James Weinstein is finally out as the head of New Jersey Transit. After the massive debacle of allowing his agency's rail fleet be flooded in Hoboken and Meadows rail yards during Hurricane Sandy, you would have thought he should have been fired for all the damage sustained to the rail fleet.
You would be wrong. Governor Chris Christie signaled his support for Weinstein and never sought to get to the bottom of why the rail fleet was positioned in the vulnerable areas. At first, NJ Transit claimed that they didn't think those areas would flood as it had not been in their experience during more than 30 years of operation. Then they said that they didn't have anywhere else to move the equipment and that they didn't expect the flooding.
Both points were debunked after The Record revealed that the NJ Transit disaster preparation plan included moving the rail fleet to higher ground, including in Waldwick. That would have saved significant numbers of locomotives and railcars, allowing NJ Transit to resume service much faster. It took months before anything resembling a pre-storm schedule was in place. That's tens of thousands of commuters inconvenienced, lost economic value, and in the end Gov. Christie tried to blame some low-level employee for taking unilateral action and claimed that he couldn't be fired because of civil service rules (NJ Transit doesn't have those rules).
After that debacle, you'd think that NJ Transit would be more contrite and understanding? You'd be wrong. They, along with the organizers of the Super Bowl at MetLife Stadium consistently told fans that they should take the train to the game because there weren't enough spots available for vehicles, and that you couldn't walk into the stadium due to security concerns.
Well, wouldn't you know it? The fans actually listened to all the warnings and they took mass transit. They blew past the organizers' estimates. In fact, they nearly tripled the organizers' estimates, and nearly doubled NJ Transit estimates.
That wouldn't be bad, except that the Meadowlands rail line didn't have the capacity to move that kind of number of fans. That's due in part to design, and in part to the agency's failure to have contingency plans in effect and to carry out the contingency plan.
There was apparently a plan to have buses on standby to help reduce the load on the rail service to Secaucus, but no one thought to activate it in a timely manner. That meant that there were fans who waited hours to clear the stadium. It was inexcusable.
Now, you might be wondering why this is a big deal when you can drive to a ballgame at one of the major stadiums and it could take you an hour to get out of the parking lots. That's true. You can often have delays getting out of the stadium, but those parking lots frequently have multiple egress points and distribute the vehicles onto different roads to disperse. That isn't possible with the rail service, which concentrates the passenger load onto a rail service.
Part of this has to do with the design of the stadium mass transit facilities, the Meadowlands spur line, and capacities at both Secaucus and the Meadowlands.
Well, the debacle at the Super Bowl led to Weinstein's resignation. He wasn't fired. He deserved to be fired - for Sandy. He deserved to be fired for the Super Bowl failures, but was allowed to resign, allowing him to take his pension/benefits with him. How nice of the Governor to protect his people like that.
Weinstein's failures shouldn't have been particularly surprising, given that he was in charge of the NJ MVC emissions testing program that was an absolute debacle. That $500 million contract with Parsons was a total mess, and he was allowed to continue as head of the Department of Transportation despite being integral to overseeing the program.
Now that Weinstein is behind NJ Transit, who's coming in to replace him?
Veronique Hakim, who is now head of the NJ Turnpike Authority. It's not particularly surprising that Gov. Christie is moving around officials from one state agency to another, but anyone who thinks that Hakim will do better than Weinstein ought to bear a few things in mind.
Prior to going to the Turnpike Authority, she was at the MTA as head of capital construction. During her stint there, she never met a program that she could keep on time or on budget. That includes post-9/11 work to enhance security at MTA facilities across the region. That should be a warning sign considering that NJ Transit is embarking on a program to rebuild after Sandy, including new rail yards on higher ground, improved survivability of equipment, and we need to be prepared for the inevitable cost overruns and excuses.
We must demand better of NJ Transit, and of Gov. Christie.
Showing posts with label James Weinstein. Show all posts
Showing posts with label James Weinstein. Show all posts
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Monday, February 03, 2014
The Real Problem with NJ Transit's Super Bowl Service
By the incessant stream of tweets and news stories last night both before and after the game, NJ Transit's ability to handle the crush of fans heading to the game was decidedly mixed.
