(The following article by Joie Tyrrell was posted on Newsday.com on May 27.)
NEW YORK — The Long Island Rail Road is considering shortening the arm rests on its new fleet of M-7 trains after commuters complained they caught and tore their pockets on the arm rests.
The railroad has received 63 such claims, said spokesman Brian Dolan. The LIRR reviews each claim and offers reimbursement.
The railroad completed the first purchase of new M-7 cars in February with 226 cars and has been adding new cars into the fleet each month. By April 2006, the railroad will be running 678 M-7 cars on all electrified lines, making up the bulk of the LIRR’s electric fleet. The cars, manufactured by Bombardier Transportation Inc. of Canada, cost about $1.7 million apiece.
The seats were designed after an ergonomics consulting group from the Netherlands rode dozens of LIRR trains and observed how passengers sat. A mock-up of the M-7 car was made for focus groups in early 2000. The groups asked for more leg room and the seats were reconfigured to include a concave back shell and sculptured arm rests that made them more open, to allow for more side-to-side leg movement.
“What is so interesting is that they did so many tests on those seats,” said Beverly Dolinsky, executive director of the LIRR Commuter’s Council, a transit advocates’ group. “There were tests to make sure they were ergonomically correct. How the designers missed the arm rests is kind of incomprehensible.”
It’s happened to commuter James McGovern, of Manhasset, twice. “When you sit down and are wearing a pair of trousers from a suit, the pocket flares out and gets caught on the arm rest,” said McGovern, chair of the LIRR Commuter’s Council. “I think they need to either shorten them or make it a complete right angle so things can’t get caught.”