To address growing angst over the agency that serves nearly 1 million public transit commuters, a committee to investigate NJ Transit has been created by the state Senate president.

Sen. Steve Sweeney, D-Gloucester, announced on Tuesday the newly formed Senate Select Committee on New Jersey Transit, which he will chair. The committee will be charged with developing a plan of action to turn around the embattled agency plagued with cost overruns, mismanagement, late and no-show arrivals, and an aging bus fleet.

Other Democratic members will include Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, D-Bergen, Deputy Majority Leader Sandra Cunningham, D-Hudson, Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Patrick Diegnan, D-Middlesex, and Senate Law and Public Safety Committee Vice Chairman Joe Cryan, D-Union.

"Our transportation system is the lifeblood of our economy, and the failure to turn around NJ Transit hurts our economic growth, tax base, housing values and the quality of life of over a million commuters and their families," Sweeney said in a release. "NJ Transit's record of service cancellations, delays and breakdowns is inexcusable, its long-term planning is non-existent, and it is already laying the groundwork for a fare hike next summer."

The panel plans to hold public hearings and roundtables, and conduct site visits, according to Sweeney, considered the second-most-powerful politician in Trenton after Gov. Phil Murphy.

"New Jersey Transit's continuing struggles during the Murphy Administration have left commuters with unacceptably poor service," Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr., R-Union, said in a statement after it was announced he was on the committee. "Senate Republicans are committed to working to develop solutions to give rail-riding New Jerseyans the reliability they need and deserve every single day."

Other Republicans joining Kean are Sen. Christopher "Kip" Bateman, R-Somerset, and Sen. Kristin Corrado, R-Bergen.

An aide to Sweeney said on Tuesday that the Senate president has no plans at this time to hire outside counsel to advise the new committee.

"We need to hear from commuters, transportation experts, and others to determine an appropriate increase in operating funds to adequately support an agency that carries more than 900,000 bus, rail and light rail passengers," Weinberg, the Senate majority Leader, said in the same release.

Weinberg, a known mass transit advocate, said she believes the state needs to provide more than the $75 million in additional operating support for NJ Transit in this year's budget.

The multiyear budget NJ Transit provided to the Legislature last April in compliance with S-630, the NJ Transit reform legislation sponsored by Weinberg and Diegnan that was signed into law in December 2018, showed that the agency would be facing a $131 million budget deficit by June 2020 if things stay on the same track, according to the lawmakers named on the committee.

NJ Transit trains are four times as likely to be canceled as Long Island Railroad and Metro North trains that serve New York and Connecticut suburbs, according to recent studies, while NJ Transit has an accident and breakdown rate that is worse than other major railroads.

"Everyone agrees we must do a better job of long-term planning," said Diegnan in a statement. "We trail other transit agencies in planning for conversion to an electric bus fleet, and the Gateway rail tunnel isn't the only project that is in limbo. We need to know how we are going to fund expansion of rail freight capacity, make needed improvements to the Raritan Valley Line, and pay for the Hudson-Bergen and Gloucester-Camden light rail."

Cunningham referenced a fatal train derailment at Hoboken Terminal three years ago that killed a young mother in pointing up the need for the new committee. The woman, Fabiola Bittar de Kroon, 34, was a lawyer who had moved from Santos, Brazil, a year earlier.

News accounts and an investigation described that Train 1614 sped into the station at twice the speed limit on Sept. 29, 2016, and slammed into the backstop and caused part of the train shed's glass ceiling to collapse. Kroon was standing on the platform when a rain of debris fell on her, trapping and killing her.

Officials said the engineer, Thomas Gallagher, 48, was diagnosed with sleep apnea after the crash.

Kroon's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the transit agency seeking unspecified compensatory damages in June 2017 in state Superior Court in Hudson County. The case remains in litigation.