Report Urges Stricter Train Safety, Transparency Rules 13 Years After Derailment

By Nikita Biryukov, New Jersey Monitor

December 3, 2025

A new report urges New Jersey to step up oversight of hazardous rail-borne freight nearly 13 years after a derailment in Paulsboro released tens of thousands of gallons of a toxic gas that left 60 hospitalized.

The new report from New Jersey Policy Perspective, a left-leaning Trenton-based think tank, seeks more transparency on train routes and the creation of evacuation zones along them to guard residents against toxic spills.

“Freight rail companies have spent years lobbying against safety rules while prioritizing their own profits over better infrastructure. Meanwhile, millions of New Jerseyans live in evacuation zones without knowing what chemicals are rolling past their kids’ schools,” said Alex Ambrose, a policy analyst for the think tank and the report’s author. “Lawmakers need to stop letting corporate interests block protections that could save lives.”

What hazardous materials travel on trains around New Jersey? It’s a secret.

The report cautions that the state lacks protections to adequately guard the 3.6 million New Jerseyans who live within a mile of freight lines that could cause toxic spills or fires, plus the more than 1,300 schools and nearly 120 hospitals.

It also urges additional training and hazmat equipment for first responders and stricter safety rules for the trains themselves.

“Far too many people, including state decision makers, are not truly aware of the risk associated with the thousands of trains carrying hazardous materials throughout every corner of our state,” said Debra Coyle, executive director of the New Jersey Work Environment Council.

Gov. Chris Christie in 2017 vetoed legislation that would require rail firms to disclose train routes, citing national security concerns.

The report says that requiring train companies to report past cargo after a time delay and mandating that the Department of Transportation share bridge inspection reports with the Department of Environmental Protection, which oversees hazmat control, could increase safety while allaying security risks.

Some officials have long eyed stricter disclosure rules and requiring response plans to hazardous spills from freight companies, but efforts to pass them have stalled in legislative chambers or on the governor’s desk.

Transportation committee chairs in both chambers are seeking to impose stricter rules on freight that would require at least two crew members to operate any train carrying hazardous materials and impose limits on train length. Longer trains are more likely to derail.

“More than a decade after the Paulsboro train derailment, too many New Jersey communities continue to live with the daily risk posed by freight lines that transport hazardous materials through their neighborhoods,” said Assemblyman Clint Calabrese (D-Bergen), who chairs the Assembly Transportation Committee.

The 2012 Paulsboro derailment released roughly 23,000 gallons of vinyl chloride — a toxic, carcinogenic precursor chemical used in the manufacturing of polyvinyl chloride polymers — after a conductor’s error sent four train cars off a bridge and into a creek.

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