Thursday morning brings more NJ Transit cancellations

TRENTON — A day after NJ Transit's executive director spoke out about the railroad's run of cancellations, more trains were canceled on Thursday morning.

A half-dozen trains were canceled by 6 a.m. on Thursday. There was also a signal problem near Secaucus causing 20-minute delays for Main Line/Bergen riders.

Service on the Northeast Corridor was suspended between Metropark and Trenton after a man jumped off the platform and into the windshield of an train with 60 passengers on board arriving from New York headed for Jersey Avenue. The engineer was the only person injured in the incident.

Service was restored around 8 a.m with 60 minute delays for both NJ Transit and Amtrak service.

The man was identified as Paul Fair, 25, of Plainfield.

It was the second fatality involving a NJ Transit train in two days. A train being moved into place for the morning commute struck a person in Plainfield early Wednesday morning. None of the three crew members on board were hurt.

Kevin Corbett, who said at NJ Transit's Board of Directors meeting on Wednesday he felt the pain of the commuters, asked for patience as the Positive Train Control installation, which is taking much of the blame, will have an eventual payoff of safer trains. He also took aim at a lack of available engineers that lead to cancellations.

"That morning they wake up and it's a beautiful day and they say, 'I'm going to go to the beach and not show up and run the train I'm supposed to run,'" he said.

Engineers "have been beaten down for years; they've been bearing the brunt of understandably frustrated commuters," he added.

"But there's an element that, to me, is irresponsible, and it's beyond what we expected and planned for," Corbett said after the meeting.

Transportation Commissioner Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti told reporters after the meeting that the board has not discussed discounts or refunds for frustrated commuters, according to Bloomberg.

Gov. Phil Murphy, who appointed Gutierrez-Scaccetti and Corbett to their respective positions to fix the agency he called a "disgrace" during his transition into office, will visit NJ Transit headquarters on Thursday. He is expected to comment on the cancellations during the visit.

The eight trains canceled as of 7 10 a.m. on Thursday, according to a count of each line's Twitter account:

Main/Bergen

• 3:50 a.m. (#42) from Port Jervis due to equipment issues

Montclair Boonton

• 7:10 a.m. (#0208) from Montclair State
• 6:12 a.m. (#0209) from Hoboken

Morris & Essex

• 6:07 a.m. (#852) from Mt. Olive

Northeast Corridor:

• 7:12 a.m (#3821) from Penn Station NY due to person struck near Metuchen
• 6:26 a.m. (#3701) from New Brunswick due to a person struck near Metuchen
• 5:26 a.m. (#3702) from Jersey Ave.

What steps should Gov. Murphy and NJ Transit take to improve the current situation? How are you impacted by the cancellations? Be part of our Commuter Board. Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNJ.

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