In Advance of Busy Summer 2025 Travel Season, Governor Murphy, Amtrak, and NJ TRANSIT Hold Summit Highlighting Infrastructure and Equipment Improvements and Future Work

Amtrak and NJ TRANSIT joined Governor Phil Murphy for a working summit ahead of the busy summer 2025 travel season in New Jersey. During the meeting, Amtrak and NJ TRANSIT presented a new progress report on the joint inspection, maintenance, and improvement program for Amtrak’s infrastructure and NJ TRANSIT’s trains.

Targeted work between the two agencies over the past year has produced significant upgrades that are expected to mitigate major service disruptions and address incidents that customers experienced in May and June of 2024.

“Over the past year, we have been working diligently to address many of the issues that riders endured during the summer of 2024,” said Governor Phil Murphy. “In partnership with Amtrak, we have embarked on an ambitious effort to increase inspections, accelerate repairs, and expand funding for capital investments. We are pleased to announce today that Amtrak has now agreed to welcome a senior-level staff member with NJ TRANSIT into their New York Penn Station control center which will help the two agencies engage in continuous collaboration. We will continue to work together so we can ensure that the people of New Jersey get where they need to go — safely and on time.”

“Amtrak and NJ TRANSIT customers should feel confident in their travel this summer thanks to the leadership from Governor Murphy and the New Jersey Congressional delegation, and all the hard work Amtrak and NJ TRANSIT teams accomplished this past year together to provide the reliable travel experience our customers deserve,” said Amtrak President Roger Harris. “But the job isn’t done, as we have more improvements underway, and we are encouraged by the results so far that will lead to more upgrades and better service.”

“NJ TRANSIT understands how vital dependable rail service is for the tens of thousands of customers who rely on the Northeast Corridor every day. Since last June, substantial progress has been made on infrastructure and equipment upgrades that should significantly lower the risk of experiencing a repeat of last summer’s service issues,” said NJ TRANSIT President & CEO Kris Kolluri. “We remain committed to making necessary schedule adjustments to support Amtrak’s ongoing upgrades to the overhead wires ahead of the summer—essential work that strengthens the future of this corridor. Service reliability remains our top priority, and we deeply value our continued collaboration with Amtrak to deliver a better, more reliable travel experience for all our customers.”

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Governor Murphy Calls for Formal Investigation Into Regional Energy Cost Crisis

Governor Phil Murphy urged the federal government to investigate whether market manipulation resulted in higher energy prices that are set to take effect this summer, harming consumers and businesses in New Jersey and the region.

The Governor penned a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) requesting that agency leadership direct the commission’s enforcement unit to launch an investigation of the 2024 Base Residual Auction (BRA) for the 2025/2026 Delivery Year and examine whether market manipulation occurred, and if so, to determine the extent to which that manipulation resulted in higher capacity auction prices and, therefore, led to an increase in energy bills for families and businesses.

“The manufactured PJM cost crisis was foreseeable and preventable. Today, I’m urging FERC to take immediate action to investigate the unacceptable outcome of PJM’s 2024 capacity auction – resulting in exorbitantly high price increases that PJM will unjustly pass down on to everyday New Jerseyans,” said Governor Murphy. “I am deeply concerned with how increasing energy bills will affect families and businesses as we head into the summer months, and I am calling on FERC to investigate whether market manipulation led to this harmful increase. As the regulator, FERC must ensure that PJM is prioritizing the safe, reliable, cost-effective, and clean delivery of electricity – especially when neglecting this obligation will be at the expense of ratepayers.”

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Human Services Launches 988 Mobile Crisis Outreach Response Teams

The New Jersey Department of Human Services announced that the 988 Mobile Crisis Outreach Response Teams (MCORTs) are now operational. MCORTs are a voluntary service available statewide to individuals ages 18 years and older in non-life-threatening situations who have contacted the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

MCORTs respond to non-life-threatening mental health, substance use, and suicidal crises without law enforcement or other emergency personnel when it is safe to do so. They work in coordination with the State’s 988 Lifeline centers and are dispatched when a 988 Crisis Counselor assesses that community outreach would be helpful and the person calling 988 is interested in such services for themselves or a loved one.

“Timely behavioral health supports set our residents up for the best possible long-term outcomes. That is why we have made it a priority to invest in our 988 system of care,” said Governor Phil Murphy. “With our newly operational Mobile Crisis Outreach Response Teams, we are building on our already robust continuum of supports to ensure New Jerseyans have access to services they need to de-escalate crises and access needed resources. Today’s announcement underscores that – in New Jersey – help is truly only a phone call or text message away.”

“I am proud of the work we have done to strengthen 988 in New Jersey, and how we respond to behavioral crises in the community. The need for mental health, substance use, and suicide crisis services remains high. People in distress who call, text, or chat 988 will tap into a system of care that extends past that initial outreach. This help ensures we meet people where they are and connect them to the most appropriate care to meet their needs,” said Human Services Commissioner Sarah Adelman.

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Attorney General Platkin Co-Leads Multistate Effort to Protect Affordable Care Act From Attack

Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin, along with the Attorneys General of California and Massachusetts, co-led a multistate letter regarding a raft of proposed changes that would undermine the Affordable Care Act (ACA), making it more difficult and expensive for individuals to enroll in health coverage on federal and state exchanges.

“The Trump Administration, in one of its first proposed regulations, is trying to make it harder to access health insurance for New Jerseyans and across the country,” said Attorney General Platkin. “That decision harms vulnerable populations and those who count on the Affordable Care Act, and it hurts everyone else too—because it drives up costs for all the States and our residents. I am proud to lead the fight against this idea, and I will continue to fight against any unlawful changes that deprive New Jerseyans of access to quality, affordable health care.”

“Taking health insurance away from people is not only cruel, it’s also bad policy. If we want to lower health care costs, we need more people to have coverage—not less,” said New Jersey Health Commissioner Kaitlan Baston, MD, MSc, DFASAM. “Everyone gets sick. But without insurance, people don’t get routine preventive care, and they wait to seek treatment until they’re much sicker. That makes their treatment more expensive—and when people can’t afford the hospital bill, we all end up paying for it.”

“New Jersey established GetCoveredNJ with the promise of providing residents with improved access to quality, affordable health coverage. Over the last five years we delivered on that promise, implementing numerous consumer focused policies leading to record enrollment each year. Now, due to the proposed federal rule, the flexibilities that allowed New Jersey to tailor GetCoveredNJ to best serve our residents is at risk,” said Justin Zimmerman, Commissioner, New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance, which operates Get Covered New Jersey, and which submitted its own comment letter on the rule. “This proposal would severely impact our ability to maintain the current access to quality, affordable health coverage for over a half a million residents and derail the tremendous progress we have made in connecting New Jerseyans with the health coverage and care they deserve.”

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