(The following article by Shannon D. Harrington was posted on NorthJersey.com on July 7.)
BERGEN, N.J. — A freight train derailed in Waldwick on Wednesday evening, snarling the ride home for thousands of NJ Transit commuters on the Main and Bergen County lines and shutting down Hoboken-bound service.
NJ Transit officials were hopeful that service would be restored for the morning commute, while cautioning riders to check traffic reports and their Web site – NJTransit.com – for announcements, spokeswoman Penny Bassett Hackett said.
The timing couldn’t have been worse for commuters who use the rail lines, which carry about 8,000 people during the weekday evening rush.
The 11-car Norfolk Southern freight train was heading east about 5 p.m. when it derailed just north of NJ Transit’s Waldwick station, said Rudy Husband, a spokesman for Norfolk Southern, which shares the line.
No injuries were reported, Husband said, and the railroad was investigating the cause of the four-car derailment.
But the derailed boxcars blocked both tracks, and left riders at Hoboken and Secaucus Junction with delays of more than an hour.
Steven Sager, who boarded a Bergen County Line train at Secaucus Junction, described the picture there as a “mob scene,” with frustrated riders getting little or no information from transit officers and platform supervisors.
The situation deteriorated after that, said Sager, who was headed home to Ho-Ho-Kus on the 5:55 p.m. train, which didn’t arrive at Secaucus Junction until about 6:20 p.m.
The train then stopped at a signal south of the Ridgewood station, Sager said. After waiting nearly half an hour, Sager and dozens of other passengers hopped off the train to hike the remaining distance, only to be scolded by a state trooper for walking along the tracks.
“It’s extremely disappointing when you pay this much money,” said Sager, whose monthly fare jumped $19 to $207 just five days earlier.
But Sager who arranged for someone to pick him up at the Ridgewood station, was luckier than commuters headed beyond Waldwick.
NJ Transit officials summoned shuttle buses to pick up stranded passengers in Waldwick and take them west, but the buses were delayed as storms moved through the region, jamming North Jersey’s highways.
“Our buses had trouble getting there because of extensive delays” on the roads, Bassett Hackett said.
Husband said Wednesday evening that a crane was headed to the scene and would move the train back onto the tracks.
NJ Transit, which owns the tracks, would work overnight to make any needed repairs, Bassett Hackett said.
Husband said it was too early to speculate on a cause.