Train, plane, road travel updates

by MICHAEL RISPOLI

TRENTON -- State government computers statewide went down for about an hour early this morning, but were back up and running by the lunch hour.

Department of the Treasury spokesman Mark Perkiss said the problem mostly affected back office functions, but disruptions in customer services, such as Motor Vehicle Commission offices, were felt by citizens.

"The effects were short-lived, and there were some inconveniences to people, and we're sorry about that. But we got on it right away and they were able to fix the problem rather quickly," Perkiss said.

The problem stemmed from an outage in the Office of Information Technology in Trenton leading to complications statewide. IBM technology people were investigating to see what the complication was and how it occurred, said OIT spokeswoman Shelley Bates.

The office, a division of the Treasury Department, refers to itself as the state's "IT nervous system," overseeing the technical infrastructure of the state system of mainframe computers, databases and servers.

State offices will be closed Thursday for Thanksgiving but will reopen Friday, in accordance with Gov. Jon S. Corzine's statements in November 2006 saying he would no longer grant state workers the day off after Thanksgiving, as has been tradition.