A meeting of the Long Island Rail Road Commuter’s Council (LIRRCC) was convened
at 12:30 p.m. on February 14, 2008 in the 10th Floor conference room, MTA
headquarters, 347 Madison Avenue, New York City. The following members were
present:
Gary Babyatzky Sandra
Krebelj-Douglas
Gerard P. Bringmann
James L. McGovern
Ira Greenberg
Maureen Michaels
In addition, the following members were absent:
Ronald Breuer (E)
Edward Rich (E)
Patricia McCauley (E)
Jerome I. Shagam (E)
Excused = (E)
In addition, the following persons were present:
Joshua Crandall – The Clever Commute
William Henderson – PCAC Executive Director
Clifford Hymowitz – Concerned Citizen
Steve Ritea – Newsday
Approval of Agenda and Minutes
The agenda for the February 14, 2008 meeting was approved as amended. The minutes of the January 10, 2008 meeting were approved as amended.
Chair’s Report
The Chair’s Report is attached to these minutes.
Jim McGovern asked how the hearing went at Syosset. Mr. Henderson said for the moment, it appears there will be no extension planned for the existing platform. Instead, the immediate measures that are likely to be taken, involving adding edge boards and larger threshold plates, are capable of reducing gaps at the station to less than ten inches in width.
New Business
The members discussed the service problems that occurred on Tuesday night. Mr. Bringmann said his first thought was that it was going to be a similar situation to the one last January. Ms. Krebelj–Douglas noted that the MTA website had not been updated to reflect the problems that had occurred. Mr. Henderson stated that there are only a limited number of major service disruptions on the LIRR and that having technical problems with email alerts in such a high proportion of them is unacceptable.
Ms. Michaels said she managed to miss this incident but noted that there is a pattern of misinformation and lack of information being given to the riders.
Mr. Henderson said he sees this as a two part problem: technical and institutional. Ms. Michaels wondered how the members of the new management team could have become so corrupted to accept the status quo at the Rail Road this early in their tenure.
Mr. Henderson said there has been a concerted effort to boost morale and that management’s approach seemed to be calculated to avoid sparking a retirement epidemic involving the existing employees.
Mr. Bringmann noted that the quality of information about service disruptions that is available through different channels can vary. He said that there may be good information on the platform, but poor information disseminated through the email alerts.
Mr. Henderson said that the Public Information Office that Joe Calderone had discussed in his meeting with the Council last year is an effort to standardize information across different channels but that the Rail Road had not yet achieved this goal.
Ms. Krebulj-Douglas asked what the process is to manage a crowding condition and Mr. Greenberg asked whether the MTA police had been dispatched to deal with the situation.
Mr. Bringmann said that the Council needs to emphasize that the problems with the email alert system that occurred last February have not been addressed by LIRR management.
Clifford Hymowitz said that when problems like this occur it is critical to have means to communicate with hearing impaired and visually impaired riders and to have provisions to help those who don’t understand English.
Mr. Bringmann agreed that these are important issues but said that the LIRR needs to get the basics of communication down as its first priority. Ms. Michaels said that now is the time to approach the County Executives who recommended the members for appointment and that there should be meetings with them on a routine basis.
Mr. Henderson suggested that the council should send a letter to the County Executives and ask for follow up meetings with them to alert them to the Council’s concerns. Mr. McGovern asked how these meetings would differ from the one that the Council had held with Senator Skelos. It was noted that these meetings would be far more focused upon issues where the Council considers the Rail Road to be in great need of improvement.
Mr. Greenberg said that the most critical issue was that in some situations riders seem to be abandoned by the Rail Road. Ms. Michaels said that when the system breaks down and the LIRR does not offer a ready solution, the cost of taxicabs rises dramatically. She said that she had paid $90 for a short trip for three people during a recent outage.
Ms. Michaels asked that clean up of the right of way should be included for discussion at next month’s meeting.
Old Business
The members unanimously approved the changes to the LIRRCC Bylaws regarding meeting absences. A motion to approve this amendment had been made at the Council’s January meeting, in accordance with the procedures set forth in the bylaws. Mr. Bringmann raised the issue of the lateness of the consultant’s report on the diesel fleet. He said that the issue should be addressed in a letter. Mr. McGovern and Mr. Henderson said that they would both ask about the status of the report and try to get it released.
Board Report
Mr. McGovern reported that union contracts were approved to cover 85 percent of the LIRR’s represented employees. An agreement was also reached between Amtrak and its workers, which avoided a strike and disruptions on the LIRR. He noted the LIRR worked hard to put together a service plan in the event a strike occurred.
Mr. Greenberg remarked that the Council should make a continuing effort to raise its issues with the operation of the Rail Road with State elected officials. He said that a part of this strategy should be a statement to the MTA Long Island Committee at the May round of committee and Board meetings.
