User:Djflem/NJT MMF

Hurricane Sandy equipment damage
Hurricane Sandy, which made landfall on October 29, 2012, caused a 13-foot tidal surge that inundated many coastal areas including the Jersey Shore, the Hudson Waterfront, and the Meadowlands. New Jersey Transit Rail Operations (NJT) suffered $120 million in damage for 261 train cars and 62 locomotives left at rail yards at Hoboken Terminal and the Meadows Maintenance Complex in the Kearny Meadows. The executive director of NJT, James Weinstein defended the decision to leave trains in rail yards that ended up under water saying those locations had no history of flooding. and that no one could have predicted the extent of the storm surges. "We stored it where it should be. Unfortunately, it’s the worst storm we’ve ever had in New Jersey." In December Weinstein conceded that information to the contrary had been available to the agency, but that he had not studied a report which indicated the potential danger. The agency remained reluctant to release information regarding the decision and was sued the newspaper the The Record which confirmed that NJT had not followed it's own flood plan. A report released in December 2013 by Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service confirmed that NJT ignored flood warnings and did not follow its own damage mitigation plans.

Mass Transit Super Bowl
On February 2, 2014, Super Bowl XLVIII, an event billed as the first Mass Transit Super Bowl, took place at the Meadowlands Sports Complex. Miscalculation and an insufficient contingency plan lead to over-crowding and delays on the Meadowlands Rail Line. On February 18, 2014 it was announced that James Weinstein would resign as director of NJT. An initial inquiry by the New Jersey Assembly scheduled for February 21, 2014 was postponed as representatives of NJT and the host committee od the National Football League, partners in the creation of the transportation plan were unable to attend. James Simpson, Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Transportation has commissioned other board members to reschedule the hearing and retain retired U.S. District Court Judge Dennis M. Cavanaugh to lead the inquiry, which will include representatives from the New Jersey State Police and NFL as well as NJT.

[[Effects of Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey James Simpson (government official)

NJ Transit equipment loss
Hurricane Sandy, on had landfall on October 29, 2012, caused a 13-foot tidal surge that inundated many coastal communities, including the Hudson Waterfront and the Meadowlands. Nearly 400 NJT rail cars and locomotives were damaged when they were left in low-lying, flood-prone rail yards at Hoboken Yard and the Meadows Maintenance Complex in the Kearny Meadows.

A report released in December 2013 by Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service found that NJT ignored flood warnings and did not follow its own damage mitigation plans. The storm's aftermath left washed-out track; movement of bridge girders; flooded rail stations; fallen catenary and damage to more than 300 pieces of rail equipment left in low-lying areas. NJT has undertaken various projects to restore and replace damaged infrastructure as well as take measures to mitigate future damage and upgrade systems.

In the immediate aftermath and the following year, NJT Executive Directive James Weisntein, defended the position that the decision was sound saying the yards had never flooded before.

Despite calls for the resignation of the Executive Director of NJ Transit, James Weinstein, who Christie had appointed in 2010.

=Meadows Maintenance Complex=

The Meadows Maintenance Complex (MMC) is a the rail yard, maintenance facility, and operations center for New Jersey Transit Rail Operations (NJTR) located in the Kearny Meadows adjacent to the North East Corridor

Site
The Meadows Maintenance Complex encompasses 78-acre site on the neck of land between the Hackensack River and Passaic River in the eastern industrial section of Kearny, New Jersey that is part of the New Jersey Meadowlands. It comprises athe network of tracks and buildings is the primary maintenance center for the agency’s locomotives and rail cars, with both outdoor and indoor equipment storage; repair, servicing, cleaning, inspection and training facilities; rail operations center, which houses computers involved in the movement of trains and communication with passengers.

The New Jersey Assembly Transportation Committee held inquiry in the equipment damage in December 2013.

Hurricane Sandy
The facility is surrounded by wetlands, and has an elevation between 0 and 19 feet above sea level.

The Garden State’s commuter railway parked critical equipment – including much of its newest and most expensive stock – at its low-lying main rail yard in Kearny just before the hurricane. It did so even though forecasters had released maps showing the wetland-surrounded area likely would be under water when Sandy’s expected record storm surge hit. Other equipment was parked at its Hoboken terminal and rail yard, where flooding also was predicted and which has flooded before. Among the damaged equipment: nine dual-powered locomotive engines and 84 multi-level rail cars purchased over the past six years at a cost of about $385 million. “If there’s a predicted 13-foot or 10-foot storm surge, you don’t leave your equipment in a low-lying area,” said David Schanoes, a railroad consultant and former deputy chief of field operations for Metro North Railroad, a sister railway serving New York State. “It’s just basic railroading. You don’t leave your equipment where it can be damaged.” ….Most of the avoidable damage came at NJ Transit’s Meadows Maintenance Complex, a sprawling 78-acre network of tracks and buildings in an industrial area of Kearny that is surrounded by wetlands. The complex is the primary maintenance center for the agency’s locomotives and rail cars, with both outdoor and indoor equipment storage; repair, servicing, cleaning, inspection and training facilities; and the agency’s rail operations center, which houses computers involved in the movement of trains and communication with passengers. The yard sits in the swampy crook where the Passaic and Hackensack rivers come together. Elevation maps show that it lies between 0 and 19 feet above sea level. The National Hurricane Center was predicting a storm surge of 6 to 11 feet along the New Jersey and New York coast on top of an unusual tide that already had the rivers running high. …The agency has been operating its Meadows complex since the 1980s, and it had never flooded, not even during Hurricane Floyd, which caused record flooding in New Jersey in 1999, said Kevin O’Connor, vice president and general manager of rail operations. Several former NJ Transit employees who worked there for decades said they could not recall any time it had flooded.

http://02d8d4f.netsolhost.com/fabrication/new-jersey-transit-meadows-maintenance-center-complex

The executive director of NJ Transit is defending the agency's decision to leave trains in rail yards that ended up under water during Hurricane Sandy, saying those locations had no history of flooding and that no one could have predicted the extent of the storm surges that left some stations with six feet of water.

"We stored it where it should be," Jim Weinstein, who was joined by some of his top brass at the statewide transit agency, said during an interview Tuesday with The Star-Ledger. "Unfortunately, it’s the worst storm we’ve ever had in New Jersey."

NJ Transit has come under criticism for leaving equipment in places such as Kearny and Hoboken with Hurricane Sandy bearing down. Damaged during the storm were 261 train cars and 62 locomotives.