NJ Transit claims that they were very pleased with the outcome and that they moved a record number of people during the event, with more than 28,000 moved heading to the game, and a higher number when leaving.
The numbers make sense because Super Bowl organizers had warned that thousands of parking spots would be unavailable due to the security perimeter around MetLife Stadium. Organizers had hoped that 8-12,000 fans would use mass transit. But the numbers exceeded even NJ Transit's estimates of commuters. This should have been a triumph of mass transit.
Here's where things go wrong.
NJ Transit built the spur line to the Meadowlands five years ago in anticipation of large events at the Meadowlands where crowds would exceed 50,000 fans. The $185 million cost included the new three platform terminus and a two-track spur off the Pascack Valley Line.
NJ Transit estimates that the line could handle about 11,000 an hour, though I've seen others claiming 15-20,000 an hour (this would appear to indicate the ability to handle about 10-12 10-car trains per hour).
With more than 28,000 people using the track configuration, you're looking at more than 2 hours to safely move all those people to Secaucus where they would presumably be able to take trains to other parts of New Jersey or into NY Penn Station.
But NJ Transit screwed everyone with how they built the spur in the first place, and by doing so, they also screwed residents of Bergen County who would want to attend events in the Meadowlands.
The stadium station should have been built as a through track on the Pascack Valley line, which means that regular service would stop there, and people could then take trains elsewhere on the line. Had that been done, the agency could optimize their train service to spread out the load to towns along the Pascack Valley line - improving service to Bergen County and reducing vehicles traveling to events. Moreover, it means that the pending Xanadu/American Dream project across Route 120 from MetLife Stadium finally opens, it would have regular service, instead of intermittent service during only certain events.
NJ Transit's poor planning also meant that only 11,000 people could be accommodated by the spur line per hour. The station should have been four platforms with three tracks to increase capacity for surging trains during events. But those capacity increases go only so far when NJ Transit doesn't provide increased service elsewhere in their system. Again, Bergen County got screwed as it ran fewer trains than it should have along the Bergen/Main/Pascack Valley lines during game day. This reduced the number of people who could get to or from the area serviced by NJ Transit - people who wanted to commute and avoid driving into the area.
It meant that crowds at Secaucus were left with few options as a result of limited service, making an already difficult transit situation worse.
The infrastructure costs to have implemented the system I outlined above would have been higher initially, but the long term service improvements would have been more than worth it to everyone in the region, and would actually reduce costs over time due to service running to the Meadowlands along an existing line.
So where does Jim Weinstein play into all this? He's the head of NJ Transit and was in charge of the agency when he allowed the rail fleet to be completely flooded out causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. He was not even reprimanded by Governor Chris Christie.
Now, the agency is congratulating itself for a job well done? In one sense, they should based on the infrastructure constraints that were in place. But in another, it was the agency's failure to have capacity to address large crowds and then ignoring their own and then the tone deaf response to customer complaints about capacity issues at MetLife Stadium and Secaucus.
The failed response is one that falls on Weinstein. Again.
Governor Christie refused to hold Weinstein accountable over Sandy and I don't expect anything different this time either.
On the positive side, this shows that mass transit is something fans have been clamoring for and that increased and enhanced service is something fans want. Other cities and transit agencies should recognize and implement viable plans to expand transit options since people want the ability to go to sporting and other major events (like concerts) without having the hassle of driving).
NJ Transit claims that they were very pleased with the outcome and that they moved a record number of people during the event, with more than 28,000 moved heading to the game, and a higher number when leaving.
The numbers make sense because Super Bowl organizers had warned that thousands of parking spots would be unavailable due to the security perimeter around MetLife Stadium. Organizers had hoped that 8-12,000 fans would use mass transit. But the numbers exceeded even NJ Transit's estimates of commuters. This should have been a triumph of mass transit.
Here's where things go wrong.
NJ Transit built the spur line to the Meadowlands five years ago in anticipation of large events at the Meadowlands where crowds would exceed 50,000 fans. The $185 million cost included the new three platform terminus and a two-track spur off the Pascack Valley Line.
NJ Transit estimates that the line could handle about 11,000 an hour, though I've seen others claiming 15-20,000 an hour (this would appear to indicate the ability to handle about 10-12 10-car trains per hour).
