Schumer: LIRR doesn't need mandated safety system
The Long Island Rail Road should not have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade its collision-prevention system when the existing system works fine and that money could be better spent elsewhere, Sen. Charles Schumer, MTA officials and transit advocates said Thursday as they called for more time to comply with a costly federal mandate.
The federal Rail Safety Improvement Act - passed in 2008 after 25 people died in the head-on collision of a commuter train and a freight train in Chatsworth, Calif. - calls for all commuter railroads to install an automated system designed to prevent collisions and derailments. The deadline for railroads to implement "positive train control" systems is Dec. 31, 2015.
But Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials have said the LIRR's existing train- control system, which is more than 50 years old, has a proven safety record. The agency has asked for an extension of the deadline until at least 2020.
Echoing that call, Schumer Thursday said the $350 million it would cost the LIRR to put in the new system could "cripple" the already struggling railroad and put on hold more pressing improvements to the system.
That includes installation of a second track in the mostly single-track portion of the system between Farmingdale and Ronkonkoma. The project originally was pegged to begin this year, but LIRR officials say the start must be pushed to at least 2015 because of the cost of the largely unfunded federal mandate.
In total, the federal government has allocated $250 million toward the program for all the railroads in the country.
"I think none of us dispute that safety must come first . . . But to make the Long Island Rail Road repeat similar improvements at a time of fiscal austerity, when they're talking about cutbacks, makes no sense," said Schumer, who voted in favor of the Rail Safety Improvement Act. "There's no denying that the price tag on the project would drown the already struggling MTA."
Other commuter railroads, including the MTA's Metro-North Railroad, have asked for an extension or exemption from the mandate. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, which will decide on those requests, did not immediately return a call for comment.
Long Island Regional Planning Council Director Michael White, who joined Schumer at a Rockville Centre news conference Thursday, said having more time to comply with the law could lead to the LIRR using newer and better technology when it does install its positive train control system. In the meantime, the LIRR could proceed with projects that could "make a huge difference."
"Let's not let our transit money be displaced," White said. "Let's use it wisely."
MTA board member Mitchell Pally, of Stony Brook, agreed that projects such as the second track, which would facilitate commutes to and from the busy Route 110 corridor, are "essential to Long Island" and should not be put off unnecessarily.
"Safety is our number-one priority, but we already believe we have a safe system," he said.
The LIRR's cab signal system is designed to prevent accidents by automatically slowing trains when they pass certain signals.
