(The following story by Steve Ritea appeared on the Newsday website on December 12.)
NEW YORK — In a sweeping $20.7-million effort to reduce dangerous gaps between train cars and platforms, the Long Island Rail Road Wednesday announced a plan to reduce the gap by an average of 3 inches at stations systemwide by adding metal plates at the base of each car door and changing its decades-old standard for train clearance of platforms.
The LIRR also is considering extension of a particularly troublesome platform in Syosset, where passengers step over some of the system’s largest gaps — more than a foot wide in some spots. The north platform would be extended eastward 600 feet.
“Customer safety has remained one of my highest priorities,” President Helena Williams said after a meeting of the Long Island committee of the MTA board. “We worked last year on a short-term basis to repair gaps. … Now we have a longer-term plan, and we look forward to implementing that.”
The $20.7 million allocated for gap remediation in 2008 is nearly triple that of the $7.2 million spent this year.
One of the scores of people injured in gap accidents over the years heralded the gap-closing initiative.
“That’s great news,” said Owen Rumelt, who injured his leg after falling into a gap at Penn Station in June 2006. “I just hope they don’t raise the fares any further to do it. But to be honest, for safety it’s worth it.”
Wednesday, Williams cited Newsday’s examination of the issue after the August 2006 death of Minnesota teenager Natalie Smead, who fell into a gap at the Woodside station on her way to a concert with friends after she had been drinking and crawled into the path of an oncoming train.
“I do want to credit Newsday’s comprehensive coverage. They certainly have shined a light on a very important rail safety issue,” Williams said. “They not only helped the railroad move to adopt new standards, but the paper’s coverage has also moved the entire rail safety industry to new standards on the gap.”
State Sen. Carl Marcellino (R-Syosset), who has been a vocal opponent of proposed LIRR fare hikes, said the systemwide gap-closing programs are welcome as long as they do not add to the cost of commuting.
“Anything that reduces the space between the train and the platform is a good thing,” he said.
For decades, the nation’s largest commuter railroad did little to address the problematic gap issue beyond occasional “Watch the Gap” reminder campaigns.
Smead’s death changed that.
Newsday began an examination across the LIRR system, sending staffers to stations to measure the spaces between platforms and train cars, finding gaps as large as 15 inches. In a series in January, Newsday reported that the railroad knew for more than three decades that the gaps posed a serious threat to passengers. Between 1995 and early 2007, the newspaper’s investigation found, the LIRR had logged more than 800 gap accidents at stations from Penn to Bridgehampton.
The railroad began a series of steps to correct the problems and the Federal Railroad Administration, which monitors 20 commuter railroads across the country, began its first study of platform gaps.
Under the LIRR plan announced Wednesday, the standard for an acceptable gap decreases from an average of 8 inches to an average of 5 inches.
Over the next two years, metal “threshold plates” will be attached to each door on all 1,140 passenger cars in the system. The effort is projected to cost $11.3 million, which officials said already has been allocated.
Most cars would be fitted with 4-inch plates, which have internal heating systems to prevent icing in winter, that would extend 2 inches from the base of doors and thereby limit the size of the gap. Plates that extend out 1 inch would be attached to all 170 of the LIRR’s older, slightly wider M3 electric cars.
That portion of the plan requires approval from Amtrak, because workers would need to shave down certain sections of Penn Station platforms so they’re not struck by the new plates. LIRR uses Penn under an agreement with Amtrak.
The LIRR also decided to revise the standard measurement it uses to assure that trains clear platforms. Until now, the LIRR has required a minimum distance of 5 feet, 8 inches from the center of tracks to the edge of a platform. Metro-North Railroad, the other railroad under the arm of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, uses a standard of 5 feet, 7 inches.
After a study, Williams said, LIRR will move to the Metro-North standard, ordering 1-inch boards to be attached to most platform edges in the system. That portion of the plan, to be carried out over several years, will cost $16.8 million, some of which will be spent next year.
A third phase of the plan, which Williams stressed is still far from the approval stage, would extend the north platform at the Syosset station east by 600 feet.
The Syosset station, which dates to 1854, has one of the sharpest curves of any LIRR platform, with gaps as wide as 13.4 inches in some spots.
A public forum will be scheduled for late next month to get community input. With the proposed extension, the platform would go behind about 10 homes.