(Newsday posted the following article by Jennifer Maloney on its website on June 19.)
NEW YORK — What needs fixing and how do we fix it?
In a fast-paced first day at the Long Island Rail Road, new president Helena Williams asked variations of the same question to just about everyone she met.
Standing in the nerve center of the railroad’s operations near a bank of screens displaying real-time train positions, she put it to George Farrell, superintendent of train movement.
“What would you want to see change?” Williams asked. “How would you see us progressing to be more efficient? Think about what does this system need to be.”
Williams, who said she is preparing to launch a 90-day “state of the system” assessment, asked Farrell to think on it and get back to her.
“OK, you got it,” he said.
Williams plans to hire former Metro-North Railroad President Donald Nelson to coordinate the three-month analysis.
The railroad Wednesday will ask the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board’s LIRR/LI Bus committee to approve a $100,000-contract with Nelson.
In an interview Monday at the LIRR’s Jamaica headquarters, Williams said the assessment will identify strategies for improving service, expanding the system and meeting future transportation needs.
It will review issues ranging from the causes of customer accidents to debris scattered beside the tracks, she said.
“Friends have asked me: Why is there so much stuff along the right-of-way? Can it be carted away?”
Williams’ first day, which began with an 18-minute commute from Stewart Manor, included consultations with senior executives, meet-and-greets with employees and customers at Jamaica and Penn stations, and a briefing on the issue of hazardous platform gaps.
Williams praised the railroad’s current efforts to narrow gaps, and promised a new development: The railroad soon will launch a more creative customer education campaign to warn riders about gaps, she said.
“You’ll see some new things emerging — good ideas of what we can do to increase awareness,” she said. “Because at the end of the day, there will always be some gap required.”
Besides moving passengers “from point A to point B in the fastest way possible,” Williams pledged to look at elements that contribute to a pleasant — or irksome — ride.
That means soliciting customer feedback before buying 836 trains with pocket-ripping armrests — and replacing them at a cost of $2.56 million.
“We can fix that problem, but how do you avoid repeating those kinds of things?” Williams said. “The idea is as you go forward to always have customer comfort, customer convenience, customer safety and security.”