Long Island Rail Road Commuter Council requests reports into recent LIRR derailments in wake of Metro-North incident

The Long Island Rail Road Commuter Council is calling for the immediate release of all investigative reports into recent train derailments along the LIRR in the wake of the fatal Metro-North derailment

News 12 Staff

Dec 3, 2013, 4:29 AM

Updated 3,888 days ago

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The Long Island Rail Road Commuter Council is calling for the immediate release of all investigative reports into recent train derailments along the LIRR in the wake of the fatal Metro-North derailment that killed four passengers.

The citizen advisory committee to the MTA is also asking the NTSB to set a specific timetable for the investigation into Sunday's derailment.

There have been two derailments involving LIRR trains this year: a Queens derailment in March and another incident in June in the East River Tunnels.

The National Transportation Safety Board says the Metro-North train was traveling 82 mph as it approached a 30 mph zone Sunday morning. It then derailed along a sharp curve near the Spuyten Duyvil station where the speed limit drops from 70 mph to 30 mph. Four passengers died, and more than 60 were injured.

The Long Island Rail Road layout consists of mostly straight tracks with a few exceptions between Locust Valley and Oyster Bay, as well as Kings Park and Smithtown. Peter Haynes, a member of an independent LIRR watchdog group, says he feels the LIRR system is safe.

Haynes also says he supports the installation of a new federally mandated system known as positive train control, which has the capacity to slow trains as they go around sharp curves.

The federal government is requiring the MTA to install the positive train control system. Installation has to start by 2015.


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