Safety- A June 13, 2007 Newsday article by Magdalene Perez quoting a New York State Comptroller’s Report stated, “growing delays and ballooning costs are setting back efforts to improve transit security in the metropolitan area.” “The MTA needs to address this problem before it spirals out of control,” said New York State Comptroller Thomas Di Napoli. “The percentage of construction tasks behind schedule has nearly doubled in the past eight months alone.”

Of sixteen (16) security projects the MTA invested in since the September 11 attacks, only two (2) have been completed, the report stated, six (6) fewer than originally planned. Eight (8) projects were one or more years behind schedule.

The plans, some of which are still in the design phase, call for reinforcing the structure of train stations, transit hubs and bridges and tunnels, as well as improving fire safety, evacuation measures and electronic security and surveillance.

Costs for the projects also have risen, with the first phase of improvements now $224 million more than originally planned. The total cost of completing all the security improvements is estimated at $1.3 billion.

The delays can be blamed on unforeseen issues caused by working with a transit system that is more than 100 years old, the agency said. “We’re dealing with retrofitting a 19^th_century system with a 21^st- century technology to respond to security threats that were never contemplated before,” said MTA spokesperson Jeremy Soffin.

Is there any question that this constitutes a major safety concern for everyone living on Long Island!

A major debate has been raging in Washington over whether cities can order dangerous cargo to be rerouted around their population centers. Many large cities including Washington, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston and Baltimore have introduced rail-rerouting ordinances. These large cities are not comfortable with the current safety standards promulgated by the Federal Government.