Dual mode on RVL at PS Nwk .JPG

An NJ Transit dual mode locomotive in Penn Station Newark. Similar locomotives were among 319 trains damaged by flooding in Hurricane Sandy, which a federally funded early warning system could prevent. (Larry Higgs | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

An $843,750 federal grant was awarded to NJ Transit and Stevens Institute of Technology to develop a system to warn of storm driven flooding such as the surges that damaged 319 trains stored in low lying areas after Hurricane Sandy in 2012.



NJ Transit officials announced the grant Thursday and said the system would provide advance notice to allow locomotives and passenger cars to be moved out of flood areas to higher ground and to alert commuters about possible service suspensions. The work will be done in three phases, including development and testing, over a three-year time period, said Nancy Snyder, an NJ Transit spokeswoman.

The proposed system would use water levels from monitoring stations and atmospheric forecasts to provide information for NJ Transit officials to take action such as moving equipment prior to flooding.

"It will help place NJ Transit in the best position possible, based on innovative science being developed by Stevens Institute of Technology, to get ahead of possible extreme weather events and to take steps to reduce risk to persons and damage to critical system assets," Snyder said.



NJ Transit officials came under fire after Hurricane Sandy for leaving trains parked at the Meadowlands Maintenance Complex in Kearny and in upper Hoboken yard, which flooded. That disrupted service ,due to a lack of equipment, and cost about $100 million worth for repairs. Five locomotives and two rail cars still are in the process of being repaired, according to NJ Transit figures.



The system will be used at the Meadowlands Maintenance Complex and in Hoboken yard, Snyder said.



"Anything that helps with forecasting is useful, however, it is not a substitute for judgment, which we believe was the cause of damage to equipment from Sandy," said David Peter Alan, president of the Lackawanna Commuter Coalition. "It was bad management on the part of former managers of NJ Transit, many of who left the agency last year."



Then Executive Director James Weinstein and Kevin O'Connor, director of rail operations defended the decision, saying neither location had flooded in the past and forecasts used by NJ Transit didn't predict flooding from a storm surge.



But during legislative hearings about the damage to NJ Transit's system in the wake of Sandy, experts produced other forecasts which did predict a storm driven flooding in both locations. Weather experts also questioned the forecasts used by NJ Transit.



"If they had read the forecast that the National Weather Service had for Sandy, they would have gotten the trains out of the way," Alan said. "New York did."





Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @commutinglarry. Find NJ.com on Facebook.