Metro

Fed safety plan nixes MTA’s commute fixes

The feds are ruining your commute.

A federally mandated safety program that will cost at least $750 million has forced the MTA to put off upgrades that would benefit millions of riders on the LIRR and Metro-North, The Post has learned.

The improvements would have eased crowded train cars, reduced delays and increased parking spots, sources said.

But instead, the MTA is being forced to spend money on a system called Positive Train Control, which must be installed by 2015.

It’s even more outrageous because the agency has already spent $1 billion on safety upgrades that make Metro-North and LIRR the safest commuter railroads in the nation.

Still, to meet the deadline, the MTA has had to defer a host of rider-friendly projects.

That includes signal upgrade work on Metro-North’s upper Harlem and Hudson lines, which would allow officials to run more trains in a shorter period of time and reduce delays.

It will also defer the addition of electrical substations on the upper Harlem line, which will give officials the juice needed to run longer trains that would ease rider overcrowding.

The Long Island Rail Road, meanwhile, has shelved plans to expand and add parking at busy stations.

The already-packed garages are expected to swell when the railroad begins service to Grand Central in 2019.

The MTA’s preliminary estimates for PTC, which allows a computer to reduce a train’s speed in a number of situations, will cost $750 million for both railroads combined.

But a recent MTA analysis found the true cost could soar to $1 billion, in part because the technology will have to be specially adapted to suit the nation’s two largest and busiest commuter rail systems.

Adding to the cost, much of the software and hardware needed to install PTC in New York — which includes retrofitting 1,200 miles of track and 1,000 rail cars — hasn’t even been developed yet.

“All the railroads in the Northeast simultaneously are having to do the same thing in a very small industry, so there’s clearly going to be a lack of competition” when it comes to pricing, Metro-North President Howard Permut told MTA board members at a meeting last week.

Congress in 2008 passed the law requiring that all commuter railroads install PTC, following a train crash in California that killed 25 passengers.

It was later found that the primary cause of the crash was a distracted train operator, who blew through a red signal while texting and driving.

The MTA tried and failed to get a PTC exemption in 2010, with then-Deputy Executive Director Chris Boylan saying the new system would only have a “marginal benefit” to the existing one.

MTA officials are now hoping for a three-year extension.

Going nowhere

A federal safety program the MTA calls unnecessary is delaying projects that would benefit riders, including:

* Signal upgrades on Metro-North’s Harlem and Hudson lines

Would allowmore trains to run in a shorter period of time

* Electrical substations on Metro-North’s Harlem line

Would ease rider overcrowding by allowing longer trains to run

* Expanded parking spots at LIRR stations

Would ease congestion in overfilled lots