Freight Train Derailment In Union Disrupts NJ TRANSIT Service

UNION, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- A freight train derailment near Union Station messed up the evening commute for some NJ TRANSIT riders.

Raritan Valley Line service is suspended in both directions between Newark Penn Station and Cranford, as well as between Raritan and High Bridge.

Cross-honoring is in effect with NJ TRANSIT and private carrier buses.

Officials said the 141-car freight train was headed to Selkirk, New York.

As CBS2's Jessica Borg reported, there were actually two separate derailments involving about 20 cars.

Video from Chopper 2 shows multiple cars off the tracks, with some tipped over.

"There's severe damage to the tracks. There is multiple piles of cars in different locations up and down the span of the tracks from about the Roosevelt Park line all the way through the Union train station," said Union Fire Chief Scanio. 

A spokesperson for the railroad company CSX said all of the cars were either carrying scrap metal or were empty. Only a conductor and engineer were on board.

There were no injuries.

"The concern was some of these freight trains, these tankers could've contained come kind of material that was explosive, so that was our concern for the safety of our residents," Union Mayor Suzette Cavadas said.

Some homes in the area were evacuated as a precaution, but residents have since been allowed to return.

"I heard a really large banging, and I was saying to myself that's got to be something from the railroad tracks, because it was so loud," one man told 1010 WINS' Samantha Liebman. 

Kimberly Landaverde was working inside a spinal clinic on Lehigh Avenue.

"I heard like a loud boom. It sounded like an explosion, literately. I figured it was a train, because how the train stopped," she  told WCBS 880's Ethan Harp. "Then we came outside to look and there was like a bunch of trains derailed."

John Long said he worried about the safety of the tracks but didn't know who to call.

"Every time the wheel passes the track, I mean the separation -- you hear a clunk, clunk," he said. 

"I wasn't really notified and I walked through, and they're just not really helpful in any situation, and this is just detrimental to everyone's night and to the plans that people may have had ahead of time, and now you have to reschedule," said New Brunswick resident Kaitlyn Howard.

"They blocked off all the entrances to the school, apparently. I got a message on my phone that said all the entrances are blocked off. I tried to get in contact with like maybe my mom or somebody to come pick me up, and they're like, 'I'll pick you up at the school,' I'm like no you can't all the entrances are blocked off. So I'm just like I said, going to find some place warm and stay there until someone comes to get me," one teen said.

The derailment left crowds of commuters waiting on long lines for shuttle buses.

"Just got to Penn Station and found out I had to come out here and get on a bus, apparently there's been a derailment, so I'm glad I'm at the front of the line," Jim Eisenhauer said.

There was no word on what caused the derailments or when service will be restored. Conrail, which owns the train tracks, will investigate.

Crews have a major cleanup ahead of them, Borg reported.

"It'll be a minimum of three to four days before the tracks are fixed and everything goes back to normal," Union Police Director Dan Zieser said.

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