With more than 28,000 people using the track configuration, you're looking at more than 2 hours to safely move all those people to Secaucus where they would presumably be able to take trains to other parts of New Jersey or into NY Penn Station.
But NJ Transit screwed everyone with how they built the spur in the first place, and by doing so, they also screwed residents of Bergen County who would want to attend events in the Meadowlands.
The stadium station should have been built as a through track on the Pascack Valley line, which means that regular service would stop there, and people could then take trains elsewhere on the line. Had that been done, the agency could optimize their train service to spread out the load to towns along the Pascack Valley line - improving service to Bergen County and reducing vehicles traveling to events. Moreover, it means that the pending Xanadu/American Dream project across Route 120 from MetLife Stadium finally opens, it would have regular service, instead of intermittent service during only certain events.
NJ Transit's poor planning also meant that only 11,000 people could be accommodated by the spur line per hour. The station should have been four platforms with three tracks to increase capacity for surging trains during events. But those capacity increases go only so far when NJ Transit doesn't provide increased service elsewhere in their system. Again, Bergen County got screwed as it ran fewer trains than it should have along the Bergen/Main/Pascack Valley lines during game day. This reduced the number of people who could get to or from the area serviced by NJ Transit - people who wanted to commute and avoid driving into the area.
It meant that crowds at Secaucus were left with few options as a result of limited service, making an already difficult transit situation worse.
The infrastructure costs to have implemented the system I outlined above would have been higher initially, but the long term service improvements would have been more than worth it to everyone in the region, and would actually reduce costs over time due to service running to the Meadowlands along an existing line.
So where does Jim Weinstein play into all this? He's the head of NJ Transit and was in charge of the agency when he allowed the rail fleet to be completely flooded out causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. He was not even reprimanded by Governor Chris Christie.
Now, the agency is congratulating itself for a job well done? In one sense, they should based on the infrastructure constraints that were in place. But in another, it was the agency's failure to have capacity to address large crowds and then ignoring their own and then the tone deaf response to customer complaints about capacity issues at MetLife Stadium and Secaucus.
The failed response is one that falls on Weinstein. Again.
Governor Christie refused to hold Weinstein accountable over Sandy and I don't expect anything different this time either.
On the positive side, this shows that mass transit is something fans have been clamoring for and that increased and enhanced service is something fans want. Other cities and transit agencies should recognize and implement viable plans to expand transit options since people want the ability to go to sporting and other major events (like concerts) without having the hassle of driving).
Monday, August 19, 2013
Gov. Christie Must Fire NJ Transit Officials For Failing To Follow Rail Plan Before Sandy
Governor Chris Christie has given his blessing and backing to NJ Transit officials in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, which devastated NJ Transit's rail fleet. 343 railcars and locomotives were flooded and damaged. A portion of the fleet remains out of service due to flood damage.
The costs are in the hundreds of millions, and yet NJ Transit officials have skated by despite incontrovertible evidence that they didn't move equipment to higher ground. They claimed that they didn't have alternative locations.
A damning new report by the Bergen Record shows a completely different story. The paper made a freedom of information request, and the document highlights the absolute incompetence of transit officials.
It indicates that the transit agency had a basic flood contingency plan that included moving its equipment to higher ground. That included moving its rail fleet to areas in Waldwick, the Bergen Tunnels, and several other locations.
That's exactly what I and many other rail critics have said from day one. There was no reason for the agency to store its equipment in the lowest-lying areas when they had alternatives along their own rights of way that were safer.
The Main/Bergen Line was particularly affected because its equipment was stored in Hoboken; had the equipment been stored instead in Waldwick, the service could have been restored weeks sooner.
Yet NJ Transit's Jim Weinstein has lied to anyone and everyone that there was nothing they could have done to prevent the kind of damage done to the fleet.
Gov. Christie has given Weinstein political cover, and that itself is a boneheaded move. To put this in to terms that anyone can understand - NJ Transit lied to the public. It lied to state officials. It even lied to Congress. Gov. Christie has to fire Weinstein and everyone involved in the decision not only to move the rail fleet to higher ground, but to move equipment into Hoboken and Kearney's low-lying rail yards.
NJ Transit is still trying to recover from the damage; this week NJ Transit is finally reopening the restrooms at Hoboken Yards, although the waiting area at Hoboken is a mess and the shops and restaurants in the terminal are still closed due to flood damage.
