(The following article by Joe Malinconico was posted on the Newark Star-Ledger website on September 7.)
NEWARK, N.J. — In separate incidents over the past couple of weeks, NJ Transit evacuated passengers from two Midtown Direct trains after conductors reported suffering electric jolts while they were working.
In the first case, on Aug. 24, the conductor said he felt the electric shock while walking between passenger cars on a train traveling from Secaucus to Newark Broad Street Station.
In the second, on Aug. 31, the conductor reported the electric jolt after turning his key in a control panel to open the train’s doors at Convent Station in Morris County.
The two conductors were treated at local hospitals and released without requiring overnight medical care, officials said. But neither of them has yet returned to work.
As a precaution, rail crews evacuated about 65 passengers in the first train and 12 people in the second, transferring them to other trains, officials said.
“In first one, there’s not many facts available just yet,” said Xavier Williams, president of the union that represents conductors. “For the second, they’ve found the problem, and I’m satisfied with their response.”
NJ Transit spokeswoman Penny Bassett Hackett said in the Aug. 31 incident, the conductor’s key touched a loose wire in the door control panel on a Comet II passenger car. At the same time, a loose screw in an automated door opening mechanism touched another loose wire, completing the electrical circuit and sending a 71-volt shock through the conductor, Hackett said.
In response to that incident, NJ Transit is removing the automated door mechanisms — known as kick plates — from its trains, a job that should be completed by the end of this week, Hackett said.
Meanwhile, NJ Transit has not been able to determine what happened in the Aug. 24 incident, Hackett said. Company crews conducted exhaustive tests on the two passenger cars — one a Comet V and one a Comet III — where the conductor was walking when he received the shock.
“No defect has been found,” she said.
But NJ Transit is bringing in an outside electrical expert to evaluate the rail equipment, she said.