(Newsday posted the following article by Jennifer Maloney on its website on February 12.)
NEW YORK — Long Island and Metro-North railroad officials this week will join representatives from railroads across the country to discuss the problem of platform gaps at a meeting in Cambridge, Mass. – the first to study the issue on a national scale.
Tomorrow and Wednesday, in the first meeting of a Federal Railroad Administration’s General Passenger Safety Task Force, railroad officials and industry experts will gather information on railroads’ internal gap standards and may consider recommending a national standard for platform gap widths.
The gap issue advanced to the top of the task force’s agenda after the August death of Natalie Smead, who fell through a gap at the LIRR’s Woodside station and crawled in front of an oncoming train.
As a result of her death, the task force now plans to publish a study titled, “High-Level Platform Gaps,” referring to platforms that are level with train doors. The report could propose new federal regulations.
Currently, there are no federal gap standards, although there is a 3-inch maximum gap restriction in the Americans with Disabilities Act that federal transportation officials admit is impossible for most commuter rails to meet.
The task force, part of the Federal Railroad Administration’s Passenger Safety Working Group, will study the gap issue for several months.
An unrelated federal probe into Smead’s death is expected to conclude sometime this year.
This week’s meeting will include a 90-minute presentation by LIRR chief engineer Brian Finn, and shorter presentations by officials from Metro-North, New Jersey Transit, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, the Association of American Railroads and Amtrak.
Gap standards across the country vary, depending on system design, train width and platform curvature.
Amtrak has a standard gap of 7 inches and a maximum of 13 inches on curved platforms, according to Amtrak and federal transportation officials.
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, or SEPTA, has gaps between 7 and 12 inches, according to SEPTA. Chicago’s Metra, with wider trains, has a standard gap of 4 inches, Metra officials said.
Rapid transit and light rail systems have smaller gaps: San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit, for example, has a 2 1/2 inch standard gap, BART officials said.