(The Cherry Hill Courier Post published the following story by Richard Pearsall on its website on October 2. Bob Daniels is Legislative Representative of BLE Division 373 in Trenton, N.J.)
CAMDEN — Trains being tested for use on the South Jersey Light Rail Line have derailed five times in the past year.
None of the incidents was serious or cause for alarm, state officials said.
All the incidents took place in the rail yard off 36th Street here and none involved injury or serious damage, a spokeswoman for NJTransit, Penny Bassett-Hackett, said.
She described the incidents as switch-related, with the majority caused by human error.
“Basically what happens is an operator goes over a switch to move from one track to another, then backs up before the switch is reset,” Bassett-Hackett said.
“None of the cars were on the ground or anything like that,” she said.
Bob Daniels, legislative representative for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and an engineer himself, was not surprised to hear there have been derailments on the fledgling line.
“It’s not unusual in a yard where you’re trying to squeeze as much rail in as possible,” he said, “particularly with operators in training.”
The 34-mile, Camden-to-Trenton line is not expected to begin operation until later this year. A date has not been set.
The derailments occurred in September of last year and in May, June, August and September of this year.
Robert Sedlock, head of the state agency that monitors derailments, said his office has not received final reports on the incidents yet, but that preliminary reports show no pattern that would be cause for alarm.
“Everything is new,” he said. “The vehicles. The yard. The people.”
Sedlock, who heads the Fixed Guideway State Safety Oversight Agency, compared the new rail cars to new cars: While all the same model, each one has its own quirks and potential problems.
He said he understood NJTransit’s reluctance to set a date to start operations.
“They have to reach a certain level of comfort, confidence that everything’s OK, before they can say, `This is the date.’ ”
Under the terms of the contract NJTransit entered into to construct the line, the consortium building it will be operating and maintaining it for 10 years.
The consortium, called South Jersey Rail Group, consists of the Bechtel Corp., the San Francisco-based construction giant, and Bombardier, a French-based manufacturer of rail cars.
N.J. light rail derails 5 times
(The Cherry Hill Courier Post published the following story by Richard Pearsall on its website on October 2.)
CAMDEN — Trains being tested for use on the South Jersey Light Rail Line have derailed five times in the past year.
None of the incidents was serious or cause for alarm, state officials said.
All the incidents took place in the rail yard off 36th Street here and none involved injury or serious damage, a spokeswoman for NJTransit, Penny Bassett-Hackett, said.
She described the incidents as switch-related, with the majority caused by human error.
“Basically what happens is an operator goes over a switch to move from one track to another, then backs up before the switch is reset,” Bassett-Hackett said.
“None of the cars were on the ground or anything like that,” she said.
Bob Daniels, legislative representative for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and an engineer himself, was not surprised to hear there have been derailments on the fledgling line.
“It’s not unusual in a yard where you’re trying to squeeze as much rail in as possible,” he said, “particularly with operators in training.”
The 34-mile, Camden-to-Trenton line is not expected to begin operation until later this year. A date has not been set.
The derailments occurred in September of last year and in May, June, August and September of this year.
Robert Sedlock, head of the state agency that monitors derailments, said his office has not received final reports on the incidents yet, but that preliminary reports show no pattern that would be cause for alarm.
“Everything is new,” he said. “The vehicles. The yard. The people.”
Sedlock, who heads the Fixed Guideway State Safety Oversight Agency, compared the new rail cars to new cars: While all the same model, each one has its own quirks and potential problems.
He said he understood NJTransit’s reluctance to set a date to start operations.
“They have to reach a certain level of comfort, confidence that everything’s OK, before they can say, `This is the date.’ ”
Under the terms of the contract NJTransit entered into to construct the line, the consortium building it will be operating and maintaining it for 10 years.
The consortium, called South Jersey Rail Group, consists of the Bechtel Corp., the San Francisco-based construction giant, and Bombardier, a French-based manufacturer of rail cars.