NJ Transit filled the vacant customer advocate role Thursday with a French man, Franck Beaumin, who has experience in transit operations worldwide. (Fran Baltzer for New Jersey Monitor/NJ Transit)
After four years without a customer advocate, NJ Transit filled the role Thursday with a French man who has experience in transit operations worldwide.
Franck Beaumin will be the new customer advocate for the beleaguered transit agency, which has faced strong criticism in recent months over delayed trains, canceled routes, and fare increases.
NJ Transit Board Chair Fran O’Connor, also the state’s Department of Transportation commissioner, said Beaumin’s experience will be “an asset in advocating for our customers.”
“I am looking forward to engaging with our customers and working with the operational teams on every mode to improve the passenger experience at every step of the journey,” O’Connor said in a statement.
The role has been vacant since October 2020, when Beaumin’s predecessor, Stewart Mader, left the agency. The position is mandated under a 2018 law that called for an independent voice to advocate for riders while also having access to top officials at NJ Transit.
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Beaumin was born and raised in France, where he earned two master’s degrees and studied urban networks and planning policy. After graduating, he worked as a consultant on a $500 million bus rapid transit project in Bangladesh. He later moved on to Paris, where he handled customer service at transit operator Keolis.
He came to the United States to work with Boston’s transit agency and most recently served as the city agency’s passenger communications manager. There, he improved investigation response to customer feedback to an average of less than five business days, according to NJ Transit’s statement.
“Franck brings a unique and customer-focused perspective with his transit background in Europe as well as in Boston. We look forward to how he’ll apply that experience in the interest of our customers here in New Jersey,” said Shanti Narra, a NJ Transit board member.
In the Legislature, a bill that would create a transit customer advocacy commission is slowly advancing. The commission, under the bill, would appoint a rider advocate and have more independent oversight to conduct investigations and studies. The bill would also expand the customer advocate’s authority, empowering them to hire staff and advocate for customers on fare increases and service issues.
Currently, the customer advocate reports to the NJ Transit board. Lawmakers sponsoring the bill have said the position as they envision would have more independence.
While the Senate’s bill has stalled in the Senate’s budget committee, the Assembly companion bill was unanimously advanced out of the chamber’s appropriations committee in late September.