Governor-elect Chris Christie has appointed new leaders for the New Jersey Department of Transportation and NJ Transit. His choice for transportation commissioner is Jim Simpson, a New Yorker who was federal transit administrator in the Bush administration from 2006 until 2009. Simpson is familiar with the ARC Project and other NJT capital projects, as well as the positions taken by the Lackawanna Coalition and other rail advocacy groups.
The new executive director at NJT will be Jim Weinstein, who served as transportation commissioner from 1998 to 2002 in the Republican administration of Governors Whitman and DiFrancesco. At this writing, NJT could not confirm when the change of leadership will take place.