FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JUNE 13, 2019 • THE QUEENS COURIER 11
As 7 line crumbles, MTA boss says no easy fi xes coming
BY MARK HALLUM
mhallum@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Th e frequency of falling debris from the
7 train tracks in western Queens continues
to test New York City Transit President
Andy Byford as the MTA struggles between
placing protective netting and being able to
actually see the underbelly of the elevated
tracks for inspection.
Th at was just part of the discussion at
LaGuardia Community College in Long
Island City on Monday night as transit
offi cials answered questions from the
public on a catalog of concerns.
One public query centered around station
renovations similar to those completed
on the N/W line that could be undertaken
at 7 train stations to prevent debris
from tumbling from the high-line tracks.
Byford said there are up to 60 miles of
elevated tracks in the entire system and
renovating all run-down stations along
the 7 is not feasible at this time, although
the agency is aware of the most problematic
locations for decline.
Since elevated tracks are so extensive,
Byford claimed that netting could be infeasible
despite earlier claims that the MTA
would move to deploy the safety feature.
“What we need to do ultimately is renovate
the whole subway. Th ere’s no question,
there’s no sugar-coating that and a lot of our
structures are over 100 years old,” Byford
said. “Some people say we should put netting
up. Well good, but we don’t want to rush
into doing the wrong thing. For starters, it’s
going to take time to fi t all that … under 60
miles, it’s going to be expensive, so we want
to do it right. We also don’t want to put a put
up a system that poses a new safety risk. Any
system must give the inspection crews the
ability to see what’s going below the structure,
it must also be robust enough.”
On June 3, aft er a piece of metal fell
from the line near 53rd Street, about 10 to
15 feet from a pedestrian, New York City
Transit said they would deploy netting in
some places to evaluate the eff ectiveness
of deploying the method for widely for
public safety.
Th is was not an isolated incident.
In February and March there were
Photo: Mark Hallum/QNS
instances where a wooden beam fell
through the windshield of an occupied
vehicle and another car that got struck by
a chunk of metal. Nobody was injured in
either incident, but it happened again to
another car in Long Island City, followed
by large bolt landing on a woman’s car
under the A train in Richmond Hill.
Read more on QNS.com.
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