MTA to encourage worker safety across its transit agencies

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority wants its workers to drop what they’re doing and think of ways to do their jobs more safely.

The MTA Tuesday announced plans for a “safety stand-down” across its transit agencies that would require workers to temporarily halt operations and use the time to consider safety practices.

An MTA source said workers will “take a fresh look at what they do, discuss how they do it, look for ways to improve safety, and reinforce that their job isn’t just to follow the rules, but to operate with safety as their top priority at all times.”

“This is to reinforce culture, not just the rule book,” the source said.

It was not clear when the MTA’s various agencies, including Metro-North Railroad and the Long Island Rail Road, would be called to stand down, but MTA officials said service would not be impacted. Governor Andrew M. Cuomo told reporters Tuesday that he understood the stand-down would begin yesterday in the afternoon.

MTA officials said the stand-down would begin later this week. “We support any initiative to operate trains at a safe speed on the LIRR,” said Michael Quinn, general chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen Local 269, the union representing LIRR engineers, said. “We will gladly participate in this initiative.”

The effort follows Sunday’s derailment of a Metro-North train in the Bronx, killing four passengers and injuring dozens more. Federal investigators say the train was traveling at 82 mph where the limit was 30 mph.

The MTA has said it does not think it will meet a federal deadline to have the positive train control system in place by December 2015. But Sen. Charles Fuschillo of Long Island who chairs the state Senate Transportation Committee said he wants it up and running sooner.

In a statement, the MTA said the size and complexity of its system make the 2015 deadline difficult to meet, but it will “install PTC as quickly as possible.”