BusTalk

[GBL Rebel]

LIRR takes new look at rider safety
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BY JENNIFER MALONEY
jennifer.maloney@newsday.com

April 16, 2007, 10:04 PM EDT

Responding to criticism that it failed for years to address dangerous platform
gaps, the Long Island Rail Road is taking a new look at consumer safety.

Each month a group of railroad equipment experts, customer service managers,
police and other specialists will review the latest data and look for ways to
improve riders' safety, LIRR safety director Jose Fernandez said.

"The gap put the focus that we should look at all customer-type accidents --
reviewing all accident data ... taking a look at what areas we may need to look
at," Fernandez said, noting that a federal initiative to review rail passenger
safety also prompted the new LIRR policy.

The state's Public Transportation Safety Board is expected to release tomorrow
its study of gap problems on the LIRR and the Metro-North Railroad.

A Newsday investigation published in January found that the LIRR had known for
three decades that gaps posed a hazard -- causing hundreds of falls and
prompting dozens of lawsuits. Asked why they had not narrowed gaps sooner,
officials said the gap had never before raised a red flag.

The group currently is investigating a recent spike in customer accidents: 84 in
January and February, compared to 64 during the same period last year, according
to figures released yesterday at the LIRR/LI Bus Committee meeting in Manhattan.

The railroad's gap task force will report to the customer safety group,
Fernandez said.

And a separate LIRR safety subcommittee is analyzing all gap-related data --
from police and railroad accident reports, incident logs, customer complaints
and reimbursement claims -- which will enter a central gap database, railroad
officials said.

Also at the meeting yesterday, LIRR acting president Ray Kenny said the railroad
is testing ticket machine software to prevent another credit/debit card failure
when ticket sales surge again at the beginning of May.

And Long Island Bus president Neil Yellin said the agency has applied for $12
million in federal grants to buy about 40 much-needed buses over the next two
years. By 2009, he said, 92 of the agency's buses will be eligible for
replacement.

MTA officials are working to solve the agency's financial woes, said Yellin, who
earlier this year warned he may have to cut service.

"We need the buses, but we also need the operating funds," he said.

Copyright (c) 2007, Newsday, Inc.

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This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-lilirr0417,0,6236461.story?coll=ny-linews-headlines

Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com.

[Dieseljim]

When I rode the Long Island Rail Road to the Timetable Collector's convention in Rockville Center, I had no problems with the gap between the train and the platform. If people were more attentive of their surroundings a lot of these accidents getting on and off the trains could be prevented. Some of the inattentiveness is ignorance and some is sheer laziness. Some if it is that people forget or seem to forget that this is a full fledged railroad and is a completely different beast from either the bus or the subway. In addition, some of the Long Island's passenger lines also host freight operations by a freight railroad that has long taken over the freight operations that had been the Long Island Railroad's province. If folks want to be save on the trains, all they have to do is look, listen, and live. How much simpler can one get than that?