Introduction of Josh Crandall, Director, The Clever Commute
A copy of Mr. Crandall’s presentation is on file in the PCAC office. Ms. Michaels introduced Mr. Crandall and briefly described her experience with the Clever Commute service. She said that it was very useful in that as soon as something happens with regard to a service disruption on the Rail Road, she knows about it through the service.
Mr. Crandall said that he started Clever Commute two years ago with a handshake deal with New Jersey Transit to cover the Montclair-Boonton line. Since then, the service has expanded rapidly. He explained that Clever Commute is not a gripe forum or a social networking site, but is solely focused upon the providing information about what is happening on the system.
The Clever Commute came out of Mr. Crandall’s experiences as a commuter, he explained. He said that he covers not only New Jersey Transit and the Long Island Rail Road, but he also has an active community of Metro-North riders. He stated that the model has proved to be totally portable and has been expanded to Chicago and Boston.
Ms. Michaels said that the nice thing about the service is that its members report only what they know. Mr. McGovern asked whether the administrators edit community members’ messages. Mr. Crandall said that they do not; the content that goes out to other members is the content that is sent in by community members. He said that it is a self policing system and that not everyone who is a member of the community posts information. While the number of members has tripled in one case, the volume of posts has not increased appreciably.
Mr. McGovern asked how the service is supported. Mr. Crandall said that the model he is following is that the service will always be free to the user, but that he is currently paying the cost of providing the service. In time, he will look for sponsors to underwrite the cost of the service.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 2:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Karyl Berger
Research Associate
Follow-up Items for the February 8, 2007 meeting
President of Public Affairs. Letter Sent
Chair’s Report
I’m sure that by now you know of the problems that the Rail Road encountered in the evening rush hour two days ago. The LIRR may be not be able to eliminate trains becoming disabled or striking vehicles on the tracks, but information, including accurate and timely email alerts, should be provided to the Rail Road’s passengers in all situations. Also, Rail Road customers should never be left at a station before their destination with no Rail Road personnel, no schedule for resuming service, and no assurance that any efforts were being made to arrange alternate service, as happened at the Hicksville station on Tuesday. I would like to discuss the communication and customer service failures of Tuesday evening under new business.
Last night Bill attended a community meeting that the LIRR held in Syosset to discuss options for reducing platform gaps at the station. Options to extend platforms from 450 to 610 feet to straighten the tracks at the station are still on the table, but the more likely course of action to reduce platform gaps is a combination of wider threshold plates and a one-inch reduction of the minimum distance between track centerline and platform edges. Al Cozenza discussed these proposed actions at last month’s LIRRCC meeting, and the Rail Road has found that these two measures can reduce platform gaps to below ten inches at all boarding positions in the Syosset station. Other measures that the Rail Road proposes is a continuation of the platform conductors at the station, a “call ahead” program to request boarding assistance in off hours, and an aggressive public information campaign. The LIRR is also reviewing proposals to maximize use of the south platform for boarding in the morning rush hour.
Bill and I met with President Williams at Penn Station in early January to discuss some of my concerns related to public information and procedures when service is disrupted and access to Penn Station is limited. We found out that the message boards and loudspeakers that are located outside the 34th Street entrance to Penn Station, along with prominent Long Island Rail Road signage, actually are controlled by Amtrak. The LIRR is in the process of working out an arrangement with Amtrak that will allow them to use this equipment for announcements and messages in the case of service disruptions. I sent a letter to President Williams urging the LIRR to reach an agreement with Amtrak as soon as possible so that riders can benefit from these valuable communication tools.
We have also been lobbying the LIRR to work more closely with NYC Transit so that subway passengers do not arrive at Penn Station unaware of service disruptions and add to already crowded and hazardous conditions. Staff has been working to spur greater coordination in communication through contact with MTA Headquarters, the LIRR, and NYC Transit.
After we learned of the LIRR’s plans to provide text-enabled mobile telephones to its onboard personnel, I wrote MTA Executive Director Elliot Sander a letter commending the Rail Road and Helena Williams for this initiative. I stated that the Council does not hesitate to raise areas where the LIRR needs improvement, but we also are pleased to give the Rail Road credit when it is due. I provided a quote for use in the LIRR’s press release announcing this program, noting that communication is a major issue on the Rail Road and stating that giving train crews text-enabled cellphones is a major step forward.
We received responses to several questions that we posed at last month’s meeting from Al Cosenza, LIRR Executive Vice President. He reported that there have been some complaints but also some praise from the customers for the celebrity “watch the gap” announcements that the LIRR is using. He also provided detailed responses to questions about zoned off car announcements and gap definitions being developed by the FRA Rail Safety Advisory Committee on Passenger Safety. A copy of his response is included in your packet.
Please mark your calendars for the quarterly PCAC meeting scheduled for Thursday, March 6. Our guest will be MTA Deputy Executive Director Chris Boylan to discuss the MTA’s new and planned communication initiatives.