(The following story by Louise Radnofsky appeared on the Newsday website on May 22.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — About $50 million in federal grants could be available each year for public transportation authorities across the country to fix platform gaps such as the Long Island Rail Road’s if Congress takes up a bill introduced yesterday by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.)
“There is a railroad safety crisis nationwide and nowhere is this problem more evident than on Long Island,” Schumer said in a statement. “We must do something immediately to address these egregious safety concerns.”
The senator said he was “optimistic” about the bill’s prospects.
A Newsday study found that the LIRR has logged almost 900 incidents related to platform gaps since 1995. A teenager from Minnesota was killed after falling through a gap at the Woodside station last summer, and the LIRR disclosed last week that reports of passengers slipping in gaps have more than tripled in the first three months of the year, as compared with the same period last year.
The LIRR is reviewing Schumer’s bill, said spokesman Sam Zambuto, adding, “The LIRR has a very aggressive program to manage risks associated with gaps, including inspection practices, engineering solutions, investigation of gap incidents and comprehensive customer communications.”
Any share of the money that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority could get for the LIRR would be helpful, said Gerry Bringmann, chairman of the LIRR Commuter’s Council. Grants of up to $5 million a year would be available under the bill’s provisions.
Bringmann said that if a grant could cover upgrades to a single station like Syosset, where a Newsday reporter measured a 15-inch gap between the train and the platform for Track 1, “it’s a home run for us.”
Schumer’s bill would also create tougher punishments for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians who break crossing rules, and require the secretary of transportation to review safety at all of the country’s highway-rail grade crossings, including 330 in Nassau and Suffolk counties.
There have been 44 accidents resulting in 16 deaths at Long Island’s grade-level crossings in the past five years, according to data obtained by Schumer’s office from the Federal Railroad Administration.