LIRR completes major clean-up of track area In Jamaica, N.Y.

Nearly 200 cubic yards of trash and more than 400 old rail ties have been removed from the track area in and around Jamaica Station, completing one of the largest clean-up projects in the history of MTA Long Island Rail Road. The work was carried out by LIRR track maintenance workers over two weekends in October and November while a state-of-the-art switch and signal control system was being installed at Jamaica, a critical hub for the railroad.

The massive changeover
from manual switching to a computer-controlled operation required the LIRR to
curtail service over the weekends of October 23 and 24 and November 6 and 7.
But the reduction of train traffic through Jamaica also provided a window for
the railroad to do some long overdue housecleaning.

"The Jamaica
Modernization Project gave us a cost-effective opportunity to conduct a
concerted clean up effort," said LIRR President Helena E. Williams.
"We were able to accomplish the removal of 197 cubic yards of trash and
debris and 429 old wooden railroad ties. It was a remarkable effort by our
workforce our customers are already noticing."

Jamaica is the LIRR’s
busiest switching point and the channel through which 10 of its 11 branches
converge.  In fact, with some 600 passenger trains arriving and departing
on eight tracks every weekday, it is also one of the busiest commuter hubs in
the nation.

The years of accumulated
debris also included old running rail, track gauge plates, pipe, spikes, third-rail
brackets and running rail fasteners, much of which will be sold for scrap, a
source of income that helps pay for the clean-up.

About 30 LIRR employees
cleaned the track area using heavy machinery, dumpsters, rakes, picks and elbow
grease, working the first weekend on the east side of Jamaica Station as switch
and signal work proceeded on the west end. As part of the clean-up, crews will
also remove a number of unsightly trailers that had been used by track workers
west of the station. During last weekend, as the modernization project
continued to the east of Jamaica Station, crews began hauling away debris in
the area west of Jamaica.

With 701 miles of track to
maintain from Manhattan to Montauk, cleaning the right-of-way is an ongoing
project for the LIRR, as is regular maintenance of its 124 train stations in
Nassau, Suffolk, Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan.