TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey legislators on Monday held a hearing on a bill that would require two-person crews, limit train lengths, and mandate wayside defect detectors for “high-hazard trains,” those transporting flammable or hazardous materials.
The hearing on S4049, introduced in June and sponsored by state Sens. Patrick Diegnan Jr. (D-Middlesex) and Gordon Johnson (D-Bergen), was held by the Senate’s transportation committee, the New Jersey Monitor reports. Along with setting an 8,500-foot limit for high-hazard trains, it would set time limits for railroads to notify emergency agencies, and deliver trained personnel and equipment to the site of a derailment or other discharge of material; set financial penalties; and require railroads to provide bridge inspection reports to the state, among other provisions.
While several industry groups submitted written statements of opposition to the bill, everyone who testified at Monday’s hearing supported it, the Monitor reports. That included representatives of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen; a member of the Coalition to Ban Unsafe Oil Trains; and the director of the conservation organization Environment New Jersey.
The bill is not expected to pass in this legislative session, according to the Monitor, but its sponsors plan to re-introduce it next year.
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