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NJ derailment revives long-running rail safety debate in state’s most populous area
By
Michael Sol Warren
Published Apr 22, 2026
Modified Apr 22, 2026
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Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Images
By
Michael Sol Warren
Published Apr 22, 2026
Modified Apr 22, 2026
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The derailment of a freight train carrying hazardous materials in the heart of urban New Jersey last week thrust railroad safety back into the spotlight.
A CSX train with 163 cars and 2 locomotives partially derailed just after 3 p.m. last Tuesday, April 14.
Incident reports obtained by Gothamist through a records request show 13 cars of the train derailed at Tonnelle Avenue and Route 3 in North Bergen, one of the most densely populated areas of the state.
It was carrying plastic pellets, lumber and malt liquor, according to the reports. It was also carrying petroleum products and a hazardous material called ethyl acetate – a colorless liquid with a fruity odor that is used as a solvent.
The response to the accident demonstrated some of the major concerns of lawmakers and groups who have long objected to these trains rolling through the main streets and downtowns of New Jersey’s biggest towns and cities.
Train safety laws put on the books by former Gov. Phil Murphy were meant to mitigate some of the issues in the North Bergen derailment, but the laws are not yet fully in effect. And advocates say there needs to be a lot more regulation for trains carrying hazardous materials like fuel and chemicals — including transparency about who’s on board and what’s inside.
The derailment sparked a response from local and state emergency crews and forced Route 3 to be closed for hours.
Allen Pascual, North Bergen’s public safety commissioner, said first responders were notified about the derailment about 10 minutes after it happened. They immediately faced confusion about what they were dealing with.
“ We got conflicting stories right from the get-go in terms of how many rail cars derailed,” Pascual said, adding that a strong odor persisted throughout the scene, causing eye irritation for first responders.
He said they decided to move the incident command further away from the derailment out of concern.
“ When I got there, you could definitely smell there was something in the air. As a matter of fact, I felt like I could taste it,” Pascual said. “ It was kind of like a metallic, you know, it's hard to explain. Almost like a metal.”
At around 5 p.m., North Bergen Mayor Nick Sacco made his first public statement and wrongly said ethyl acetate had been spilled.
He later said it was polyethylene. CSX spokesperson Austin Staton said the polyethylene referred to non-hazardous plastic pellets. Incident reports indicate these were cleaned up by vacuum trucks.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection did not detect any spill of ethyl acetate, according to the incident reports.
Pascual said first responders were told about the presence of ethyl acetate around 5 p.m.
A small brush fire at the scene also had to be dealt with, though no train cars caught fire, according to incident reports. Firefighters sprayed the ethyl acetate car with water to keep it cool and to keep the chemical stable.
Pascual said first responders worked through the night, assuming hazardous materials had spilled, while waiting for confirmation otherwise.
“ It was the next morning that we were informed that the actual material that was actually spilling out was not ethyl acetate,” Pascual said.
The CSX train had been operating on Conrail tracks. CSX is a part-owner of Conrail. CSX is investigating the cause of the derailment, Staton said. Both companies submitted incident reports to the National Response Center. Conrail said the company expected damages from the incident to exceed $150,000.
The National Transportation Safety Board is not looking into the incident, according to an agency spokesperson.
Federal Railroad Administration spokesperson Warren Flatau said the agency is investigating the accident.
"FRA and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) require railroads to provide real-time, electronic 'right-to-know' information about hazardous materials to first responders," he said in an email.
The North Bergen derailment highlighted a widespread risk facing New Jersey communities. Roughly 3.6 million New Jerseyans – about a third of the state’s population – live within an evacuation zone along a hazardous materials rail route, according to a New Jersey Policy Perspective report published last year.
The derailment comes just months after Murphy signed a law on his final day in office that creates new rail safety requirements in New Jersey. That includes installing wayside detectors along the state’s railroads, which can alert operators to possible problems with passing trains and requiring trains carrying hazardous materials to have at least two crew members working on board.
“ It really is to ensure safety and coordinated mobilization during a derailment,” said Assemblymember Clinton Calabrese, a Bergen County Democrat who chairs the Assembly transportation committee and who sponsored the bill. “Having two people is more effective than having one.”
The CSX train only had one engineer on board. The new law is not yet in effect, so the train was operating legally. Staton declined to comment when asked if CSX believed additional crew members may have helped avoid the derailment.
The American Association of Railroads, which represents CSX and the nation’s other largest railroads, filed a federal lawsuit in March to block the new law from taking effect. Ted Greener, a spokesperson for the lobby, said freight rail operations in America are safer than they’ve ever been.
“The law enacted in New Jersey would encroach on existing, comprehensive federal authority over rail operations and rail safety, and violate long-standing national policy intended to prevent just this sort of state-by-state patchwork approach to rail regulation,” Greener said. “Today more than ever, hobbling the efficiency of our national rail network could have devastating effects on the economy and ultimately, the affordability of goods Americans need and use every day.”
Alex Ambrose, a policy analyst for New Jersey Policy Perspective who wrote the rail safety report, said trusting railroads to police themselves is an unnecessary gamble.
“ They need to be told to do this, and we need it in law because we also know that the federal government is working to roll back a lot of rail safety protections,” Ambrose said. “That's why states need to step up to protect their own citizens.”
One thing the law does not include is a right-to-know requirement that would compel railroads to inform local officials and the public of hazardous materials on trains passing through their communities.
Rail safety advocates have long pushed for a right-to-know requirement. New Jersey lawmakers passed a bill in 2017 that would have implemented such a rule, but it was vetoed by former Gov. Chris Christie, who cited security concerns around releasing information about how hazardous materials move through the state.
“Provisions of this bill, as written, put homeland security at risk in the State of New Jersey. As a former United States attorney and the person ultimately charged with protecting New Jersey’s 8.9 million citizens, I simply cannot permit that to happen,” Christie wrote in his veto statement.
Calabrese said he doesn’t plan to introduce legislation that would implement a right-to-know requirement. Ambrose said she hopes someone eventually will.
“ We already have community right-to-know for stationary facilities,” Ambrose said. “Any citizen of New Jersey can go online and see where in their communities chemicals are being stored, what kind of chemicals, what amounts. Yet we don't have that in store for trains and freight rail that's literally moving in our backyards.”
Pascual said having more information readily available about what trains carry through North Bergen would’ve helped first responders address the situation more efficiently and better assuage resident concerns.
“ Our first responsibility is to our constituents here in terms of their well-being and safety and health,” Pascual said. “ It would've been very helpful for us to give the residents the up-to-date information and not to be concerned. Or, what, if we had to evacuate people? We wouldn't know. We're not experts on these hazardous materials.”
This story has been updated with information provided by the FRA.
Tagged
new jersey
public safety
transportation
Michael Sol Warren
Michael Sol Warren covers New Jersey for WNYC and Gothamist, and previously reported on issues around the Garden State for NJ Spotlight News and NJ Advance Media. He can be reached at [email protected].
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