(Newsday posted the following Associated Press article on its website on April 9.)
NEW YORK — The Metro-North Railroad takes better care of its stations in Westchester County than its stations in New York City, the city comptroller’s office alleged Wednesday. A railroad spokesman denied the charge.
The comptroller’s office released audits that found three Metro-North stations in the Bronx — Tremont, Fordham and Wakefield — had unsafe conditions ranging from peeling paint to exposed third rails.
That was an improvement from last year’s audit, which put five of the 14 city stations on the unsafe list.
But the audit found no unsafe conditions at any of the 26 Metro-North stations it checked in Westchester.
Comptroller William Thompson Jr. said it was “disturbing to find the difference in maintenance standards between stations in the city and stations in Westchester. New York City residents are entitled to the same level of service Metro-North provides to Westchester County residents.”
He said the MTA was paid about $67 million last year for station maintenance.
Metro-North spokesman Dan Brucker said every problem mentioned in the audit “was repaired or was deferred because it will be part of major capital programs. … What’s the point of paying for a major repair only to tear it down and build it again in short order?”
He said even the Tremont station, which is used by only four people a day, is getting a new platform and staircases and a repaired retaining wall.
Brucker denied that the railroad was paying more attention to stations in Westchester, saying the 125th Street station and the Spuyten Duyvil station have had complete makeovers, with Spuyten Duyvil “totally outstripping some stations in Westchester.”
The comptroller’s office also audited maintenance at Long Island Rail Road stations in the city and found unsafe conditions only at the Murray Hill station in Queens. It found that the maintenance standard was the same for city and suburban LIRR stations.
LIRR spokesman Sam Zambuto said safety concerns at Murray Hill have already been addressed and the station is getting a multimillion-dollar “facelift” next year.