LIRR chief Helena Williams takes morning train - and waits just like everyone else

[Harry]

The LIRR's head honcho is slogging through train delays like any other commuter on the rail line.

 

The Daily News found the agency president, Helena Williams, waiting Thursday for a 7:23 a.m. Penn Station-bound train at a platform near her Garden City, N.Y., home.

 

Two earlier trains on her line had been canceled - like many of the branches affected by the Jamaica signal fire on Monday.

 

The Long Island Rail Road exec admitted the fire - which has limited train service to 75% capacity in the morning and 66% capacity in the evening - has been tough on commuters.

 

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/08/27/2010-08-27_lirr_big_takes_morning_train___waits.html#ixzz0xoMvx15r

[AJ023]

The LIRR's head honcho is slogging through train delays like any other commuter on the rail line.

 

The Daily News found the agency president, Helena Williams, waiting Thursday for a 7:23 a.m. Penn Station-bound train at a platform near her Garden City, N.Y., home.

 

Two earlier trains on her line had been canceled - like many of the branches affected by the Jamaica signal fire on Monday.

 

The Long Island Rail Road exec admitted the fire - which has limited train service to 75% capacity in the morning and 66% capacity in the evening - has been tough on commuters.

 

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/08/27/2010-08-27_lirr_big_takes_morning_train___waits.html#ixzz0xoMvx15r

 

Daily news may have found her, but the questions to ask would be:

 

Why was the Switch not implemented and replaced earlier when it was mission critical especially considering the total dollars poured into the LIRR plus people were forced to pay taxes on the LIRR whether or not they lived inside the district and used the system for the MTA Commutation tax?

 

Loads of people were affected for an event which would have never had happened had the switch been appropriately replaced in 2007. Jamaica Station was totally rebuilt and the workers did a good job yet somehow they built the main strain station but never did the critical infrastructure work to go along with it which would have been the Hall switch.

 

Inside the terminal you have all new modern infrastructure in Jamaica, but yet even I knew that the Hall switch was not even finished and was an old switching system much like the Valley interlocking which only finally got replaced.

 

The cause of the overruns and delays of this project are known and what I don't understand is how an electrical fire could have set this all off in one sequence of events.

 

Ariel and Reconnisance Satellite imagery taken from a geospacial provider and/or chopper would be able to pinpoint the actual condition of these cables during the timeframe of this accident assuming there was imagery of this cable during that time. From what I see, the cause of the surge just does not make any sense.

 

I know I did not build the LIRR system and it was around before I was even born from scratch with its thousands of humans who built the actual system and maintain and improve the network over time. But this sequence of events leading to the state the system is in right now just seems incomprehensible.

[Shortline Bus]

Daily news may have found her, but the questions to ask would be:

 

Why was the Switch not implemented and replaced earlier when it was mission critical especially considering the total dollars poured into the LIRR plus people were forced to pay taxes on the LIRR whether or not they lived inside the district and used the system for the MTA Commutation tax?

 

Loads of people were affected for an event which would have never had happened had the switch been appropriately replaced in 2007. Jamaica Station was totally rebuilt and the workers did a good job yet somehow they built the main strain station but never did the critical infrastructure work to go along with it which would have been the Hall switch.

 

Inside the terminal you have all new modern infrastructure in Jamaica, but yet even I knew that the Hall switch was not even finished and was an old switching system much like the Valley interlocking which only finally got replaced.

 

The cause of the overruns and delays of this project are known and what I don't understand is how an electrical fire could have set this all off in one sequence of events.

 

Ariel and Reconnisance Satellite imagery taken from a geospacial provider and/or chopper would be able to pinpoint the actual condition of these cables during the timeframe of this accident assuming there was imagery of this cable during that time. From what I see, the cause of the surge just does not make any sense.

 

I know I did not build the LIRR system and it was around before I was even born from scratch with its thousands of humans who built the actual system and maintain and improve the network over time. But this sequence of events leading to the state the system is in right now just seems incomprehensible.

 

Thankfully I use Metro North which is way better managed and most important operated than LIRR.

 

While this is an ongoing nightmare, the only saving grace for LIRR is this incident occured with one of the lightest ( I know how busy LIRR is 365 days a year lol)ridership weeks of the year with the kids still on summer vaction and a few riders off as well.

