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LIRR doomsday budget could delay fixing gaps

BY ALFONSO A. CASTILLO | alfonso.castillo@newsday.com

8:31 PM EST, November 21, 2008

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority's doomsday budget would delay completion of the Long Island Rail Road's efforts to fix dangerous gaps between platforms and train cars by as much as two years by cutting the number of workers on the project, LIRR officials said Friday.

Among 327 possible job reductions the LIRR expects by 2010 would be eight positions of the 28 employees working on the gap-remediation project. On Thursday, LIRR president Helena Williams said the reductions could set back completion of the project by "an additional couple of years."

The LIRR embarked on a $20.7-million effort to shrink gaps between train cars and platforms after a Newsday investigation found there were more than 800 gap accidents on the LIRR between 1995 and early 2007.

The investigation was spurred by the August 2006 death of Natalie Smead, 18, of Northfield, Minn., who fell into a gap at the Woodside station and was struck by a train.

While completion of the overall project could be deferred, LIRR spokesman Joe Calderone said Friday that work on the highest priority stations, where the gap is the widest, will remain on schedule. Nineteen of "the most critical stations" should be remedied by the end of this year, he said.

LIRR officials said information about which stations in particular would be affected by the budget cuts was not yet available. "We're still very dedicated to addressing the gap issue," Calderone said.

LIRR Commuters Council chairman Gerard Bringmann called putting off completion of the project "penny-wise and pound-foolish." He said the quicker the problem is remedied, the less risk of liability and exposure to expensive lawsuits the LIRR will face.

"It's a judgment call on their part whether it's an acceptable risk," Bringmann said. "As far as I'm concerned, it's not an acceptable risk."

Also Friday, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton weighed in on calls from MTA officials for federal aid to stave off having to implement the proposed 2009 budget, which includes a 23 percent increase in fare revenue as well as widespread service cuts.

Spokesman Ben Kobren said Clinton "believes a federal investment in mass transit is an important step in helping Americans who are driving less and clamoring for mass transit during a growing economic crisis."