No more excuses Gov. Christie. It's past time to act and fire Weinstein and rail officials. They failed the agency, the state, and commuters. They directly harmed the state's economy by complying with their own plans to store equipment on higher ground that would have gotten rail operations back on track weeks faster than they did. As it is, parts of the rail schedule are still not back to 100% of the pre-storm schedule.
The agency doesn't have the equipment on hand to handle disruptions that can crop up on a normal basis. Trains are less reliable due to storm damage, and that means there are more delays than normal. All this affects the ridership and undermines efforts to convince people to use mass transit.
The costs are in the hundreds of millions, and yet NJ Transit officials have skated by despite incontrovertible evidence that they didn't move equipment to higher ground. They claimed that they didn't have alternative locations.
A damning new report by the Bergen Record shows a completely different story. The paper made a freedom of information request, and the document highlights the absolute incompetence of transit officials.
Only after The Record filed a public-records suit did the transit agency release a 3½-page copy of a hurricane plan prepared four months before the storm that advised transferring commuter trains to several upland sites. Nowhere did the plan recommend what NJ Transit ended up doing: moving millions of dollars worth of railcars and engines to a low-lying yard near water, where they were inundated by Sandy’s storm surge.
The NJ Transit document stands in stark contrast to the more detailed hurricane plan prepared by New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority, which, taking into account concerns about global warming, enabled the transit system to move the vast majority of its trains to higher ground, saving all but 11 of its railcars from flood damage.
The damage to 343 pieces of NJ Transit equipment in low-lying yards in Kearny and Hoboken — 70 locomotives and 273 railcars, a third of the railroad’s fleet — is estimated at $120 million. The damaged equipment also included seven railcars and seven locomotives owned by the MTA that NJ Transit stored in Kearny, site of the agency’s sprawling Meadows Maintenance Complex.
The “NJ Transit Rail Operations Hurricane Plan” prepared in June 2012 directs NJ Transit’s train crews to move railcars and locomotives “from flood-prone areas to higher ground” in the event of a hurricane or severe tropical storm. The plan is brief, but it lists more than a half-dozen locations where equipment is to be moved.
Commuter railcars and locomotives used on the Main and Bergen lines would be stored in the Waldwick Yard, according to the plan. Equipment serving the agency’s Hoboken Division would be stored in the Bergen Tunnels under the Palisades. And cars and engines serving the Atlantic City Line would be moved to a yard in central South Jersey.
It indicates that the transit agency had a basic flood contingency plan that included moving its equipment to higher ground. That included moving its rail fleet to areas in Waldwick, the Bergen Tunnels, and several other locations.
That's exactly what I and many other rail critics have said from day one. There was no reason for the agency to store its equipment in the lowest-lying areas when they had alternatives along their own rights of way that were safer.
The Main/Bergen Line was particularly affected because its equipment was stored in Hoboken; had the equipment been stored instead in Waldwick, the service could have been restored weeks sooner.
Yet NJ Transit's Jim Weinstein has lied to anyone and everyone that there was nothing they could have done to prevent the kind of damage done to the fleet.
Gov. Christie has given Weinstein political cover, and that itself is a boneheaded move. To put this in to terms that anyone can understand - NJ Transit lied to the public. It lied to state officials. It even lied to Congress. Gov. Christie has to fire Weinstein and everyone involved in the decision not only to move the rail fleet to higher ground, but to move equipment into Hoboken and Kearney's low-lying rail yards.
NJ Transit is still trying to recover from the damage; this week NJ Transit is finally reopening the restrooms at Hoboken Yards, although the waiting area at Hoboken is a mess and the shops and restaurants in the terminal are still closed due to flood damage.
No more excuses Gov. Christie. It's past time to act and fire Weinstein and rail officials. They failed the agency, the state, and commuters. They directly harmed the state's economy by complying with their own plans to store equipment on higher ground that would have gotten rail operations back on track weeks faster than they did. As it is, parts of the rail schedule are still not back to 100% of the pre-storm schedule.
The agency doesn't have the equipment on hand to handle disruptions that can crop up on a normal basis. Trains are less reliable due to storm damage, and that means there are more delays than normal. All this affects the ridership and undermines efforts to convince people to use mass transit.