 

Imgaine if this happened during the Christmas/New Years Holidays.:eek:

[Joe]

It's really funny when those who know nothing about interlockings, comment about interlockings.

[AJ023]

What don't I understand about interlockings?

 

Ive seen them, understand how they work, and understand fully what can cause an electrical fire on them.

 

I don't get the premise of the nature of your comment.

 

Accident investigators have experience in this field about what causes electrical fires and surges and the like especially in critical infrastructure and transportation related systems.

 

The story of the outage of the LIRR seems to have too many missing components and also facets which mean taxpayers have been overspending while the critical infrastructure work has been neglected.

 

The point you made about me not understanding how interlockings work and how they are implemented is inappropriate.

 

I am not saying this event was criminal in any way but if in fact there was criminal neglect and evidence of someone shutting down the system for nefarious purposes or ever was, I would definitely be in favor of criminal prosecutions of such related parties when such events happen.

 

Imaging of the accident scene when the fire happened is still missing in action along with imaging of the condition before the alleged accident occured.

 

If a rock drops and someone is not there, there are mechanisms in place to show the actual true history of events especially in transportation environments like the LIRR which have been highly secured including data from DHS, NRO and other related agencies.

 

The true facts of this story just don't add up right now for anyone to conclude it was weather related or truly accidental in nature as of ths time. It doesn't mean it is or isn't, it means there are still evidentiary paths of discovery to realize what really did happen.

 

To boot the system is still not working fully even after 5 total days of outages. The commuting public is outraged right now and should be because the answers are still not truly forthcoming.

[Joe]

This is great, you keep saying how much you know, yet you felt inclined to respond to a comment that didn't mention you at all. You've got some insecurity issues (not to mention you still don't "get" signals). :-)

 

Your whole post reeks of conspiracy bullshit. DHS is irrelevant to this incident. The NRO is -even more- irrelevant to this incident...they would never get involved with anything involving the Long Island Rail Road.

[St Louis Car 09]

Shes just doing thats for good PR.you know she drives to work everyday.

[AJ023]

This is great, you keep saying how much you know, yet you felt inclined to respond to a comment that didn't mention you at all. You've got some insecurity issues (not to mention you still don't "get" signals). :-)

 

Your whole post reeks of conspiracy bullshit. DHS is irrelevant to this incident. The NRO is -even more- irrelevant to this incident...they would never get involved with anything involving the Long Island Rail Road.

 

I never spewed any conspiracy. And in fact Reps. Steve Israel (D-Huntington), Gary Ackerman (D-Roslyn Heights), Peter King (R-Seaford), Carolyn McCarthy (D-Mineola) and Timothy Bishop (D-Southampton) all have been proactive in the congress with the LIRR just to name a few.

 

You said and I quote "It's really funny when those who know nothing about interlockings, comment about interlockings.

__________________"

 

The only person here who commented about interlockings was me.

 

You specifically were indeed referring to me then try to play you weren't commenting to me?

 

Anyone who reads the thread can see exactly what happened. I just pointed out some facts and ways of checking the system to see what actually did happen because the facts aren't lining up. Also people charged the MTA commution tax are proactively suing the MTA for the tax. Seems like the tax is being charged and the funds never were appropriately used.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Reconnaissance_Office

 

Of course the NRO has been involved with transportation in the USA in a intelligence gathering sense. They have been for a long time. It isn't just the LIRR, there are loads of different transportation systems in the USA and around the world not to mention each and every way a human can transport themselves. Do they actually work with transportation agencies per say officially? No, since the NRO is more of a secretive intelligence gathering agency but they could have imaging data sets that could be requested.

 

My comment about the NRO was just really essentially suggesting the satellite imagery data that they may have.

 

There could be satellite imagery from loads of sources including the private sector as well with the loads of imaging providers or other government agencies.

[metsfan]

Nothing happened to a switch, it was a control center for the signals that burned. Temp fixes are in place, and only when they build a proper replacement will trains be back to their usual derailing, bumping into each other & lateness that is the hallmark of run LIRR.

 

- A

[Shortline Bus]

Nothing happened to a switch, it was a control center for the signals that burned. Temp fixes are in place, and only when they build a proper replacement will trains be back to their usual derailing, bumping into each other & lateness that is the hallmark of run LIRR.

 

- A

 

Makes me more happy I am a regular (MTA)Metro North user :cool:.