Passenger Bus, Rail and Motorcoach Industry News

As Executive Director of New Jersey Transit from 2007 to 2010, Richard Sarles opened the River LINE light rail service in southern New Jersey, and oversaw the extension of both the Newark Light Rail and Hudson Bergen Light Rail services.

Former GM, who led the agency from 1991 to 1994, will arrive this month to conduct a two-week appraisal of the system and give his input on how to fix it.

Only 36,097 trips were taken yesterday, Wednesday, Feb. 10, when white-out blizzard conditions limited the rail system to underground service only. By comparison, there were 670,643 trips taken the previous Wednesday (Feb. 3).

The agenda will focus not only on the Metro accident investigation, but also the adequacy of state and federal oversight of rail transit systems, as well as the characteristics of high reliability organizations.

Will increase surveillance of the Metro system, conduct more frequent security sweeps of facilities and tunnels, and provide greater visibility of uniformed officers.

Catoe made a statement to the board of directors at the start of Metro's Customer Service, Operations and Safety Committee meeting on Thursday.

Will implement new pilot program in early 2010, which will integrate more interactive training techniques, emphasize service enhancements such as door-to-door service, EZ-Pay, and the use of GPS and other technology.

Operator of train 902 has been a Metro employee since May 2007 and a train operator since November 2008. He is currently on paid administrative leave.

Participants in the program will receive on average between 32 hours and 34 hours of comprehensive travel training, Metro estimates.

The purpose of the hearing will be to gather additional factual information for the investigation.