NJ Transit blames hot weather for some of the problems along the River Line
NJ Transit CEO Kevin Corbett opened the meeting with a moment of silence for the train operator killed in an Oct. 14 crash and a Palmyra high-school student killed in August crossing the tracks.
Burlington County residents voiced their frustrations with NJ Transit’s River Line light-rail service during a public meeting Tuesday night in Palmyra: late trains, canceled trains, dangerous track crossings, crime, and grimy stations.
“River Line service has not been to our expectations and we know it’s not been up to yours,” NJ Transit CEO Kevin Corbett said. “We have fallen short.”
Corbett began with a moment of silence for River Line operator Jessica Haley, 41, who was killed Oct. 14 when her train struck a tree on the tracks in Mansfield Township — and for 15-year-old Matthew Dickinson, hit and killed by a train in Palmyra while on his way to soccer practice in August.
The mass-transit company said it could not answer questions about either event because they are under investigation by law enforcement. The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the probe into the crash that killed Haley, a mother of three from Bucks County.
The River Line cars are 19 years old, maintained and operated by Alstom, a private rail company, under contract to the state agency. It’s hard to get new parts to fix those that fail, said Mike Kilcoyne, NJ Transit senior vice president for surface operations.
He said that many of the performance problems were caused by the “high temperatures we all experienced over the last two years.” The heat caused auxiliary power units on the cars to shut down, he said.
“It should be noted that these are the only vehicles of their kind in the world,” Kilcoyne said.
Working with Alstom, NJ Transit is spending $19 million over the next five years to tear down and rebuild about half the River Line fleet, replace some cars, improve infrastructure, and add mechanics, he said.
State Sen. Troy Singleton (D., Burlington) convened the two-hour meeting with transit agency executives, which drew about 200 people to the gym in the Palmyra community center.
On Wednesday, NJ Transit halted trains for several hours between Trenton and Camden so employees could pay their respects to Haley, 41, and her family at a funeral service in Bucks County. Buses carried passengers between stops.