(The following story by Jennifer Maloney appeared on the Newsday website on April 18.)
NEW YORK — The Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad have moved tracks and adjusted platforms. Now, they want to widen the trains themselves.
In the latest initiative to shrink dangerous platform gaps, the LIRR plans to extend train doorsteps as Metro-North already has begun to do, officials said.
As state transportation officials prepared to issue recommendations on the gap problem to both railroads Wednesday, LIRR and Metro-North officials said they are well on the way to fixing the worst gaps.
The LIRR disclosed this week that it has narrowed 60 percent of the system’s widest gaps. The railroad has pledged to fix most others by September.
According to detailed plans provided by Metro-North, the railroad has begun shifting tracks and is developing plans to change locations where trains stop.
Most Metro-North trains are 10 feet, 4 inches wide, including the door steps, and the railroad is bringing its narrower trains — about 700 cars — to that standard by installing wider metal steps at doors.
Most LIRR trains are just 10 feet wide, and the railroad must determine whether it can safely operate wider trains throughout its system, said LIRR Executive Vice President Albert Cosenza.
The railroad will be conducting tests throughout the system using a train outfitted with collapsible doorsteps that don’t cause damage if they strike platforms, said LIRR spokeswoman Susan McGowan. The tests are expected to be completed in July.
The LIRR also is studying the feasibility of trimming back concrete platforms at Penn Station to create space for wider trains.
But structural elements at Penn may foil the plan, Cosenza said. “You can’t cut back a column,” he said.
The study at Penn is expected to cost about $277,000, McGowan said.
At a meeting of an LIRR-Long Island Bus committee Monday, Cosenza also said study of the feasibility of using mechanical gap fillers at Syosset station will be finished the first week of May. LIRR officials previously had said the study would be completed this month.