A New Jersey train crash highlights a failing transit system
Train crashes, especially fatal ones like the one that killed a train operator this week in New Jersey, are quite rare. But when there is a calamity on the rails, it often means something is wrong with the system.
Take the NJ Transit Hoboken crash in 2016 , which killed one person and injured dozens. It was later determined to have been caused by an operator with sleep apnea who dozed off as the train was pulling into the station. Afterward, NJ Transit lowered the speed limit for trains entering the station and issued regulations requiring train operators to be accompanied by another crew member as they pull into Hoboken.
So, could anything have been done to prevent this week's fatal crash on the River Line, which killed a 20-year veteran train operator who hit a downed tree?
Jessica Haley, 41, was passing through a wooded area near Roebling Station in Burlington County around 6 a.m. Monday when she slammed into the tree. Nearly two dozen passengers were injured.
A lawyer for Haley's family said trees on the tracks were a known problem and conductors had previously suggested a track car should check the rails before trains with passengers trundled down the line.
"At one point, certain dangerous trees were marked with X's, but nothing was done to remove those or make sure that they were cleared so they didn't fall on the tracks," Kila Baldwin, a lawyer for Haley's family, told Gothamist this week.
The family filed notice to sue.
NJ Transit wouldn't comment on how often trees end up on the tracks, what the agency typically does about them, or why the tree wasn't detected before a train hit it this week.
"The incident remains under investigation," NJ Transit spokesperson Jim Smith said.
The River Line is a light rail line that runs between Camden and Trenton, and has a relatively small daily ridership of about 5,500 passengers.
"For the people who do take it every day, it's a critical connection," Zoe Baldwin, the Vice President for State Programs at the Regional Plan Association, told Gothamist."It connects job centers and in an area that otherwise doesn't have great transit service."
The line is run by a private company, Aecom, which is not an uncommon situation. But Baldwin notes that like all of NJ Transit, it's wildly underfunded.
"The state of New Jersey has not provided enough funding for the system to be upgrading in the way that would meet the needs of a current ridership, expanding in a way that would be functional for ridership, and also they're understaffed, which is going to directly affect the reliability of our whole system," Baldwin said. "So what this really comes down to is our financial decisions at the budget time."
Gov. Phil Murphy raised fares on the system by 15% this summer – the first hike in nine years. The agency is expecting a $917 million shortfall in the fiscal year beginning next July.
NJ Transit just endured another summer of hell, with multiple electrical issues snarling commutes in and out of Penn Station. Service grew so bad Murphy ordered a weeklong fare holiday in August as an apology . The breakdowns have continued into the fall.
"If we keep expecting NJ Transit to suddenly start making money, which no rail system in the world does, then we're going to be selling ourselves short," Baldwin said. "We really do need to understand that there are structural problems behind this that we cannot pretend will be fixed with anything like investment."
There's no guarantee a better-funded NJ Transit would have prevented a train from hitting a tree. But perhaps this recent accident will motivate Garden State politicians to try to prevent it from happening again.
