(The following story by Bart Jones, Jennifer Maloney and Joie Tyrrell appeared on the Newsday website on June 10.)
NEW YORK — As Helena Williams prepares to take the helm of the nation’s largest commuter railroad next week, she faces challenges that have confounded some of her predecessors.
The Long Island Rail Road’s safety record, financial strains that threaten to spike fares, and scrutiny from the public and politicians alike will all demand much of her attention. She also will steer the railroad through massive infrastructure investments that promise to change the future of commuting for thousands of Long Islanders.
Here is a look at some of those issues:
TIMELINESS
Riders can attest: The LIRR doesn’t always run on time.
Last year, the railroad pulled in behind Metro-North and New Jersey Transit, with 93 percent of trains arriving within six minutes of their scheduled time. Metro-North scored 97 percent and NJ Transit 95 percent on the six-minute industry standard.
As commuter Eileen Ryan put it last week, after a widespread delay: “It’s a very frustrating thing to be a commuter on Long Island Rail Road.”
Williams has said that when she takes office next week, reliability of service is among her top priorities.
A range of factors contributes to the railroad’s punctuality, railroad experts said. And comparing two railroads, said LIRR spokeswoman Susan McGowan, is like comparing apples and oranges.
The LIRR, the busiest commuter rail system in the country, is the oldest and one of the most complex.
It has more transfer hubs than its sister railroad, Metro-North, and while Metro-North has Grand Central all to itself, the LIRR shares Penn Station with both Amtrak and NJ Transit. That makes the LIRR vulnerable to delays caused by other railroads.
The LIRR already has a wish list of projects that would help increase its timeliness. Williams would oversee projects her predecessors have set in motion: a third track on the main line and a proposed second track on the Ronkonkoma branch, which would allow trains to bypass disabled vehicles.
And planned improvements for Jamaica station would, among other things, speed up transfers by extending platforms and allowing passengers to board all 12 cars of the train.
The railroad also plans to phase out its 180 M-3 cars — its oldest, least reliable trains — starting in 2015.
SAFETY
Williams has said repairing platform gaps will be job No. 1, but she also has pledged to look at the railroad’s overall customer accident record.
Last year, there were 114 passenger gap falls, according to LIRR records. From January through March of this year, there were 39 gap incidents, which exceeds the number of gap falls during the same period last year.
The railroad already has addressed 74 percent of the system’s 154 most dangerous gaps. Williams will be responsible for narrowing the rest.
Overall, the LIRR has reduced its customer accident rate by 52 percent during the past decade. From 1996 to 2006, the railroad’s passenger injury rate fell from 9.97 injuries per million riders to 4.80 injuries per million riders. But the number of serious injuries requiring transport to a hospital, and a Federal Railroad Administration report, has gone from 43 in 2000 to 88 in 2006.
Last year, the LIRR saw 15 deaths — 12 of them suicides. Those ruled accidental were trespasser and grade crossing accidents, the two most common causes of death on railroads across the country, according to the railroad administration.
The railroad is developing plans to address both safety issues with projects that will improve fencing near railroad tracks and eliminate on the main line in New Hyde Park and Westbury five grade crossings, places where streets cross the tracks.
But more grade crossings remain, including two in Mineola that will see so much train traffic after the Third Track project is finished, they will be virtually impassable during rush hour, railroad officials said. So far, neither the railroad nor the state Department of Transportation, which in the past has eliminated grade crossing, has plans to fix the two spots.
FINANCES
The LIRR is not immune to the financial troubles of its overseer, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Transportation experts say that a gap — a financial one — that the MTA is facing will mean fare hikes for the LIRR.
“The same financial problems that plague New York City’s subways and buses are equally at play for the two commuter railroads” under MTA control, namely the LIRR and Metro-North, said Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign, a consumer watchdog group.
While the MTA expects a surplus of $270 million in 2007, that is expected to turn into a budget shortfall of as much as $1.78 billion by 2010 unless the agency receives financial assistance, according to MTA officials and a report released last week by the New York City Independent Budget Office.
In the best-case scenario, in which the MTA gets extra state and federal aid and implements revenue-raising measures such as congestion pricing for motorists who enter central Manhattan during rush hour, that could translate into 20 percent increases for LIRR tickets, according to the MTA. Average one-way LIRR fares of $5.58 would jump to $6.72.
Without the extra financial aid, transportation experts and the MTA alike agree that fares could increase even more.
MTA spokesman Jeremy Soffin said the predicted budget deficits were “due to a dramatic growth in uncontrollable costs, especially debt service on the borrowing that was necessary for capital expenses since the city and state reduced their contributions in the 1990s.”
He said the MTA “will be presenting a preliminary financial plan in July” that would help determine what the fare hikes would be. “A fare and toll increase will only be considered as a last resort, but given the structural deficit, everything must remain on the table at this point.”
THIRD TRACK
As the new president of the LIRR, Williams will usher in some of the biggest and most controversial projects in the railroad’s history.
And one that has launched petition drives and heated community opposition is the Third Track project, construction of a 10-mile track to run along the main line from the eastern end of Floral Park to Hicksville.
It’s part of a project that will complement East Side Access linking the LIRR to Grand Central and includes elimination/separation of as many as five grade crossings. Another track would provide capacity for the increasing number of reverse commuters, railroad officials say. The number of morning reverse commuters has grown 76 percent between 1998 and 2006, they say.
“It is absolutely vital for Long Island and for Long Islanders to reap the benefits of the East Side Access project,” said Kate Slevin, associate director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a think tank.
Although the Third Track plan has come under fire from local civic groups, it also has friends in high places. Gov. Eliot Spitzer and New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg have voiced support. The project right now is undergoing environmental review, which is scheduled to go to the Federal Transit Administration this fall. Public hearings could follow early next year.
Bowing to local concerns, railroad officials recently scaled back the project from 11.5 miles. The properties expected to be affected by the third track have been reduced from 80 to 72. And potential property seizures associated with the grade crossing plan have been cut from 44 to between eight and 19.
Still, many questions remain, some opponents say. “There are still a very good number of properties on the chopping block,” said Town of Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray. “It is certainly something Helena is going to have to address and I think sooner rather than later.”
POLITICS
With a new governor, a new MTA executive director and a new president at the helm of the LIRR, at least one proposal from the former regime is history.
MTA Executive Director Lee Sander has said that the authority will not pursue merging its two commuter rails — the LIRR and Metro-North — into one entity, a project announced nearly five years ago by MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow and the former executive director, Katie Lapp.
“I believe it is important to have a separate service identity for Metro-North and for Long Island Rail Road,” Sander said last week, agreeing with detractors of the merger proposal who have argued that Long Island needs an agency that can respond to its unique needs.
The plan to consolidate the two railroads into a company called MTA Rail was lauded as a way to save millions and involved a streamlining of all MTA agencies. But the corporate-style reorganization never moved forward, facing opposition from several Long Island leaders who feared losing local control and representation.
“Each community deserves their own railroad,” said MTA board member Mitch Pally, Suffolk County’s representative. “You would need to have separate leadership with people who know what is going on in that area.”
Though Sander will not move to merge the commuter rails, he said he will look to combine some support services of both the LIRR and Metro-North.
The merger proposal’s demise may be just one political shift when it comes to the LIRR, but transportation advocates say the eyes of Albany will be on the railroad as it moves forward under Williams.
“I think the other players also are paying more attention to the railroad, including the governor’s office,” Pally said. “I think the fact that there is a new president is going to make that even more so — they have a stake in her success.”