:51Every day we're revisiting.
22:52Is there a way we can stage things a little bit differently
22:54to make it less of a burden on people?
22:57And, you know, and that will continue.
22:59Are you revisiting the idea that the MTA used for the L train
23:03to repair it nights and weekends?
23:06That and everything else is on the table.
23:08Yes.
23:09Yes.
23:09Given that Trump is in the trade
23:11and sometimes aggressive reallocation of resources,
23:14what money do you count on it?
23:17By the way, I'm not used to everyone else getting the questions.
23:20I'm having a very good time here.
23:22I agree with that.
23:25How about rentals?
23:29That's a guy from Needham, Massachusetts.
23:31Ignore him.
23:33Question for all of us.
23:35I can only answer your question broadly,
23:39which is to say that Amtrak has a lot of capital projects that are in the queue,
23:44and we've been working very productively with the new administration on advancing those forward.
23:48And, you know, I don't really, you know, I mean, is there more of a need for there to be investment in infrastructure,
23:56particularly passenger rail infrastructure in the United States?
23:59You know, Amtrak as a company believes the answer to that question is yes.
24:02We've shared that with Congress for as long as I've been affiliated with Amtrak,
24:08and our hope is that we can continue to make that case and people will be receptive to investing in it.
24:13But if your question is, has the new administration been supportive of our initiatives,
24:18I think the answer is yes.
24:20I mean, like any new administration, I think they've wanted to be comfortable that the decisions we're making are accurate
24:25and that the investments we're making are prudent.
24:29But, yes, I'd say that they have been supportive.
24:31Good morning.
24:32I would just add to that, selfishly, Secretary Duffy lives in New Jersey,
24:38and that's been a – Fran and I have gotten to know him well, in our case, unfortunately,
24:43because of abandoned mine shafts and sinkholes, but he's been very supportive,
24:48and I want to say that publicly.
24:50Larry.
24:51Hold on, hold on.
24:52Please, please, please.
24:53Patrick, can you question one?
24:54Your quotient was two, by the way.
24:56One for Amtrak.
24:57For Amtrak, what percent –
25:01Yeah, we'll have to get you that information from a percentage standpoint.
25:19I don't think we have it today.
25:20And then for locomotives.
25:24Yeah, so we have 216 locomotives right now, and of which we have 45 new ones – or 35 new ones – we've just received.
25:33And we'll continue to evaluate them, Larry, just to make sure that we are on track to modernize them as well.
25:41That's very much part of the governor's modernization program for the entire fleet.
25:46So about 15 percent of the new –
25:48Is it modernized the entire rail fleet?
25:53The 2031, the entire rail fleet will be modernized.
25:58Do you want to say having another summit before the summer season gets underway?
26:02Probably not unless there is a reason to have it.
26:05We all know each other.
26:06We all know how to find each other.
26:08I think the plan has been laid out.
26:11But if we have – listen, if circumstances are great, I don't think we'll just come together to say how great things are.
26:17But if there are challenges, we all reserve the right to gather if need be.
26:22Please.
26:24With the exception of some of the people at this end of the table, I think that summit takes place on almost a daily basis.
26:32So, you know, will everyone around this table convene in this forum again?
26:36I think the governor's right.
26:38Maybe not.
26:39I mean, we're already midway through April.
26:41But know that the very senior people in both organizations that you see around this table, they talk to each other all the time about this very topic.
26:51Very good point.
26:53Please.
26:54Are you expecting this instruction clause to rise for these innovations due to the terrace?
26:59And if so, which projects might be at this?
27:01I'll give you a general answer.
27:03Maybe these folks can follow up with you offline in terms of numbers.
27:05It would be pretty surprising if the answer to that wasn't yes.
27:11I think that we're going to see that across the board, not just in construction projects or just in the rail venue.
27:20If these go forward, my gut tells me that's unavoidable.
27:24Yeah, but you – did you have one more on?
27:30Yeah, I'll come back to you.
27:32We're from the same hometown.
27:35Don't hold that against us.
27:37Governor Hochul has ruled out the Penn Expansion Project, Block 780 and South.
27:47How do you see that, any of you, impacting Gateway, which is still going to do resiliency and redundancy, but how do you get an additional car, additional passenger, and additional train without 780, which he says is not going to happen?
28:02Yeah, I'll just give you a general answer.
