Commuters Say LIRR Incident Shouldn’t Affect Alcohol Policy
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Connecticut commuters are sending a message to the MTA: Don’t ban alcohol, fix the LIRR gaps.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced yesterday it would create a task force to consider a liquor ban on its commuter railroads after a board member representing Suffolk County at a board meeting termed drinking on trains a safety issue.
Connecticut transit officials said commuters should not sacrifice their right to drink and ride because of an incident last summer when an inebriated woman fell to her death in a gap between the platform and the train at a Long Island Rail Road station.
Drinking has long been part of commuting culture on both Metro-North and LIRR trains. Those on Metro-North’s New Haven line are equipped with bar cars, and the Long Island Rail Road sells alcohol at many station platforms and on Hamptons-bound reserve cars during the summer.
“Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North is a much more leisurely way of travel,” the chairman of the MTA, Peter Kalikow, said yesterday, comparing the commuter trains to subways. “And the consumption of alcohol was part of the trip. Things have changed.”
Mr. Kalikow said he thinks the sale and consumption of alcohol should be limited on trains.
Banning Long Island Rail Road alcohol sales would mean a loss of $350,000 annually for the MTA.
“I can only hope that if we move first, people in Connecticut will understand why it’s inappropriate to have bar cars,” the board member representing Suffolk County, Mitchell Pally, said.
Connecticut transit officials said that they did not share Mr. Pally’s view. “I certainly support the right of commuters to make their commute a little more tolerable,” the vice chairman of the Connecticut Riders Council, Jim Cameron, said. The Riders Council has fielded no complaints about improper behavior on trains due to alcohol consumption, according to Mr. Cameron.
Referring to Natalie Smead, the woman who fell through the LIRR gap and died after she had been drinking, Mr. Cameron said: “Whether she was inebriated or straight isn’t the issue. The issue is the gap.”
Mr. Pally said his main concern was not the gap issue, but tipsy passengers who get behind car wheels after drinking on trains.
“Our customers like the bar cars,” the rail administrator for the Connecticut Department of Transportation, Eugene Colonese, said. “They enjoy the social aspects of the car. It’s our position that we want to keep the bar cars.” The Connecticut DOT pays for improvements and operating subsidies for Metro-North’s New Haven line.
The task force, made up of board members and railroad employees, will report back to the board in March.