NJ Must Fix Rail Safety or Lose Federal Funding

New Jersey must fix our rail safety programs in order to qualify for federal transportation funding of $631 million. The state has approximately one year to get Federal Transit Administration approval for its safety oversight program to remain eligible for the funding. It has been reported that NJ Transit has 12 times more equipment failures than any other commuter train in the nation. This is the direct result of funding being slashed by 90 percent in the past 11 years. Others have pointed out that federal funding that was supposed to go towards Positive Train Control braking systems instead went to operations and maintenance.

“NJ Transit is in a crisis and if we lose this money, the wheels will fall off altogether. New Jersey is at risk of losing $631 million in federal funding for our transit program due to the our failure to address safety. This is because Governor Christie and the Legislature had failed to find the Transportation Trust Fund over the years. Other terminals like New York Penn Station have Positive Train Control breaking system to override the train crew in case of an emergency. Instead of using the $8 billion of federal funding for capital upgrades like automatic braking, NJ Transit used it for tires and to keep the lights on. Unfortunately, if we had these braking systems in place, this tragedy may have been prevented,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “The Murphy Administration needs to take emergency action to make sure we fix these safety issues and get the federal funding we need.”

In February, federal safety investigators have declared that the September 2016 fatal train crash at Hoboken Terminal was most likely caused by “the engineer’s fatigue due to untreated obstructive sleep apnea.” At the time of the crash, it was reported that the NJ Transit Hoboken train was going twice the speed limit before it crashed, which killed one person and injured more than 100 people. The commuter train was going 8 mph, before the crash. However, then the throttle moved from idle to a No. 4 position accelerating the speed. The engineer tried emergency breaking procedures, but the train braking system was too antiquated to fully stop in time.

“New Jersey Transit has been a disaster waiting to happen and without these funds, the agency may cease to function. We saw the impacts of this with the incident in Hoboken. Even though they found that the cause of the crash was the engineer’s fatigue, he can’t take all the blame. NJT is partly responsible as well. The agency has not updated safety controls thanks to lack of funding, especially from the Christie Administration. The original findings that the NJ Transit Hoboken train was going double the speed limit shows we need to have Positive Control braking systems installed on our rails. Instead of putting in the breaking equipment we need on our rail lines, the Christie Administration cut public transit funding and put people at risk. We’ve been lucky that an incident such as this hasn’t happened again,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “We need to fund the TFF because our mass transit system is old and antiquated. By not funding the Transportation Trust Fund, we have no money for dilapidated bridges, roads, or even safety features on public transit. We can not lose out on this federal funding to improve our transportation system.”