Officials Call For Permanent Derailment Of One-Person L Train

From left are:TWU Secretary Treasurer Watt; Markowitz; TWU Recording Secretary Lawson; and Council Member John Liu. Kathryn Kirk Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz this week highlighted public safety concerns and called on the MTA to permanently abandon proposals to remove conductors from subway lines, including the borough’s L and G lines.

He was joined on Monday by Queens City Council Member John Liu, who chairs the council’s transportation committee; State Senator Martin Dilan, a member of the senate’s transportation committee; TWU Local 100 Secretary Treasurer Ed Watt and Recording Secretary Darlyne Lawson; and Assembly Member Joan Millman, who sponsored a bill that would bar removing conductors from trains.

From last June until September, the L line, which operates along an 11-mile route between Rockaway Parkway in Brooklyn and Eighth Avenue and West 14th Street in Manhattan, had been running its off-peak hour trains without conductors. They were returned to duty in compliance with an arbitrator’s ruling last summer.

“I realize that the issue of removing conductors from trains or retaining them is under discussion as part of the current negotiations,” Markowitz said. “However, I do not believe that passengers’ safety should be determined through the give and take of collective bargaining, nor should it be subject to a two, three, or four year contract. Last spring’s transit drill testing the evacuation of subway cars without conductors was a complete disaster. Doors were left open, letting smoke into the cars. Disabled passengers were left behind. Especially in this post 9/11 environment, it makes absolutely no sense to eliminate human beings in the transit system.

“I certainly support technology that will help transit workers run more trains or run them more efficiently, but not at the expense of the system’s eyes, ears, and, in the case of an emergency, it’s helping hands and first responders,” he added.

The borough president added, “When the Franklin Avenue shuttle, which runs without conductors, derailed a few months ago, the passengers were lucky. One passenger just happened to be an off-duty MTA supervisor, who was able to help evacuate the train.

The MTA was also lucky. The train derailed before rush hour. It was only two cars long and carried only about 60 passengers, and it went off the tracks out in the open, not in a dark subway tunnel with no obvious route of escape.

“Despite all this, it took 45 minutes to get 60 passengers safely off the train. Now, imagine for a moment, that there was a fire on the tracks, a violent crime being carried out or, God forbid, any kind of terrorist attack underway.”