LIRR Installs Safety Device on Long Beach Branch

Four more branches of the Long Island Railroad have received federally mandated safety devices, the agency said. The Positive Train Control (PTC) system is designed to help prevent human error that can lead to train crashes, derailments and other accidents.

MTA Long Island Rail Road President Phillip Eng announced yesterday that select trains on the Far Rockaway, Long Beach, Oyster Bay and West Hempstead branches are now using the PTC system.

The PTC is a system that prevents trains from going above their speed limits, and also stops them from passing stop signals. The MTA says this helps prevents accidents like derailments from a train moving too fast, train collisions and trains traveling into work zones where crews are operating.

They are not the first branches of the LIRR to receive the system, the agency said. The Port Washington Branch was first commissioned to have the system installed on Dec. 17, 2018. Part of the Montauk Branch between Babylon and Patchogue received the technology in April, and the Hempstead Branch got it in August.

With the latest additions, the LIRR said that 65 miles of route are using the PTC, or 21.5 percent of its system.

“The successful and on-time launch of Positive Train Control on these branches continues our forward progress on this critical initiative,” Eng said. “Meeting this milestone reinforces my confidence that we will complete systemwide roll-out of Positive Train Control on time by the end of the 2020.”

The MTA said that, with the schedule it's using, it believes it will have the PTC system install on all LIRR tracks by the end of 2020, which is the federal deadline.