2011-10-13

              Home improvement
information inside
pages 6 and 7
^ FREEPORT MEMORIAL L1SRAH7
144 W BERRICK RD
FREEPORT HI 115%Q g$
76th Year, No. 41 Freeport, N.Y. 11520 The Community Newspaper Thursday, October 13, 2011 75t
Red Devil gridders 5-0!
FREEPORT 41, FARMINGDALE
21: From left, Maurice Irby
scored twice and recovered an
onside kick; Freeport defense
readies for the snap; Evan
Lapice catches his breath after
scoring in the first quarter. See
Sporting Devils on page 3.
LIRR commuter bill of rights
U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer has
called on the Long Island Rail Road to
establish a commuters' bill of rights, sim-ilar
to a passengers' bill of rights estab-lished
for the airline industry.
The bill of rights would provide base-line
protections for passengers of Long
Island's commuter rail system and better
inform them of service disruptions and
delays as well as alternative transporta-tion
options
The LIRR system is one of the busiest
commuter railroads in North America,
serving approximately 265,000 passen-gers
each weekday. A monthly ticket
between Freeport and New York's
Pennsylvania Station is $254 for a com-muter
who is traveling during rush hour.
Over the course of the last year, sig-nificant
service disruptions have
plagued the LIRR, leaving passengers
stranded at Penn Station or stuck on
platforms on the Island. In April, a mas-sive
service disruption due to poorly
scheduled Amtrak maintenance work in
tunnels lasted more than three hours
during the evening rush and stranded
tens of thousands of passengers heading
home for the Passover holiday.
Last week, LIRR trains were delayed
for hours after lightning caused signal
problems at the Jamaica station. These
delays and system failures are part of a
series of at least 12 major delays or shut-downs
since August 2010, said Senator
Schumer, and caused by a combination
of factors including weather, mainte-nance
schedules and human error.
"The LIRR shares Senator Schumer's
concern about the impact of recent
weather-related service disruptions on the
customers we work hard to serve every
day," said Salvatore Arena, a spokesper-son
for the LIRR. "Our first priority in
these situations must always be the safe-ty
of our customers, and we work closely
with our public safety partners to keep
customers on the train, where they're
safest."
At a recent meeting of the 19th
Legislative District Commuters' Council
held at Merrick Library, residents also
voiced concerns about LIRR service. Bob
Brennan, director of community affairs
for the LIRR, explained that although
75% of the ridership at Penn Station was
on the LIRR, "we [LIRR] don't own
Penn Station. There are 21 tracks and we
have use of seven tracks."
Senator Schumer said the commuters'
bill of rights should require a more robust
notification system be implemented to
alert passengers to service disruptions
while on trains and on waiting platforms
as well as online and through text mes-sages.
If those delays have the potential
to be significant, the LIRR should com-mit
to providing commuters with infor-mation
on alternative transit options.
Secondly, a commuter bill of rights
should establish a clear time threshold for
how long passengers should be expected
to sit on idling or stranded trains before
the railroad finds a safe way to let passen-gers
off.
And third, a bill of rights should ensure
that in situations where it is impossible
to let passengers off because of danger-ous
conditions, such as a train stranded
in a tunnel or on an overpass, train
operators should provide basic provi-sions,
like water, for customers who are
stuck on trains for extended periods of
time.
New York State Senator Charles
Fuschillo Jr., chairman of the Senate
Transportation Committee said "I spoke
with Helena Williams [president of the
LIRR] this morning. I believe there needs
to be an improvement in communica-tions,"
he said. "They need to work on
that." Senator Fuschillo also said he
would support the idea of basic provi-sions
for passengers if the train is exten-sively
delayed.
- Laura Schofer
NAMES MAKE THE NEWS: Read about your neighbors! 148 local people's names were in your community newspaper this past week Maybe yours is in this week! See inside.
Hispanic heritage
awards
page 2
Sporting
Devils
page 3
Mobile town hall
in Baldwin
page 5
Freeport's
Moustakas honored
page 9