(The following article by Larry Higgs was posted on the Asbury Park Press website on January 21.)
ASBURY PARK, N.J. — Thousands of NJ Transit rail commuters were delayed Friday after power was lost to signals on the busy Northeast Corridor Line between Newark and Elizabeth during the heart of the morning rush.
Officials blamed the delays on a 60-year-old cable, which supplies power to the signal system on a five-mile section of the Northeast Corridor, which affected North Jersey Coast Line, Northeast Corridor and Raritan Valley Line trains. The Northeast Corridor is owned and operated by Amtrak.
Amtrak reported to NJ Transit that power was lost to signals at 4:47 a.m., and the commuter railroad continued to run trains until 6:12 a.m., when it decided to suspend service, said Dan Stessel, a spokesman for NJ Transit.
“We lost the ability to display signals and see where trains were,” Stessel said. “If we tried and operated rush-hour service through this territory, that could only handle a fraction of the capacity, it would have made a bad situation worse.”
Stessel estimated the signal malfunction affected 90 trains, which were delayed or canceled, and 10,000 customers. Amtrak notified NJ Transit at 7:30 a.m. that signals were operating, and service was restored from terminals in Long Branch, Trenton and Raritan for the respective rail lines, he said.
Services returned to on time or close to on time at 8:24 a.m. on the Coast Line, 8:30 a.m for the Raritan Valley and westbound Northeast Corridor Lines, and 9:04 a.m. for the eastbound North East Corridor line, Stessel said.
Commuters were notified via NJ Transit’s “my transit” e-mail and pager alerts, as well as broadcast and Internet traffic reports, Stessel said.