News

NEW YORK, NY May 12, 2006 —The Fire Department and the MTA have agreed to provide extra access for firefighters in a deep new train tunnel that will bring the Long Island Rail Road from Queens to Grand Central Terminal. WNYC's Beth Fertig has more.

The compromise comes after WNYC learned that the fire department was unhappy with the MTA's original evacuation plan for East Side Access - the Long Island Railroad's midtown alternative to Penn Station, due to open in 2012. The FDNY had complained about a section of tunnel several stories beneath Second Avenue. The nearest exits would be more than half a mile apart.

Industry standards call for passages between train tunnels whenever the exits are so far from each other. And the Fire Department wanted these passages to be closer to each other than the standard 800 feet. The MTA refused to budge, however, and WNYC obtained a stern letter from a fire official to the MTA that was written in 2003.

Yesterday, after repeated inquiries by WNYC, an MTA spokesman said the two sides met and agreed to add extra passageways for the firefighters.