NJ Transit just can't catch a break and new reporting from North jersey.com is exposing darker issues within the agency that go beyond Transit delays allegations of sexual harassment racism and retaliation the most recent complaint was filed by a former NJ Transit worker who is accusing the agency of failing to protect her from years of abuse by a supervisor after a 5-month investigation the female employee received a letter from NJ Transit substantiating her claim that her supervisor violated the agency's sexual harassment policy the latest accusations are in addition to the growing calls from lawmakers to hold NJ Transit accountable for its repeated delays Transportation writer for the record in North jersey.com Colleen Wilson has been looking into these stories and joins me now Colleen thanks for joining me thanks for having me you know it seems the issues with NJ it are not just on the roads and rails but your reporting shows there are some serious issues of harassment racism and retaliation going on what did you find yeah I recently wrote about a woman who uh works on the on the rails uh who had uh experienced years of sexual harassment from a boss um according to her allegations um and she put those allegations into cla a claim with New Jersey transits uh eeo office that's charged with investigating that sort of thing and uh they substantiated her complaint they interviewed Witnesses they interviewed her multiple times uh and little or nothing was done according to her and the agency really wouldn't say anything uh it's a Personnel matter but at the end of the day uh as far as we know uh the uh harasser is still employed at New Jersey Transit and she was forced to kind of go back to work with that person um which is you know an unbelievable situation yeah and we know that she's not alone we know this is not the first time that the agency has face these allegations given the frustrations and fear from employees could we see more stories like this being publicized or employees coming forward absolutely I mean we've already seen them in just three years I've written about 20 plaintiffs who have made similar allegations who've had similar circumstances reported these matters uh and and then I'll often times have to go back to work with them because the consequences are are minimal or again none um and so yeah there's definitely I know of more people that are out there um not everyone is able to bring their case to a lawsuit um not everyone is willing to put themselves out there like that it's an extremely vulnerable position um and you know this person that I just wrote about had to leave their job um and and where she wanted to have a career where you have great benefits uh you know you have just a a world of opportunity to ride to rise and get a great career and salary and so she left Colleen how many people are we talking about uh that have well I I know of 20 plaintiffs uh that are are or have recently set are are have sued or have recently settled but there's 12,000 employees at New Jersey Transit so uh you know who knows how many there are out there that we don't know about you know talk about bad timing these accusations come after there has been a summer of delays and disruptions they've been in the headlines the whole summer there are now growing calls by New Jersey's Congressional Delegation for the US Department of Transportation to hold NJ Transit accountable for repeated delays most recently we know congresswoman Mikey Cheryl wrote a letter demanding money be appropriated to repair lines where does that stand and how will that help yeah so uh congresswoman uh Cheryl was calling on uh Amtrak to to also be a part of that um that they want to see Amtrak use that money for repairs uh but yes you're right there are Myriad there number of lawmakers who want to see also what New Jersey Transit is doing to address its own issues um you know the they're often conflated New Jersey Transit NRE but they both have failing aging equipment uh at the end of the day um that they are charged with keeping a good state of repair for and uh we are seeing this Summer that that has not happened or it is not happening and that that uh aging network of uh equipment is failing so what is being done those are the questions people want answer they want to know not what's going to be done in two years five years 10 years they want to know what's going to happen now so my commute tomorrow is in an unpredictable mess like all the weeks before and months before this that's right you know seems between the toxic culture within the agency and the constant service disruptions on the rails the agency is really falling apart so what's at stake here is there any light at the end of the tunnel so to speak sure I mean you have to be optimistic um yeah I mean people are paying more so they want to see a better outcome in their day-to-day lives and their commutes they don't want to be spending hours not knowing if they're going to get home and get their kid from daycare and all of that so what I mean what these lawmakers are asking for also uh is to see some accountability for how the money is going to be spent is it's being spent on lawsuits and settling and an outside Council for sexual harassment or is it being spent to fix you know old trains uh is it being spent to um you know improve the daily lives of the commuters that they're supposed to be serving uh and that's what I think everyone wants to know the answers to now we could just see whether or not someone will take them up on whether or not there needs to be hearings or an audit or you know some other measure uh in order to get more answers that's right well said follow the money Colleen excellent reporting thanks for joining me thanks for having me