LIRR cleaning up its litter-strewn act

HEAPS of rotting wood and rusty steel dumped by Long Island Rail Road workers alongside the tracks have created smelly, unsightly messes that, by the LIRR's admission, are out of hand.

The rubbish scattered along the rail system's right of way includes piles several feet high of old wooden ties, oxidized pieces of rail, discarded plastic buckets, fractured wooden skids, plastic tubing and other assorted junk.

Some of the clutter has been there for years. One pile of rail ties at Hicksville -- recently removed -- had sat for so long that they became enveloped in vines, LIRR officials said.

"No other organization has polluted Long Island like the MTA," said Maureen Michaels, the LIRR Commuter Council chairwoman who, during her two years in the position, has pushed the LIRR to develop an effective cleanup plan. "Why should we have to travel through their garbage to get to work and back?"

Now, after years of littering its own system with discarded construction materials and other refuse, the LIRR says it's trying to clean up its tracks, and its act.

"We realize it's a priority. . . . We have to clean up our right of way," said LIRR chief engineer Robert Puciloski, who is leading the railroad's cleanup efforts. "I'm trying to make every employee care that cleanliness counts and it's part of the job. We're going to change the culture."

Besides implementing new policies and procedures to include cleanups in other track projects, the LIRR recently surveyed all 700 miles of its tracks to identify the filthiest locations, and said it would clean them up by the end of this year.

SEE PHOTOSLIRR trains and commuters through the years

Tidying up the worst spots

The LIRR identified among its worst locations the tracks leading from its Huntington, Amityville, Wantagh, Farmingdale, Brentwood, Ronkonkoma and Babylon stations. A cleanup effort has begun at Babylon.

LIRR president Helena Williams said there is no set budget for the cleanup, and that with limited money and manpower, keeping the railroad's infrastructure in a state of good repair will remain the priority. But, she added, employees will be reallocated as much as possible for cleanup efforts.

LIRR officials said they also continue to use their Right of Way Department, which picks up about 5,000 cubic yards of debris each year. The department's budget was cut last year to $4.1 million from $5.9 million in 2009.

On Railroad Avenue in Syosset, homeowners will believe it when they no longer see it. Or smell it.

Retired construction project manager Bob Passero says he has little hope that the foul aroma of old creosote-treated railroad ties baking in the sun will ever go away. "I think they shouldn't leave them there," said Passero, who has never contacted the LIRR about the mess by the tracks across the street from his house. "I figure that's what you get when you live next to the train tracks."

Puciloski blames the current state of the LIRR's right of way on "the sins of the past" -- when cleanup was not considered the best use of crews' limited time to carry out projects.

Each year, LIRR workers replace, by hand, about 10,000 wooden rail ties -- each weighing more than 200 pounds.

"The emphasis wasn't on getting debris removed. It was on getting what they call 'wood in the ground,' " Puciloski said. "They were focusing on getting as many ties replaced as possible and weren't as focused on removing the ties . . . It was always, 'We'll get back to that.' "

Williams said she has tried to change that mindset since taking office in 2007.

"I think there's just been a long history of the Long Island Rail Road . . . thinking, 'Well, this is our right of way and we're using it as we need and as we see fit.' I disagree," Williams said. "I think we have a responsibility to do a cleanup. It's a responsibility to our surrounding communities and to our customers."

New policy for cleanups

Puciloski said that, in January the LIRR adopted a new policy to include cleanup efforts in all track work, so a project is not complete until workers remove all debris they produce.

Additionally, during larger track projects that require major train service outages, teams of workers are assigned to clean up the area. During last year's project to upgrade Jamaica's signal system over two weekends, crews removed 203 cubic yards of metal, 750 old rail ties and 130 cubic yards of other debris, the LIRR said.

The LIRR also tore down two dilapidated trailers near the Jamaica tracks that housed some workers.

The Commuter Council also has raised safety concerns over the LIRR-produced junk, some of which sits inches away from the electrified third rail and from the edges of overpasses. LIRR officials say the debris does not present any danger to the public. They acknowledge, however, there have been debris-related injuries to LIRR workers walking on tracks.

A spokesman with the Federal Railroad Administration said that he was unaware of any federal law or regulations dealing with storage of railroad construction or raw materials near train tracks.

While the LIRR says it has seen the light, Michaels remains skeptical about the agency and says its standards for the condition of its tracks remain unacceptably low. Michaels said there was still plenty of junk on Jamaica's tracks after the cleanup project. "The notion of the LIRR identifying the 'messiest' locations is like the fox guarding the henhouse," Michaels said in a statement. "They have a pretty low definition of messy."

MTA board member Mitchell Pally, who is also chairman of the Long Island chapter of the state League of Conservation Voters, agreed the LIRR "did not do a very good job" of picking up after itself for years. He said other projects, such as the ongoing effort to shrink the gap between trains and station platforms, lapped up money and resources.

But, he said, keeping the tracks clean "is absolutely essential," and he believes LIRR management gets that now. "Whether it's going to be enough, we won't know for a while," Pally said.