Thursday, April 04, 2013
Gov. Christie Must Fire NJ Transit Officials Over Gross Incompetence Before Hurricane Sandy
I am once again reiterating my call on New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to fire NJ Transit officials, starting with Executive Director Jim Weinstein.
Weinstein appeared before the State Legislature once again and admitted that the agency not only stored rail equipment in Kearny and Hoboken before Hurricane Sandy, but purposefully moved still more equipment into both low-lying areas before Sandy.
The Hoboken Yard isn't merely close to the Hudson River. It abuts it. The station has been prone to flooding in the past, though not to the extent it was during Sandy. Likewise, the Kearny Yard is surrounded by water. Rivers and waterways can and do flood during severe storms.
View Larger Map
They gambled with money and equipment and lost. More than a third of the rail fleet was flooded and the agency is still scrambling to restore the rail schedule to pre-Sandy levels. The Main and Bergen line is still below its pre-Sandy level, and dozens of railcars and locomotives, including the agency's newest dual mode locomotives are out of service until repairs can be completed. The delay in repairs is exascerbated by the fact that the agency has had problems sourcing replacement parts due to the severity of the flooding to its own facilities, replacement parts in-house, and from the manufacturers.
Christie must fire Weinstein, who has been less than transparent in the agency's failings before, during and after the hurricane hit. Weinstein has tried to bluster his way through all this, claiming that his agency didn't know the areas would flood - but that is a transparent lie to anyone who watched news reports in the 72 hours before Sandy hit. The warnings were there. The worst-case scenarios were already laid out.
And NJ Transit rail operations moved more equipment into the flood zone that everyone was warned to evacuate from.
Even now, they're less than transparent about how many cars remain to be fixed. It took months before the agency put up a site indicating how many cars and locomotives remain to be repaired, and the numbers haven't been updated since.
The agency is touting its ability to get Hoboken back up and running, but it downplays the fact that essential services were not restored for months - like restrooms or a warm waiting area for customers in the heart of winter. It took an outcry. They've managed to restore electrical service to a substation so that electric trains can now run to Hoboken, but the station is still in shambles and the retailers are still displaced due to flood damage.
Weinstein appeared before the State Legislature once again and admitted that the agency not only stored rail equipment in Kearny and Hoboken before Hurricane Sandy, but purposefully moved still more equipment into both low-lying areas before Sandy.
“We brought some additional equipment in there to store during the storm,” Weinstein told members of the Senate Budget Committee during a hearing on the Christie Administration's transportation budget Wednesday morning. At the time, he said, "there was no reason to believe it would flood.”That was despite all manner of warning from weather forecasters who were predicting dire flooding throughout the New York City metro area - including the Hackensack River, Passaic River, and Hudson River basins. The Kearny yard and Hoboken yard are both squarely in the affected flood zones and yet NJ Transit has repeatedly stated that their experience was that neither yard would fully flood during a storm.
Weinstein did not say how many rail cars were moved into the vulnerable spot, but that it won’t happen again. More than a quarter of the agency’s rail fleet was damaged during the storm, most at the maintenance facility. “We are informed by the experience,” he said. “We won’t be bringing equipment there in the future in the event we are faced with a similar situation as we were with Sandy.”
NJ Transit Spokesman John Durso, Jr. refused to say how many pieces of equipment were moved into harm’s way, saying "that specific information had not been previously provided due to security-related concerns." Durso has repeatedly cited “security” as a reason not to release details about NJ Transit’s movement of trains during Sandy.
However, he has not explained how security would be breached by making public the number of cars moved to a yard where all the train equipment sits on tracks in clear view to the public.
The flooding at the Meadows Maintenance Complex in Kearny, and at the agency's Hoboken yard - a location that Weinstein acknowledged on Wednesday is close to the Hudson River's waters - damaged 272 passenger cars and 70 locomotives. Weinstein said it amounted to more than $100 million in damage that NJ Transit is hoping will be reimbursed from its insurance and from federal emergency grant dollars.
The Hoboken Yard isn't merely close to the Hudson River. It abuts it. The station has been prone to flooding in the past, though not to the extent it was during Sandy. Likewise, the Kearny Yard is surrounded by water. Rivers and waterways can and do flood during severe storms.
