(The following report by Jennifer Maloney appeared on the Newsday website on April 16.)
NEW YORK — Responding to criticism that it failed for years to address dangerous platform gaps, the Long Island Rail Road is taking a new look at consumer safety.
Each month a group of railroad equipment experts, customer service managers, police and other specialists will review the latest data and look for ways to improve riders’ safety, LIRR safety director Jose Fernandez said.
“The gap put the focus that we should look at all customer-type accidents — reviewing all accident data … taking a look at what areas we may need to look at,” Fernandez said, noting that a federal initiative to review rail passenger safety also prompted the new LIRR policy.
The state’s Public Transportation Safety Board is expected to release tomorrow its study of gap problems on the LIRR and the Metro-North Railroad.
A Newsday investigation published in January found that the LIRR had known for three decades that gaps posed a hazard — causing hundreds of falls and prompting dozens of lawsuits. Asked why they had not narrowed gaps sooner, officials said the gap had never before raised a red flag.
The group currently is investigating a recent spike in customer accidents: 84 in January and February, compared to 64 during the same period last year, according to figures released yesterday at the LIRR/LI Bus Committee meeting in Manhattan.
The railroad’s gap task force will report to the customer safety group, Fernandez said.
And a separate LIRR safety subcommittee is analyzing all gap-related data — from police and railroad accident reports, incident logs, customer complaints and reimbursement claims — which will enter a central gap database, railroad officials said.
Also at the meeting yesterday, LIRR acting president Ray Kenny said the railroad is testing ticket machine software to prevent another credit/debit card failure when ticket sales surge again at the beginning of May.
And Long Island Bus president Neil Yellin said the agency has applied for $12 million in federal grants to buy about 40 much-needed buses over the next two years. By 2009, he said, 92 of the agency’s buses will be eligible for replacement.
MTA officials are working to solve the agency’s financial woes, said Yellin, who earlier this year warned he may have to cut service.
“We need the buses, but we also need the operating funds,” he said.