At a briefing in Newark this morning, Governor Phil Murphy vowed to resolve cancelation problems plaguing NJ Transit, while marveling at Republican attacks on his administration for perceived slowness in getting the trains to run on time – and to run.

The Governor called the press conference in the wake of NJ Transit announcing that “the Raritan Valley Line to New York City will be suspended beginning Monday, Sept. 10, and the Atlantic City Line will be suspended as of Sept. 5. Service is being halted due to the installation of positive train control technology to monitor train speeds and locations. This technology will activate braking to comply with speed restrictions and territorial limits,” according to NJBIZ.

For more on the line cancelation, go here.

Murphy objected to the specific politicization of criticism coming on the heels of the announcement.

“After eight years for them to choose this moment to speak up is jaw dropping,” said Murphy, back in New Jersey after vacationing in Italy. NJ.com’s Paul Mulshine welcomed Murphy home here.

Citing engineer callouts as one of the reasons for the uptick in cancelations until Tuesday of this week, Murphy criticized the administration of former Governor Chris Christie for failing to adequate fund NJ Transit and said “the problems don’t get fixed overnight.”

Murphy said he doesn’t make a habit of criticizing the last administration but on this issue Christie culpability is inescapable.

The last Governor simply failed to adequately fund NJ Transit and it resulted in an entrenched problem.

“I call balls and strikes and I’m calling this one a strike,” he said. “There is just no escaping.”

“We understand the anger and the cynicism but we’ve got to go this in a peaceful way and we will,” added the governor, flanked by New Jersey Department of Transportation Commissioner Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti and NJ Transit Executive Director Kevin Corbett.