View Larger Map
They gambled with money and equipment and lost. More than a third of the rail fleet was flooded and the agency is still scrambling to restore the rail schedule to pre-Sandy levels. The Main and Bergen line is still below its pre-Sandy level, and dozens of railcars and locomotives, including the agency's newest dual mode locomotives are out of service until repairs can be completed. The delay in repairs is exascerbated by the fact that the agency has had problems sourcing replacement parts due to the severity of the flooding to its own facilities, replacement parts in-house, and from the manufacturers.
Christie must fire Weinstein, who has been less than transparent in the agency's failings before, during and after the hurricane hit. Weinstein has tried to bluster his way through all this, claiming that his agency didn't know the areas would flood - but that is a transparent lie to anyone who watched news reports in the 72 hours before Sandy hit. The warnings were there. The worst-case scenarios were already laid out.
And NJ Transit rail operations moved more equipment into the flood zone that everyone was warned to evacuate from.
Even now, they're less than transparent about how many cars remain to be fixed. It took months before the agency put up a site indicating how many cars and locomotives remain to be repaired, and the numbers haven't been updated since.
The agency is touting its ability to get Hoboken back up and running, but it downplays the fact that essential services were not restored for months - like restrooms or a warm waiting area for customers in the heart of winter. It took an outcry. They've managed to restore electrical service to a substation so that electric trains can now run to Hoboken, but the station is still in shambles and the retailers are still displaced due to flood damage.
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Another Report Shows NJ Transit Ignored Flooding Risks
NJ Transit continues to show that it ignored reports and warnings that its facilities in Hoboken and Kearny were in flood zones and equipment and materials stored there could be subject to flooding.
A report studying climate change and its effect on NJ Transit highlighted that both Kearny and Hoboken were in flood zones.
Jim Weinstein, the agency's executive director, has repeatedly claimed that it didn't get warnings that its facilities would flood, and that it was the agency's experience from past storms that they wouldn't flood.
Well, they did - and the flooding caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to a third of its rail fleet. The damaged and lost equipment has meant that service is still not back to normal.
NJ Transit knew that there was a risk of flooding in those storage yards, yet it didn't move the equipment to higher ground because it believed that those areas were safe from flooding.
The agency ignored warnings issued by the National Weather Service, other weather agencies, and anyone who listened to weather reports 48 hours before Sandy hit knew that this would cause massive amounts of flooding to low lying areas. That includes Kearny and Hoboken.
That's exactly what happened.
One doesn't have to believe in global warming to know that having rail maintenance facilities in flood zones exposes those facilities to potential flooding. NJ Transit did nothing to move the equipment out of those areas before the storm hit, claiming that by moving it to other areas that it would expose them to damage. That's nonsense and they know it. There were places up and down the Northeast Corridor and other NJ Transit lines that the equipment could be stowed more safely. It chose not to do so.
The agency claimed that had it stored equipment on other lines, it could be subjected to downed trees or downed power lines. Both are technically correct, but if NJ Transit maintained its rights of way (or on lines operated by freight rail or Amtrak) by properly trimming trees, then the damage would have been minimized.
NJ Transit is great at making excuses for its inexcusable actions, but not so great at providing rail services or communicating with the public. Heck, they rationalize poor communications and misleading service updates by saying that they're doing so despite the tremendous damage done to their system. It's nonsense.
The MTA could do a fantastic job with even greater damage done to its system. It wasn't the damage. It's the NJ Transit's missteps and miscommunication.
Excuses wont cut it. Things have to change at the agency, and that means that Gov. Christie and the legislature needs to come down hard on Weinstein and company.
A report studying climate change and its effect on NJ Transit highlighted that both Kearny and Hoboken were in flood zones.
The $45,990 study included a map that shows the Kearny and Hoboken rail yards sit squarely in “storm surge areas.” Sandy floodwaters inundated both yards, swamping locomotives and rail¬cars — including 84 new multilevel passenger cars — and damaging spare parts. In those two yards, damage to railcars and locomotives was estimated at $100 million.The report didn't specify a specific storm, but that's actually besides the point.
