(The following article by Maria Newman was posted on the New York Times website on July 22.)
NEWARK, N.J. — New Jersey Transit officials said today that they would give a 15 percent refund to riders with July monthly rail passes, to help compensate for the inconvenience of a train derailment and other troubles this month.
About 59,000 customers will qualify for the refund, which could cost the transit agency $1.5 million, said George D. Warrington, the transit agency’s executive director.
Mr. Warrington said the refund was a way to show riders that the agency is trying to learn from the accident on July 14 in which a commuter train bound for Manhattan lost a wheel and derailed in the marshes of Secaucus, N.J. Thirteen people suffered minor injuries, and train service was snarled for the rest of the day, affecting thousands of commuters. “This has been a rough month for our customers,” Mr. Warrington said at the agency’s headquarters here. “They expect better, and they deserve better. And we want them to know that we have learned some painful lessons from our recent experience.” In addition to the derailment, Mr. Warrington said, several delays occurred this month when trains hit people, and a power failure on Monday stopped train service from New York City to New Jersey for 40 minutes. To obtain their refunds, he said, customers should use their monthly passes through July 31, then mail them to this address: New Jersey Transit, Attention: July Refund, Post Office Box 50051, Newark, N.J. 07105.
Mr. Warrington also provided an update on the investigation into the derailment. The train, carrying 1,200 passengers, had been ordered to make an emergency stop after an electronic sensor detected overheating in a wheel assembly.
The conductor tested the wheel assembly with a hand-held heat detector called a Tempilstik, but he apparently applied the device to the wrong part of the wheel assembly, officials said last week after a re-enactment of the accident.
The Tempilstik has a wax tip that melts when it is held against metal surfaces hotter than 200 degrees, but transit officials said that in the re-enactment, the conductor placed the tip about three inches from where he should have.
Mr. Warrington said drug and alcohol testing on three crew members — the engineer, the conductor and the assistant conductor, none of whom the agency has identified — were negative. The engineer and the assistant conductor, who were suspended with pay, are back on the job, he said. But the conductor is still on an unpaid suspension pending a hearing later this week.
Mr. Warrington said that he would not dismiss the conductor, but that he would be disciplined if the investigation showed he violated rules. Mr. Warrington also said he wanted the conductor to work with the agency’s safety department “to assist us in training other crew members.”
On Wednesday, the agency plans to begin conducting field demonstrations for all crew members on the proper use of the Tempilstik.
The agency will require a second crew member to verify the Tempilstik test in future reports of overheating, he said.
Since the derailment, Mr. Warrington said, the agency has decided that it needs to improve its communications among dispatchers, crew members and riders during delays.