New Jersey Transit is being called out for failing to keep train stations accessible to people with disabilities. The U.S. Attorney’s Office of New Jersey Tuesday reached a settlement with the agency, requiring it to make updates at five of its busiest intercity rail stations —Newark Penn, Princeton Junction, MetroPark, Trenton and New Brunswick. The locations are considered wheelchair-accessible, but the settlement identified more than 200 other Americans with Disabilities Act violations that will need to be corrected. They range from lack of handicapped parking spaces to missing or inadequate ramps. In Trenton, one of the tracks is without an elevator. Other stations lacked access to restrooms and were missing signs. The U.S. attorney’s office says the agency is already working to bring the train stations into compliance with the ADA. According to a New Jersey Transit map, more than half of its nearly 170 stations aren’t wheelchair-accessible. NJ Spotlight News reached out to New Jersey Transit for comment, but didn’t receive a response.
NJ Transit reaches settlement over ADA violations
The settlement with the US attorney’s office identified more than 200 violations
An Emmy award-winning journalist, Briana Vannozzi serves as the anchor for NJ Spotlight News, the newsroom of NJ PBS. She's worked in several capacities since joining the news division in 2012, as interim anchor and senior correspondent after years of general assignment reporting as a multimedia journalist. Vannozzi began her television journalism career by cutting her teeth on New Jersey State House politics for New Jersey Network News, and later as a news radio correspondent at FM News 101.9 covering crime and politics in New York City. Her work has taken her to national presidential nominating conventions, Capitol Hill, up and down the East Coast and every corner of the Garden State. She's interviewed every New Jersey governor dating back to Jon Corzine and moderated numerous political debates and forums. Her work has also earned awards from the New Jersey Society of Professional Journalists and the Philadelphia Press Association. A Burlington County native, she's honored to be serving and covering her home state and raising her family there.