HBLR - 9th Street to Lincoln Harbor
I am a daily commuter on the HBLR between Port Imperial and Jersey City.
Within the past few months, I have started noticing that the Tonnelle Avenue-bound train jolts after it rounds the first curve in the vicinity of the three sewage clarifiers near 16th street. This is not just one train - every train that I have been on throughout these few months has jolted at that exact spot.
The jolting was more subdued in the winter months, but within the past three weeks (the summer heat perhaps also playing a role), the jolting got to the point where the operator knew when to slow the train down to ~10 mph to traverse that spot.
However, even with the reduced speed, the train felt like it was going to jump the tracks. I took a video of that section of the track on my way to work earlier this week, and noticed that the track bulges outward around the 7-second mark of the attached clip. Not dramatically, yet not subtle enough to evade an untrained eye.
I hope something is done soon to straighten that part of the track. I'm not a railroad engineer, thus I'm not qualified to comment on whether this is a potential safety issue. At a minimum, I do feel that it is a passenger comfort issue.