(The following article by Tom Feeney was posted on the Newark Star-Ledger website on November 3.)
NEWARK, N.J. — NJ Transit will spend about $3 million to steer commuters at 33 rail stations out of harm’s way.
The transit agency will use safety upgrades such as fences, signs, pylons and recorded announcements to channel pedestrian traffic away from the rails while trains are present.
The work has already been done at 12 stations, is under way at four others and is expected to be completed at 17 more before the end of next year, Executive Director George Warrington said during a news conference at the Belmar Station on the North Jersey Coast Line yesterday.
The news conference was held in Belmar because it was there in July that a 16-year-old girl was struck by a northbound train as she crossed the tracks after disembarking from a southbound train. She suffered serious injuries but survived, officials said.
NJ Transit has since installed a tall fence between the northbound and southbound sides to keep commuters from crossing the tracks. The agency has also installed a fence and pylons to steer commuters onto a sidewalk behind a safety gate.
Kenneth Pringle, who is mayor of Belmar and a member of NJ Transit’s board, said the safety measures will keep people away from the rails when the safety gates are down, but he cautioned that commuters will still need to be careful around the stations.
“This is big equipment,” he said. “It takes a long time for these trains to stop. You need to look both ways, just as you would if you were crossing a street.”
Money for the updates will come from NJ Transit’s capital budget, spokeswoman Penny Bas sett Hackett said.
There are more than 160 stations in the NJ Transit system. The agency studied the 59 stations served by two or more tracks with a road crossing adjacent to the platform and determined that 33 of them would benefit from the safety upgrades, Warrington said.
Other stations where the up grades have been completed are Aberdeen/Matawan, Asbury Park, Hazlet, Manasquan, Middletown, Point Pleasant, Red Bank and South Amboy on the North Jersey Coast Line; Ramsey on the Bergen County Line; Bay Street on the Montclair-Boonton Line; and Dover on the Morris & Essex Lines.
The stations where the work has started are Montclair Heights, Upper Montclair and Walnut Street on the Montclair-Boonton Line and Convent Station on the Morristown Line.
The other stations scheduled for improvement are Ho-Ho-Kus, Glen Rock Boro Hall, Radburn, Plauderville, Garfield, Rutherford and Glen Rock Main Line on the Bergen County Line; Denville and Mount Tabor on the Morristown Line; Mountain Avenue on the Montclair-Boonton Line; Raritan on the Raritan Valley Line; and Little Silver, Bradley Beach, Mon mouth Park, Bay Head, Spring Lake and Allenhurst on the North Jersey Coast Line.