LONG ISLAND RAIL ROAD COMMUTER’S COUNCIL
MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 20, 2014
A meeting of the Long Island Rail Road Commuter’s Council (LIRRCC) was convened at 3:00 p.m. on November 20, 2014 at the LIRR East Side Access Readiness Conference Room at 450 7TH Avenue, 20th Floor – New York, NY
The following members were present:
Sheila Carpenter Ira Greenberg
Owen Costello Matthew L. Kessler
Mark Epstein Maureen Michaels
Bryan Peranzo
The following members were via Phone:
Larry Rubinstein
The following members were absent:
Gerard Bringmann Michael Godino
Raymond Pagano
In addition, the following persons were present:
William Henderson – PCAC Executive Director
Ellyn Shannon – PCAC Associate Director
Rick Oakley – LIRR Assistant Chief Program Officer, Project Management
Chris Hobert, LIRR Senior Project Manager
Spiro Papanikolatos – LIRR General Superintendent, Terminal Operations
Approval of Agenda and Minutes
The agenda for the November 20, 2014 meeting was approved. The minutes for the October 2, 2014 meeting were approved.
Chair’s Report
In the interest of time, the Chair’s Report was not read and will be distributed by email.
Board Report
Ira Greenberg delivered the Board Report. He said that at the MTA Board Safety Committee last month LIRR President Nowakowski made some interesting comments about the need for a right of way clean-up, which echoed issues that the LIRRCC has been raising for a number of years. He also said that the fare increase proposal for 2015 has been released, and that it consists of a 4 percent increase in base fares, resulting in a 3.6 percent increase in the LIRR’s fare yield.
Mr. Greenberg said that the LIRR is looking at setting different on-time performance goals for different branches. He said that he has raised this issue for several years.
Maureen Michaels said that she believes that Suffolk trains should not stop in the City Zone.
Ira Greenberg said that he had asked about the cost of adding cameras to monitor the passenger compartments of LIRR and that Rail Road management told him that they would get him the cost figures to him.
Presentation – Hicksville Station Improvements
Rich Oakley presented a summary of the improvements that will be made at the Hicksville station. Chris Hobert stated that the construction will begin next fall and referred the members to the list of elements contained in the presentation.
A question was asked whether the improvements will include the tunnels under the station, and Mr. Oakley responded that the tunnels will have more lighting, fresh paint, and new security features as a result of the project.
Owen Costello asked whether there is a plan to control pigeons in the improvements. Mr. Oakley responded that the planned work includes measures to control pigeons.
Mr. Oakley said that this project is very similar in character to the renovation work done at the Jamaica station several years ago. Due to the volume of passengers using the station, it is necessary to maintain normal operations as much as possible. Work will be structured so that no platforms are closed during peak hours and the work that will be done will be a surgical operation rather than something more disruptive. He noted that although the LIRR will seek to minimize impacts during construction, the project will provide some significant improvements, including an ADA elevator providing access to each platform at the station.
Ms. Michaels said that signage at the station needs to be renewed. She said that the existing signage directs people to Long Island Bus for connecting service, while the NICE bus operation has been providing bus service for several years. Mr. Oakley said that he would be happy to share information about the signage to be installed at the station.
Ms. Michaels asked if parking will be lost as a result of the project. Mr. Oakley said that the project team will do as much as possible to preserve parking and that they will bring equipment to the site via rail as much as is feasible. Nevertheless, they may still need to use cranes in the construction and that they will require some parking space to locate them and to provide a safe working area around them. Bryan Peranzo suggested that taxicab parking be relocated to provide the space needed for equipment in the parking area, since taxicabs could readily be called to the station from a remote lot.
Mr. Peranzo wanted to know what material will be used for windows in the project. He suggested that glazing material with a sacrificial film designed to guard against scratchiti should be used.
Old Business
Spiro Papanikolatos of the LIRR discussed issues having to do with service suspensions and how they should be handled.
Sheila Carpenter said that in a recent service suspension she heard announcements on the 6:24 am train, but that the train sat for a while. She also heard a local announcement that all service was suspended, but the automated announcement in the station indicated that the 6:39 train was running on time. Eventually, passengers were directed to branches to the north and south of the Main Line.
Mr. Papanikolatos stated that they will look into the inconsistency between the automated and live announcements, but it sounds as if the train was not put into delay status on the TIMACS system, which should have been done.
Ms. Carpenter wanted to know why there were no buses provided during the incident. Mr. Papanikolatos replied that buses were ordered, but they only got five buses some time later, of which three were sent to Hicksville and two were sent to Bethpage. He said that this was a difficult time to get buses, as the bus companies are in the midst of their student transportation work.
