By Jacqueline Hlavenka
SYOSSET, N.Y. – As the Metropolitan Transportation Authority continues to bridge the “gap” issues between its Long Island Railroad trains and platforms, a local Nassau County station is taking measures to closely monitor rider safety.
New surveillance cameras have been installed at the Syosset train station, approximately 20 minutes away from campus.
Purchased by a state grant, the $1.3 million plan was approved by State Sen. Carl L. Marcellino (R-Syosset), who marked the official announcement of the closed-circuit camera installation alongside the acting president of the MTA, Raymond Kenny, on March 2 at the Syosset station.
The system, equipped with 24 separate cameras, is designed to help LIRR conductors navigate around Syosset’s distinctively curved tracks and monitor gap safety, or, according to the MTA, the “necessary” space between the train and the platform required to operate safely at authorized speeds.
Flat-panel LCD-screens hang above the platform showing each individual camera angle, allowing commuters, along with officials, to observe their safety.
Prior to the Civil War, the train tracks at the Syosset station were constructed on a curve, creating a greater divide in today’s operating environment between the train and platform.
“In some curved areas, including Syosset, the tracks are banked, with one rail slightly higher than the other. This ‘super elevation’ is necessary to maintain stability when achieving desired operating speeds,” Kenny said in his presidential address, issued on Feb. 8.
Due to the “super elevation,” discussed in Kenny’s address, an additional inch of gap space is needed to prevent future “gap strikes,” the term for when the train collides with the platform. Operating over electrified tracks, the curve and super elevation are the cause of the 10-inch gap at the Syosset station.
Before the arrival of the closed-circuit camera system, the MTA introduced the “Watch the Gap” slogan with signs and banners, and placed yellow safety lines at the edge of the platform, in an effort to prevent accidents.
Commuters who spend late-night hours on the platform also believe the surveillance cameras will reduce crime and increase personal security while waiting for trains.
“Cameras are a good idea. I know people in the past have gotten caught on the door or fallen. The cameras can monitor that and it’s great for safety when standing on the platform too,” Ebenezer Inauat, a local commuter who frequents the Syosset station daily, said.
After 18-year-old Natalie Smead fell in the gap at the LIRR Woodside station in August 2006, the MTA has been rigorously trying to spread awareness about safety at stations across the island.
According to Elliot Sander, executive director and chief executive officer of the MTA, $3.2 million has been spent this year to reduce the largest gaps between station platforms and train cars and $10 million more to reduce gaps at other stations, from the Syosset-Jericho Tribune. The Syosset station is a special case due to its curvature, but commuters, not cameras, are in-charge of being aware of the gaps.
“Cameras are not going to stop people from falling in the gap,” said Marcellino in the Tribune. The cameras act as an extra layer of protection due to the Syosset environment, and more track maintenance will continue through March and April.
Commuters at the Syosset station board a Long Island Railroad train bound for Penn Station with a platform gap that measures over 8 inches.