TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey state senate committee has approved a bill that would require two-person crews for freight trains and set a maximum length of 8,500 feet for “dangerous hazardous trains.”
Bill S3389, sponsored by Sens. Patrick Diegnan Jr. (D-Middlesex) and Raj Mukerji (D-Hudson), defines “dangerous hazardous trains” as those carrying tank cars with 200,000 or more gallons of petroleum or petroleum projects, or 20,000 or more gallons of other hazardous substances. It also requires railroads to submit bridge inspection reports to the state, and would require wayside defect detectors, among other provisions. The distance between detectors is required to be appropriate “when accounting for the natural terrain” and to allow operators time to respond to alerts generated by the detectors.
The bill, introduced in June, passed the Senate Transportation Committee by a 6-0 vote on Monday, Sept. 30, and has been referred to the Budget and Appropriations Committee. NJ.com reports a companion bill passed the state assembly’s transportation committee on Sept. 12 and is now with the assembly’s appropriations committee.
At least 15 other states have proposed or passed similar legislation in the wake of the Feb. 3, 2023, Norfolk Southern derailment and hazardous-materials release in East Palestine, Ohio.
I’m so glad that states seem to infinite money to fight these laws in the courts…since they will all be challenged because of the fact that RR’s are Interstate common carriers and are governed by Federal regulations and laws which in this case suprecede State jurisdiction. Never mind that some of these regulations are just dumb since they are proposed by people that have ZERO knowledge of railroads and how the operate.