(The following story by Jennifer Maloney appeared on the Newsday website on July 13.)
NEW YORK — Trees along the Long Island Rail Road tracks are about to get a serious pruning.
To prevent train cars’ wheels from slipping on leaves this fall, the railroad is beginning an aggressive tree-trimming and tree-replacement program, LIRR President Helena Williams said Thursday at an LIRR Commuters Council meeting in Manhattan.
From October to December each year, crushed leaves on the tracks become slick and cause train cars’ wheels to slip and skid. Trains can slide past platforms. Skidding, in turn, grinds flat spots on wheels, and cars must be taken out of service for repair. That leads to shorter, more crowded trains.
This year, before autumn arrives, the LIRR will trim branches hanging over the railroad’s right-of-way, Williams said.
For homeowners with trees next to the tracks, the pruning may mean a little less shade.
“I’m doing everything I can to reduce the impact on homeowners,” Williams said. “From our perspective, it significantly impacts on safety.”
Many property owners with land next to the tracks prefer to have what Williams called a “green screen,” a buffer of trees that offers homes more privacy.
The railroad is expected to reach out to homeowners in a letter Tuesday, explaining the program and offering to replace deciduous trees, which drop their leaves in autumn, with evergreens.
The railroad declined to give further details on the tree-trimming program, which is expected to be formally announced on Tuesday.
In other efforts to solve the “slip-slide” problem, the LIRR is modifying train cars to give them better traction, Williams said.
Starting at the end of next month, the LIRR will change the software on all of its electric M-7 cars to expand its antilock braking system, called “wheel slip protection.”
The M-7 trains, which make up about 70 percent of the fleet, already have this pulsating brake system, but the system does not engage when an automatic speed-control system deploys the emergency brake to slow a train. But it will when the software modification is completed by late October, LIRR spokesman Sam Zambuto said.
In a pilot program, the railroad also plans to install 50 sand dispensers on M-7 cars. Those trains will run in areas such as Babylon and Valley Stream, where slippery tracks caused by leaves have been a problem, Williams said.