Subway tunnel safety

[daveklepper]

Here's what I learned taking an MTA track safety class about the subway

BY Dan Rivoli

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Saturday, January 16, 2016, 10:20 PM

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James Keivom/New York Daily News

Trainees listen to an instructor as a subway train passes during a Metropolitan Transportation Authority track safety training session in a New York City Subway BMT Fourth Avenue Line tunnel leading to the 59th St. station.

Looking both ways is good advice for stepping onto the street. It’s even better advice when you’re stepping out onto a subway track that carries 400-ton trains.

That was drilled into me repeatedly during an MTA track safety certification class I took at an old public school in Gravesend, Brooklyn, last week before getting to walk the train tunnel between the 53rd St. and 59th St. stations.

Stepping on the tracks without checking in both directions was the most common cause of fatal accidents, according to our instructor, Vatche Varjabedian, an administrative engineer who had no shortage of grisly tales of transit workers, contractors and thrill-seeking amateurs dying in the dim tunnels.

All of the deaths were preventable, he said.

James Keivom/New York Daily News

New York Daily News transit reporter Dan Rivoli gets prepared for an MTA track safety training class.

“It just blows my mind how this could happen,” he said.

In order to get track time, I had to take the safety class with 26 other people — a mix of Metropolitan Transportation Authority workers getting recertified, contractors, a few reporters and an NYPD officer.

After learning the basics and passing a 10-question quiz, I was ready for a taste of what track workers experience daily.

James Keivom/New York Daily News

Hundreds of tons of rolling steel pass feet in front of Daily News transit reporter Dan Rivoli underneath the streets of Brooklyn.

With my MTA-loaned gear — white hardhat, orange reflective vest, lime-green flashlight — I climbed down a small ladder at the edge of the 53rd St. station platform into the grime-caked tunnel.

Our group carefully walked single file down the southbound local R train tracks until we were told to “clear up.”

“Clear up” is the call to get in position that will let a train pass by me safely, like in between columns or on the tunnel’s catwalk.

James Keivom/New York Daily News

Every death underground could have been preventable had the victims been paying attention.

I pressed my shoulder against one column between the local and express track and put my bare palm on the other column in anticipation of the R train — the headlights of which I could see down the tunnel.

The train glided past me, not even arm’s-length from my face, as I watched in awe as if I were a kid in an aquarium gawking at a massive whale swimming through a glass tank.

Standing on the tracks, I could’ve rested my elbows on the lip of the train car doors. I was just able to see the tops of passengers’ heads in the windows.

James Keivom/New York Daily News

Trainees are instructed on how to take shelter from passing trains.

I walked out of the tunnel with a fresh appreciation for the dangers track workers face each day as they repair the aging subway system.

I was also thankful that I have a game plan if I ever experience one of the great fears of city living: falling onto the tracks.

“People are under the misconception that you could go underneath the platform and hide and that’s not true,” Paul Navarro, a Transport Workers Union track division chairman, told me.

While the subway system poses all sorts of danger to track workers, one danger rests on the worker: carelessness that sometimes comes with experience.

“I have over 22 years. I still go down there and I still get nervous,” Navarro said, “You don’t want to get complacent.”

  

[MidlandMike]

Not to mention, don't touch the 3rd rail.

[BaltACD]

Expect movement on any track at any time in any direction!

[tomikawaTT]

1. Stay off tracks and out of tunnels - subway, Class I or anything between.

2.  If non-compliant with 1, keep track of safe places to get out of the way.

3.  Maintain a 360 degree lookout for approaching danger.

4.  Take shelter INSTANTLY if a train is approaching your location.

5.  Always keep track of tripping and electrocution hazards.

I survived a half-century of active railfanning with no injuries more serious than scratches and bug bites.  I do NOT attribute that to luck.

When I was a Noo Yawka i did my transit-fanning from the front ends of trains, nose pressed against the glass.  Walking the tracks wasn't even a temptation.

Chuck

[Firelock76]

Hmmm, no-ones mentioned looking out for the alligators down there.

No wait a minute, that's the sewer.  Never mind.

[54light15]

Sharks down there too, if Sharkando 2 is to believed! Best way to avoid shark bites is to stay on dry land. Unless a Sharknado scenario actually happens. You never know. How to avoid getting hit by a subway? Stay the hell out of the tunnels!

[Firelock76]

Lady Firestorm says the dry land routine doesn't work, you forgot about "Ghost Shark!"

Remember when it came out of the bucket and ate those car-washing girls in bikinis?

[54light15]

Yeah, I do. Ha! Girls in bikinis in movies always get in trouble. Can't stay out of haunted houses, either.