28:04Maybe, Chris, you ran Gateway, you should answer, and Tony should weigh in.
28:09We believe – I believe, personally, expansion is – to the premise of your question – is important.
28:17And I think even more so than renovation, although we're supportive of both.
28:23But if you're going to go through all this trouble of building these two new tunnels and making the investments that we're making, you want to see the capacity be able to meet the demand at that point.
28:34Chris, why don't you weigh in?
28:36Yes, sir.
28:37So a couple of points on this.
28:39One is the way you get to 48 trains an hour, ultimately, is by an expansion plan.
28:45The FRA, through an EIS process, was going to consider or is considering three alternatives that included Block 780, as you correctly said.
28:55But that doesn't mean that the EIS has completed it, it hasn't even started yet, as I understand it.
29:00So there are multiple options that the EIS process will go through to identify an expansion plan that fits into both the governor's vision of what an expansion looks like.
29:11Ultimately, expansion is the only way you get to 48 trains an hour, and that's why these two tunnels that GDC is building is so essential to this entire region.
29:22Tony, you want to add anything?
29:25Only to say that, again, and I'm probably going to repeat myself because it's a common theme to all of it.
29:32We're reversing, you know, a 100-year backlog in this case.
29:38And so getting two new tunnels under the Hudson River, replacing a 120-year-old asset with a new one,
29:45is going to, in and of itself, create the opportunity for us to, in fact, support resiliency and strengthen the capacity that comes from having fewer outages
29:55and all the things that we've talked about, but also create the opportunity for expansion.
29:59Now, what form that expansion takes place, and whether it's what's been discussed relative to the 780 block or any of the other alternatives,
30:07I think that is still a work in progress.
30:09And again, as I said before, it is important that we listen to the concerns that people raise.
30:15It's important that we adjust to the way we plan on doing this, based on factors that change and the environment that changes.
30:21And all of that is going to go into a determination as to how to best redevelop existing Penn Station that we all believe should be done
30:29and create the level of capacity that, hopefully, the completion of the Gateway Program is going to afford to New York.
30:37What we do know is that rail capacity to New York City through an artery that is the only connection between New York City and the rest of the continent is vitally important.
30:49We know that that's true, and, you know, we will certainly have our hands full trying to execute on that project effectively.
30:57We're also going to have the reality of a one-seat ride for a whole lot more communities and commuters,
31:03which only will add to the capacity demand for that, because we're seeing.
31:09I just, I addressed this at the end when it came out at the end of last week.
31:26No comment on the particulars of this, which you won't be surprised by, given the nature of something like this.
31:33I would just say, as a factual matter, we work with federal authorities across the board, including ICE, every single day.
31:42We, our law enforcement at the state level, at the county and local level, is focused on bringing criminals to justice.
31:51And we work frequently with, as they say, our federal authorities quite successfully, including ICE.
31:58As I mentioned last week, I'm not sure how much airtime I got, this is also personal to me.
32:04I host an annual summit dinner every year where we have our neighbors, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New York.
32:10We have our senior folks in law enforcement, but we have immigration folks, AFT, FBI, U.S. Attorney.
32:21And, by the way, not just from New Jersey or Newark.
32:24By example, we'll have the FBI, Secret Service, FBI directors from Philadelphia and New York.
32:30So this is something we take really seriously.
32:34And there's been an element of this so-called immigrant trust directive, which has been upheld, by the way, in court, including by judges appointed by President Trump.
32:44It's got an element that doesn't get as much airtime that is worth ending on, which is it basically allows an individual, regardless of what their immigration status is, to feel free to approach public servants,
33:00including members of law enforcement, and basically say, that guy over there is the murderer you're looking for, the bank robber, the rapist you're looking for.
33:10That person is able to do that without any fear of their own status, which has been a huge game changer.
33:17If you speak to the members of the law enforcement leadership in our state, that sort of ability, that unburdening of that person to be able to say,
33:24you know what, that's your guy right over there, has been a huge step.
33:29And we are, because of that and a whole lot of other factors, we are by many measures the safest state in America.
33:37And that doesn't happen by accident.
33:39I want to thank Tony and Roger and Team Amtrak, Chris and Fran and Team NJ Transit for a very productive discussion.
33:48And Tony said it well, maybe not another summit like this before the summer, but elements of this team are meeting and speaking constantly.
33:59And that's what commuters out there deserve.
34:01Thank you all.