Nearly two months after the storm hit, NJ Transit’s rail service is still not operating at 100 percent. And the decision to leave locomotives and passenger cars in the low-lying yards has provoked a torrent of criticism from lawmakers and rail advocates. Throughout it all, NJ Transit officials, at hearings in Trenton and Washington, D.C., have maintained that they had no prior knowledge the yards could flood.
“I wish I had had the foresight and the understanding to know that a yard in the Meadowlands, in Kearny, that the western part of the yard in Hoboken, which had never flooded before, was going to flood. But I didn’t,” Executive Director Jim Weinstein told the Assembly Transportation Committee during a Dec. 10 hearing that focused largely on the agency’s costly decision not to move the equipment out of harm’s way.
“We now know under the right circumstances that they are prone to flooding,” Weinstein told the committee.
Weinstein has repeatedly said that NJ Transit made the right decision to leave hundreds of pieces of equipment in the two yards, based on what the agency knew at the time. Of them, 323 pieces were damaged.
“There is no history of flooding at the Meadowlands Maintenance Complex,” he said.
NJ Transit spokesman John Durso Jr. said the report was read by David Gillespie, NJ Transit’s director of energy and sustainability, but characterized it as “generic,” with no specific predictions for flooding of the magnitude caused by Sandy.
NJ Transit hired First Environment Inc. of Boonton in 2011 to look at climate change and the risk weather events, such as rising seawater levels, wind velocity and temperatures, pose to NJ Transit bridges, tunnels, culverts, rails, terminals, stations, platforms, offices and other assets over the next 20 years. The report listed strategies the agency can use to minimize weather-related damage to its assets, and guide NJ Transit in capital planning.
It concluded that NJ Transit “will continue to experience weather-related impacts … can expect more frequent service disruptions over the next 20 years and must consider how the weather is affecting the state of good repair for its assets. The “next immediate step for NJ Transit is to prioritize its critical assets and determine … strategies it wants to implement,” the report said.
Jim Weinstein, the agency's executive director, has repeatedly claimed that it didn't get warnings that its facilities would flood, and that it was the agency's experience from past storms that they wouldn't flood.
Well, they did - and the flooding caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to a third of its rail fleet. The damaged and lost equipment has meant that service is still not back to normal.
NJ Transit knew that there was a risk of flooding in those storage yards, yet it didn't move the equipment to higher ground because it believed that those areas were safe from flooding.
The agency ignored warnings issued by the National Weather Service, other weather agencies, and anyone who listened to weather reports 48 hours before Sandy hit knew that this would cause massive amounts of flooding to low lying areas. That includes Kearny and Hoboken.
That's exactly what happened.
One doesn't have to believe in global warming to know that having rail maintenance facilities in flood zones exposes those facilities to potential flooding. NJ Transit did nothing to move the equipment out of those areas before the storm hit, claiming that by moving it to other areas that it would expose them to damage. That's nonsense and they know it. There were places up and down the Northeast Corridor and other NJ Transit lines that the equipment could be stowed more safely. It chose not to do so.
The agency claimed that had it stored equipment on other lines, it could be subjected to downed trees or downed power lines. Both are technically correct, but if NJ Transit maintained its rights of way (or on lines operated by freight rail or Amtrak) by properly trimming trees, then the damage would have been minimized.
NJ Transit is great at making excuses for its inexcusable actions, but not so great at providing rail services or communicating with the public. Heck, they rationalize poor communications and misleading service updates by saying that they're doing so despite the tremendous damage done to their system. It's nonsense.
The MTA could do a fantastic job with even greater damage done to its system. It wasn't the damage. It's the NJ Transit's missteps and miscommunication.
Excuses wont cut it. Things have to change at the agency, and that means that Gov. Christie and the legislature needs to come down hard on Weinstein and company.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
The Case Against NJ Transit's James Weinstein
Jim Weinstein is the executive director of NJ Transit and his latest round of hearings with members of Congress and the New Jersey legislature raise questions about how the agency was run before, during, and after Hurricane Sandy made landfall.
The main focus has been on how and why the agency failed to move more than 300 railcars out of flood zones in Kearny and Hoboken. That's a more than valid line of questions, and Weinstein and NJ Transit answers are anything but satisfactory.
It shows a disregard for the severity of the impending storm, and those decisions have long-lasting repercussions.
