(The following report by Jennifer Maloney appeared on the Newsday website on May 14.)
NEW YORK — Long Island Rail Road officials hope that sand will solve the autumnal problem of slippery, leaf-blanketed tracks.
The railroad will ask the LIRR/Long Island Bus Committee of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Tuesday to approve a $1.7-million joint contract to install prototype sand dispensers on 60 LIRR and Metro-North train cars, according to an LIRR document.
Fifty of the “sanders” will go to the LIRR; 10 will go to Metro-North, said LIRR spokeswoman Susan McGowan.
When leaves fall, which usually starts in October and wraps up in December, commuter train systems across the Northeast encounter the same mess: Crushed leaves on the tracks that turn into a slick substance that causes trains to slip and skid.
Sometimes, trains slide right past platforms, forcing passengers to exit at the following station and catch the next train back, railroad officials say.
The skidding action grinds flat spots on train wheels, requiring the railroad to take cars out of service for time-consuming repairs to reshape the wheels, officials said.
That means shorter and more crowded autumn trains.
At the peak of last year’s particularly bad leaf season, 20 percent of the LIRR fleet was out of service. Metro-North was hit even worse.
The sanders in this pilot program will dispense sand automatically when sensors detect that the wheels are slipping, McGowan said. They can also be deployed manually.
Sanders have been effective in Europe, she said.
At the committee meeting Wednesday, LIRR officials also are expected to ask approval for a $427,000 contract to analyze gap measurements on the 86 percent of its platforms that have not yet been evaluated.
Earlier this year the railroad spent $129,000 to analyze its widest gaps, which are on 32 platforms — 12 percent of the 262 platforms throughout the system.
The LIRR made electronic gap measurements last fall at all 124 passenger stations and made manual measurements at 40 stations. A contractor will use that data to calculate the size of the gap at each train door opening, according to an LIRR document.
The results will help the railroad evaluate gap accidents and develop plans for reducing gaps, the document said.