Gives New Meaning To The “Passengers Must Be In One Of The First Three Cars To Exit At North Elizabeth” Announcement
When that trip to the shore or holiday with the in-laws turns potentially deadly:
Posted: April 10th, 2008 | Filed under: We're All Gonna Die!When Lauren Papapietro boarded a New Jersey Transit train at Pennsylvania Station in February, she stood in the vestibule between the cars with a half-dozen other passengers, as she does most nights when seats are scarce. As the train rolled out of the station, the door six inches from where she stood opened for nearly a minute before the train stopped and the conductors scurried to close it.
“I was scared to death,” said Ms. Papapietro, 21, a senior at Monmouth University who works at a public relations firm in Manhattan. “I kind of trust New Jersey Transit to get me back and forth, and I really hope this doesn’t happen again.”
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.
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.
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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.”