Case in point is word today that train service to Hoboken for electrified lines will be two months away from restoration. Fully replacing the damaged power substation in Hoboken would take more than a year.
However, this situation calls out for the dual mode trains that NJ Transit purchased at a cost of more than $11 million a pop. Those trains were purchased because of their flexibility to address the fact that some portions of the NJ Transit system was electrified with overhead power lines (catenary) and other portions were not.
Nine of those trains are missing in action because they were among the 300+ cars and locomotives that were flooded out by Sandy in the Hoboken and Kearny yards.
In other words, the key equipment that could restore service to full functionality at Hoboken is unavailable because it was flooded out because of the failure to move that equipment to higher ground.
Weinstein has been going around saying that service has been largely restored and that most lines are back to full service, and yet his agency and his decisions led to significant portions of that system to see reduced service for weeks and months on end because they didn't move the equipment that could be moved to higher ground.
Dual mode trains would allow the Gladstone Branch and MidTown Direct service to return to full capacity in Hoboken until power is fully restored. That those trains are unavailable because they weren't relocated to a safer location is a decision that rests on Weinstein.
After all, the agency claimed that these locomotives were necessary even after the cancellation of the ARC tunnel project and that they could be repurposed for use elsewhere in the rail system.
I've noted that as well - the trains could help improve air quality at Hoboken and permit expanded service on electrified lines.
Now, they sit along with hundreds of other railcars waiting to be repaired from flood damage.
The delays in restoring rail service have been exacerbated by the flooded cars, and the agency has obfuscated on this point repeatedly. We need to get to the bottom of this, and Weinstein must be held accountable. That means that Gov. Chris Christie needs to get involved and make him accountable for the agency's failures.
The main focus has been on how and why the agency failed to move more than 300 railcars out of flood zones in Kearny and Hoboken. That's a more than valid line of questions, and Weinstein and NJ Transit answers are anything but satisfactory.
It shows a disregard for the severity of the impending storm, and those decisions have long-lasting repercussions.
Case in point is word today that train service to Hoboken for electrified lines will be two months away from restoration. Fully replacing the damaged power substation in Hoboken would take more than a year.
Trains that run on diesel power are able to use the station. The Gladstone branch, which normally runs on electric power, has had to use diesel, which means service on some of the other lines has been cut back to compensate.Equipment that can't be moved is susceptible to flooding when it's placed in a flood zone. The agency is now looking at a long range rebuilding plan that includes moving the equipment to higher ground and reduce the chances of a repeat failing performance.
NJ Transit executive James Weinstein told the agency's monthly board meeting Thursday that it will take eight to 10 weeks to finish an interim replacement for the destroyed substation. Weinstein said it could take a year or more to finish a permanent substation.
However, this situation calls out for the dual mode trains that NJ Transit purchased at a cost of more than $11 million a pop. Those trains were purchased because of their flexibility to address the fact that some portions of the NJ Transit system was electrified with overhead power lines (catenary) and other portions were not.
Nine of those trains are missing in action because they were among the 300+ cars and locomotives that were flooded out by Sandy in the Hoboken and Kearny yards.
In other words, the key equipment that could restore service to full functionality at Hoboken is unavailable because it was flooded out because of the failure to move that equipment to higher ground.
Weinstein has been going around saying that service has been largely restored and that most lines are back to full service, and yet his agency and his decisions led to significant portions of that system to see reduced service for weeks and months on end because they didn't move the equipment that could be moved to higher ground.
Dual mode trains would allow the Gladstone Branch and MidTown Direct service to return to full capacity in Hoboken until power is fully restored. That those trains are unavailable because they weren't relocated to a safer location is a decision that rests on Weinstein.
After all, the agency claimed that these locomotives were necessary even after the cancellation of the ARC tunnel project and that they could be repurposed for use elsewhere in the rail system.
I've noted that as well - the trains could help improve air quality at Hoboken and permit expanded service on electrified lines.
Now, they sit along with hundreds of other railcars waiting to be repaired from flood damage.
The delays in restoring rail service have been exacerbated by the flooded cars, and the agency has obfuscated on this point repeatedly. We need to get to the bottom of this, and Weinstein must be held accountable. That means that Gov. Chris Christie needs to get involved and make him accountable for the agency's failures.
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