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Key safety approval could delay MTA’s long-stalled East Side Access project
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Nov 8, 2022
Modified Nov 8, 2022
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Kevin P. Coughlin / Office of Governor Kathy Hochul
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Nov 8, 2022
Modified Nov 8, 2022
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A last minute hurdle could delay the MTA’s long-stalled $11.6 billion East Side Access project to bring Long Island Rail Road trains into a new station beneath Grand Central Terminal.
Transit officials have insisted since 2014 that the new station — dubbed “Grand Central Madison” by Gov. Kathy Hochul — will open before the end of 2022. But a crucial safety approval from the federal government could push back that timeline to March 2023, piling onto years of delays.
The 2022 completion date is already 11 years later than MTA officials planned in 2001, when construction first began on the project.
In a letter obtained by Gothamist, the MTA last month told the feds a mandatory safety feature that automatically prevents trains from entering the wrong tunnels would not be installed on time, and asked for an exemption to the requirement.
The safety technology will not be in place on the MTA’s trains “before LIRR’s commencement of its East Side Access passenger service and the opening of the Grand Central Madison tunnels,” the MTA’s letter reads.
The request was the subject of a sparsely attended hearing by the Federal Railway Administration on Monday.
The MTA told the feds there are other ways to prevent trains from going off course in the tunnels, like automated signs that light up and audible warnings in train cabs. The agency also notes that because Amtrak and LIRR trains use different types of power, electricity could be automatically cut if trains are on the wrong track.
But the new technology the MTA seeks to delay would automatically apply the brakes if a train is on the wrong tracks.
The safety technology was mandated by the feds after the 2013 train crash at Spuyten Duyvil in which a Metro-North engineer fell asleep as his train sped around a corner and derailed. The LIRR and Metro-North now have in place positive train control, or PTC, which automatically stops trains when they move too fast.
The MTA's East Side Access project under construction in Queens in 2016.
MTA / Patrick Cashin
The FRA is expected to decide later this month whether to grant the waiver allowing the MTA to launch East Side Access without the safety technology. The federal agency is also in the process of reviewing several other aspects of the project before giving it final approval to open to the public.
In its request to the feds, the MTA writes the safety feature will be up and running by March 6, 2023, more than two months after the new terminal is scheduled to open.
A delay would be a major embarrassment to the agency, which has insisted the project is on time and on budget, at least since MTA Chairman Janno Lieber took over the project as head of capital construction in 2017.
“The LIRR has been working closely with the Federal Railroad Administration, the agency responsible for safety oversight,” MTA spokesperson Aaron Donovan wrote in a statement. “With a waiver, we are able to extend passenger service to Grand Central on trains operating with the same FRA-approved PTC software that is currently in service across the rest of LIRR territory.”
On Tuesday, MTA spokesman Tim Minton said the agency expects the feds will approve the exemption.
“We are still on schedule to open Grand Central Madison by the end of the year and are confident of receiving a waiver from the FRA to use the same federally-approved PTC software being used across the rest of the Long Island Rail Road," Minton said.
Jim Mathews, president of the Rail Passengers Association, said he believed the service could move forward without the safety technology since there are already ways to prevent trains from incorrectly entering tunnels.
“This is almost belt and suspenders,” Mathews said. “In a way this feels a little bit unnecessary.”
But during Monday’s hearing, FRA official Gabe Neal said the technology is very much required. He said railroads around the country use it to automatically stop a train before hitting avalanches, flooded tracks or rockslides.
Automation is the most important difference between what the MTA currently has installed and what it needs, Neal said.
“It would be left up to the human element to prevent an oversized train from going into the tunnel it can’t fit into,” said Neal. "But in the end the PTC system will automatically prevent a train that won’t fit from entering the tunnel.”
This story was updated Tuesday to include comment from MTA spokesman Tim Minton.
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Stephen Nessen
Stephen Nessen covers transportation. Since 2008 he has reported on everything from Occupy Wall Street, the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, Hurricane Sandy, to Trump’s campaign for president. His transportation reporting has taken him everywhere from the MTA’s secret Rail Control Center to the gleaming subways of Seoul. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
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