Randi Kreiss

That's the way the LIRR rolls

Posted

The catchwords late last week were “positive train control,” the technology that could prevent tragedies like last week’s Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia, which killed eight passengers. Among the dead was Naval Academy Midshipman Justin Zemser of Rockaway. The 20-year-old was eulogized Friday by family and fellow officers at services held at Boulevard Riverside Hewlett Chapels in Hewlett.

If PTC had been in place, the automatic slow-down procedures might have stopped the train before it went around a 50-mph bend at over 100 mph.

Then there was the Metro North (sister line of the Long Island Rail Road) crash two years ago, in which four people were killed and more than 60 injured. A sleep-deprived engineer going 82 mph on a 30-mph curve reportedly caused that accident. Where was the positive train control technology when we needed it?

The answer is that the technology has been around for years, but implementation has been as slow as the Silver Snail on a snowy day.

The federal Railroad Safety Improvement Act of 2008 mandated that positive train control be implemented on most of the nation’s railroads by 2015. There are many commuters who would be alive today if the technology had been installed on time. Now, following the Philadelphia derailment, Amtrak and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the LIRR, say the control system will be up and running by the end of 2015 or 2016 or 2017, depending on who’s standing at the microphone.

Everyone knows it’s the right thing to do, but nobody can find the money. Bills come and go. Loans are procured and then pulled back. Politicians, who know their constituents are also commuters, promise a lot but don’t deliver much.

Where’s the money? Lots of it went to retired LIRR workers who filed fraudulent disability claims. In 2008 The New York Times uncovered a widespread scheme facilitated by a fraudulent arrangement among railroad employees, doctors and LIRR pension officials. The Government Accountability Office recently released a report stating that now, seven years after the expose, there is little in place to prevent it from happening again.

The facts on the ground do not inspire confidence in the MTA.

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