Some leaders take pride in having trains run on time; Gov. Phil Murphy today celebrated getting them to stop.

All New Jersey Transit trains are now equipped with Positive Train Control (PTC), a system that stops trains when engineers for some reason can’t do so.

Murphy made the announcement appropriately enough standing in front of a locomotive in Kearny.

The lack of PTC became a pressing issue in September, 2016 when a commuter train slammed into a wall at the Hoboken station killing one person and injuring 114. An investigation discovered the train’s
engineer was apparently incapacitated by sleep apnea.

The state was under a December, 2020, federal deadline to install PTC.

Murphy said that was a problem given the fact that three years ago only 12 percent of the rail network had the system installed. This allowed Murphy to take a swipe at the previous Christie Administration
by saying that for eight years, nothing was done to install PTC.

Yet, in more bipartisan comments, the governor thanked the president and his administration for supporting the state’s more recent efforts.

Murphy is normally effusive with praise at times like this and today was no exception.

He called the state’s performance in meeting the deadline a “Herculean effort” and dusted off an old quote – perhaps apocryphal – from Casey Stengel about doing what few thought possible.

More seriously, the governor said the success of systemwide PTC will not be measured by a declining number of accidents but by the many New Jerseyans who get home safely every evening.

Three hours or so later, the governor’s mood had changed as he announced 3,975 new cases of COVID-19 and 44 additional deaths. The number of residents hospitalized has gone down the last two days, but
that was really only a sliver of good news.

With Congress still debating a stimulus plan, the governor again expressed bewilderment at Republican opposition to a large package. By that he means one in the neighborhood of $3 trillion.

He said he can’t get inside the heads of GOP legislators, but warned that they will face the wrath of history.

A more immediate challenge here in Jersey is encouraging skeptics to get the virus vaccine.

Health officials said today they know that broadly speaking there are three groups of people – the willing, the skeptical and those who will just refuse. The challenge is to convince the skeptics.

That may be hard to accomplish, but it’s easy to say.

“Put your faith in science” is how Murphy put it.