Ms. Michaels said that the problem with directing people to another branch is that there is no parking available for those who are redirected. There is a $175 fine for parking illegally in Huntington. On the day of the service suspension there were short and full trains and delays due to overloading. She said that riders were unable to board three consecutive trains and that passengers could not board at Cold Spring Harbor until the 8:09 train, as well as having to deal with stops added to a short train that had been an express, resulting in overcrowding.
Ms. Michaels said that she would like the LIRR to consider not sending people to the other lines as it just spreads the problems to lines that weren’t having problems. The LIRR representatives acknowledged the issues that Ms. Michaels raised, but said that they face demands from passengers to offer alternate plans for riders during service suspensions.
Mr. Epstein said that the LIRRCC has recommended creating protocols in cooperation with the Towns to allow parking in emergency situations. This suggestion has never been acted upon.
Mr. Papanikolatos said that some progress on service suspensions has been made, as clearing fatalities on the tracks used to take 3 hours but this time has been reduced to an hour and a half. Mr. Greenberg asked whether the LIRR could say that service will restored in an hour and a half at the time a fatality occurs.
Mr. Papanikolatos said that it depends on whether you need to rescue passengers from the train involved if it’s not at the station. He also noted that if you don’t tell passengers to go to other stations there will be major crowding problems at the stations on the affected branch.
Mr. Epstein said that the council has been asking for the information about service status to be communicated to the people operating buses. Larry Rubenstein said that at the Bellmore station the Town of Hempstead was ticketing persons improperly parked endlessly during this diversion. Ms. Michaels said that there was enough disruption on all the lines that it should cause us to all think more about this issue, so that a problem on one line doesn’t migrate to the entire system.
Mr. Epstein said that reaching out to HART and other local bus companies to establish agreements with them about their actions during LIRR service disruptions would be beneficial.
Yannis Takos presented the results of the LIRR’s Customer Satisfaction Survey. Ms. Michaels said that the methodology of the survey was sound but that there are some issues. She said that the percentage of very satisfied riders is going down in a few areas and that it appears that the LIRR is not using the data from the survey to set goals.
Ms. Michaels noted that the attribute ratings all look basically the same and that it does not seem that the data tell the full story. She also noted that there is a minute number of people who are very satisfied and that this indicates that the LIRR is not trying to make customers very satisfied or what they are doing is not working. As a result, the Rail Road is losing younger riders and the ridership is getting poorer as those with choices move to other forms of transportation.
Mr. Takos said that for the most part the customer satisfaction picture of prior years was maintained.
Mr. Epstein asked how it is decided who is surveyed and noted that he has never been asked to complete a survey. Mr. Takos responded that the LIRR uses a reputable vendor and that the response rate of 68 percent was very good, with which Ms. Michaels agreed. Once the LIRR survey research staff gets the results they go and meet with management in all departments and do an analysis of the data, which allows them to identify the stations where satisfaction is very low.
Ms. Michaels asked whether “satisfied” is the LIRR’s goal. Mr. Takos replied that it is. Ms. Michaels said that the LIRR should aim for “very satisfied” and noted that private companies all seek to move their customers into the top box on satisfaction surveys. She asked what the Rail Road is doing to improve satisfaction with alerts.
Mr. Peranzo noted that only 1 out of 75 items improved from the last survey and asked what the plan is to improve satisfaction. Mr. Takos said that the vendor does a station by station analysis that it provides to the LIRR. LIRR senior management sits down and determines what the results mean and asks how the Rail Road can move the very satisfied needle. On-time performance has gone down over last three years and these numbers are consistently a key driver of satisfaction.
Mr. Epstein asked what survey research staff do after they speak with LIRR departments. Mr. Takos said that one thing they do is to try to move riders to use Train Time and that the Train Time logo is used over and over in an effort to promote the system. Ms. Michaels suggested that the LIRR should look at Clever Commute.
Mr. Takos said that station managers put improvement measures include in their personal goals. Mr. Takos said that station managers open stations for longer hours but there is a tension in being able to maintain conditions with the extra open hours, with the effects of heavier use and homelessness, so in view of these challenges staying steady is not a bad performance. Ms. Michaels commented that if there was a drop in the ratings at least we would know that it responds to changing conditions. Ms. Carpenter noted that the LIRR has some very messy commuters and that unkempt stations are not always the fault of homeless persons.
Ms. Michaels said that internal development of plans is the area where the Customer Satisfaction Survey needs to improve.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 6:00 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
William Henderson
Executive Director