Mrs. Lawhawk and I will occasionally have to stand in the center vestibules because there are no seats available. That's either because the trains are short cars or the number of people on the trains has increased and NJ Transit can't keep up with demand. In either case, it's a dangerous situation waiting for tragic consequences.
Yet doors on New Jersey Transit trains have opened improperly at least four other times in the past two months, far more frequently than on moving Metro-North or Long Island Rail Road trains.We're repeatedly told in the winter that the center doors can't be opened because of problems with the doors - they might not close because they could freeze in place and I don't think NJ Transit has quite gotten the kinks worked out of the Comet V cars.
Then in February, as a train left the North Elizabeth station during the evening rush, the third and fourth cars uncoupled, leaving hundreds of passengers in cars not attached to an engine.
While New Jersey Transit says that the problem of malfunctioning doors is not widespread, these isolated incidents have shaken employees and riders alike.
“I typically stand between the cars, and it could be very dangerous because people could be leaning against the door,” said Neil McGrath, who commutes between Princeton and New York. “It’s kind of dodgy. You could easily get thrown out of the door.”
Riders are routinely told not to stand between cars, but feel compelled to do so during peak hours when cars are so crowded that it is standing- room-only and conductors cannot make their way through the aisle to collect fares.
When questioned, rail industry consultants said they wondered whether New Jersey Transit is cutting corners on maintenance, or is stretched too thin as it tries to keep up with record demand.
“It raises concerns and sounds to me like something that needs to be reviewed in detail,” said James E. Burnett Jr., a former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, the federal government’s safety watchdog responsible for investigating accidents. “It’s a serious thing for doors to come open and cars to come uncoupled. The ideal response is to investigate this and to determine where the responsibility lies, not necessarily for accountability, but to make safety corrections.”
In an internal report to New Jersey Transit’s board members submitted this week, Richard Sarles, the agency’s executive director, said that “on a fleetwide basis, the railroad does not have systemic safety issues with doors,” and that no one was injured in the door-opening incidents this year.
Rather, Mr. Sarles blamed an assortment of mechanical problems or, in one case, human error, when an engineer left a key in a door control panel. As for questions about safety, he said that in 2007, injuries to employees and passengers fell to their lowest levels in four years.
Stephen Klejst, the deputy general manager of safety and training at New Jersey Transit’s railway operations, said that even though the agency is running about 40 more trains a day this year, the condition of the cars and the routine for maintaining them has not been affected.
Mr. Sarles did acknowledge that “over the last several years,” newer cars manufactured by Alstom, known as Comet V cars, have had door problems, although the railroad declined to say how many door-related incidents were reported in 2007. By comparison, the Long Island Rail Road said that the doors opened on a moving train just once last year, and Metro-North confirmed two such incidents.
The way to improve the situation is more inspections of cars to detect problems and to place more train cars in service so that passengers do not have to stand for their trips - placing them in potential danger because the only places left for them to stand are in close proximity to those doors.
No comments:
Post a Comment