Smoking ban starts on LIRR platform areas

With the heavy trucks and buses that often idle near Hicksville's Long Island Rail Road station, Jerome Smith wondered why his smoking was the target of another ban that kicked in Sunday.

"The air is already congested with all that traffic and diesel fuel," the Freeport man, 34, said Sunday, pausing to puff a cigarette in a no-smoking area. "So if it's not one thing, it's another."

But that one thing -- lighting up on LIRR platforms, and in ticketing and boarding zones -- is now subject to citation. Sunday marked the start of a new state law banning smoking in outdoor areas of the MTA's two commuter railroads, LIRR and Metro-North.

An educational blitz came with it: Fliers blanketed train seats, bright-white "No Smoking" signs were conspicuous and recorded warnings from local sports heroes, such as Jets legend Joe Namath, played on a loop.

MTA officials say no tickets will be issued during an initial grace period, the length of which they haven't disclosed. Violators ultimately could be subject to a fine up to $50 and as many as 30 days in jail.

At the Huntington LIRR station, Bryan Line and his friends exited a train Sunday morning and immediately reached for their smokes. They left the actual MTA waiting area, however, and stood in a taxi lot.

"It's not a big thing," said Line, 23, of Nesconset. "A lot of people don't smoke, and it doesn't take a lot for us to walk down here."

SEE PHOTOSLIRR trains and commuters through the years

Smoking has been banned inside LIRR trains and buildings since 1990. The MTA already prohibits it on outdoor New York City subway platforms. So some commuters assumed LIRR platforms had become smoke-free years ago.

Why did it take so long to enact? "It's because the [tobacco] industry is so powerful," said Barbara Goldberg, 73, an ex-smoker from Jericho.

The state law, signed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in August, prompted the MTA to adopt its new policy in September.

State Sen. Charles Fuschillo (R-Merrick), one of the outdoor smoking ban's sponsors, said Sunday he's heard few gripes. He called it an extension of his 2003 Clean Indoor Air Act, which nixed smoking in nearly all public workplaces.

"People expect it," he said. "They know they can't smoke on the train, they know they can't smoke inside the station. This is just another step in the right direction."