Preventing Track Fires
Ozzie Cruz: I'm Ozzie Cruz, and you're listening to TransitTrax, New York City Transit's podcast service. With 660 miles of underground, elevated, and open-air track, and 468 subway stations, litter can go a very long way. Keeping the subway's tracks litter-free is a big job, one New York City Transit tackles on a daily basis.
Al Wojcik, Department of Subways: We have approximately 230 hourly supervisors working on trash pick-up and removal.
Ozzie Cruz: Al Wojcik is Chief Officer of the Department of Subways' Track and Infrastructure Division, responsible for maintaining the tracks, roadbed and other subway subsystems. Last spring, the Division noticed the considerable uptake in the amount of garbage and other debris in the system.
Al Wojcik: We're now generating about 300 large plastic bags and … paper that's swept up from the tracks. That's probably an increase of about 50 to 75 bags a night over what we had in years past. Over the last couple of year, of course, the plastic bottles just, a tremendous amount of plastic bottles, with all the people we see walking around drinking water all the time, but last year especially, we saw a big increase in the amount of paper—newspapers in the track; that makes up a big part of the garbage to be picked up.
Ozzie Cruz: To counter this increase, the division quickly developed a plan to combat the problem, a plan that was implemented over the course of the summer and fall of last year.
Al Wojcik: We've increased the cleaning frequency in the stations; we've been seeing a little situation, it's getting better between stations and in the wide areas. Almost two-thirds of the stations are done on a weekly cycle, meaning we hit the station area and a little bit, maybe 50 to 100 feet outside the stations, on most tracks, once a week, the stations that produce very little garbage are done on a two-week cycle.
Ozzie Cruz: That change in cleaning frequency required an increase in pick-ups and that meant adding more refuse trains.
Al Wojcik: Right now we have, for the Division of Track, we have three converted Redbird trains that are used exclusively for picking up the bags generated by the cleaning and scraping gangs. The three sets of Redbird trains-what that does is, enable us to pick up the garbage and it doesn't accumulate in wide areas.
Ozzie Cruz: To continue these efforts and tackle others, New York City Transit added more than 6 million dollars to the budget to fund 215 additional positions in track cleaning and refuse removal.
Al Wojcik: We started getting people on board roughly last September; the additional supervisors came on board October-November so for the first three months of this year, we've seen noticeable decrease from the peaks of last year.
Ozzie Cruz: Between September and December of last year, track cleaning forces picked up 19,000 bags of trash, a 56% increase over the same period in 2004. For the year, track crews collected enough trash to fill 56,000 bags, a 41% increase when compared to 2004. While garbage in stations and on tracks is unsightly and in some cases unsanitary, it presents another, more serious, problem: when litter gets on the tracks, it can catch fire, and those fires have an impact on service and safety.
Adam Pierce Boneker, Office of System Safety: Fires are going to cause delays in service. That's the main idea behind how it's going to affect customers.
Ozzie Cruz: Adam Pierce Boneker is a manager of Safety Analysis in New York City Transit's Office of System Safety.
Adam Pierce Boneker: There are very few major fires in the system that actually cause health problems to a customer or to the riding public. But, track fires (…) are going to cause delays in service, and it's going to affect customers getting to or going home and every other portion of their ride…
Ozzie Cruz: Overall, there were 579 incidents of fires and smoke conditions in the subways last year. Which resulted in almost 5,300 delayed trains, making it the third leading cause of delays system-wide for the year. This year, the plan is to drastically reduce those fires and resulting delays.
Al Wojcik: In the subway, the first couple of months of the year, … a one third decrease since late last year. I think by the end of the year, we'll see a significant decrease in the number of fires as well as (... ) such as clogged drains, flooded drains, and we'll see a big decrease in … incidents.
Ozzie Cruz: So the next time you bring a paper, a snack or a drink into the system, contribute to a cleaner subway by throwing your trash in receptacles, because litter goes a long way. At New York City Transit, we're serious about safety, your safety.
For TransitTrax, I'm Ozzie Cruz.
Back to Transittrax Main Page
Ozzie Cruz: I'm Ozzie Cruz, and you're listening to TransitTrax, New York City Transit's podcast service. With 660 miles of underground, elevated, and open-air track, and 468 subway stations, litter can go a very long way. Keeping the subway's tracks litter-free is a big job, one New York City Transit tackles on a daily basis.
Al Wojcik, Department of Subways: We have approximately 230 hourly supervisors working on trash pick-up and removal.
Ozzie Cruz: Al Wojcik is Chief Officer of the Department of Subways' Track and Infrastructure Division, responsible for maintaining the tracks, roadbed and other subway subsystems. Last spring, the Division noticed the considerable uptake in the amount of garbage and other debris in the system.
Al Wojcik: We're now generating about 300 large plastic bags and … paper that's swept up from the tracks. That's probably an increase of about 50 to 75 bags a night over what we had in years past. Over the last couple of year, of course, the plastic bottles just, a tremendous amount of plastic bottles, with all the people we see walking around drinking water all the time, but last year especially, we saw a big increase in the amount of paper—newspapers in the track; that makes up a big part of the garbage to be picked up.
Ozzie Cruz: To counter this increase, the division quickly developed a plan to combat the problem, a plan that was implemented over the course of the summer and fall of last year.
Al Wojcik: We've increased the cleaning frequency in the stations; we've been seeing a little situation, it's getting better between stations and in the wide areas. Almost two-thirds of the stations are done on a weekly cycle, meaning we hit the station area and a little bit, maybe 50 to 100 feet outside the stations, on most tracks, once a week, the stations that produce very little garbage are done on a two-week cycle.
Ozzie Cruz: That change in cleaning frequency required an increase in pick-ups and that meant adding more refuse trains.
Al Wojcik: Right now we have, for the Division of Track, we have three converted Redbird trains that are used exclusively for picking up the bags generated by the cleaning and scraping gangs. The three sets of Redbird trains-what that does is, enable us to pick up the garbage and it doesn't accumulate in wide areas.
Ozzie Cruz: To continue these efforts and tackle others, New York City Transit added more than 6 million dollars to the budget to fund 215 additional positions in track cleaning and refuse removal.
Al Wojcik: We started getting people on board roughly last September; the additional supervisors came on board October-November so for the first three months of this year, we've seen noticeable decrease from the peaks of last year.
Ozzie Cruz: Between September and December of last year, track cleaning forces picked up 19,000 bags of trash, a 56% increase over the same period in 2004. For the year, track crews collected enough trash to fill 56,000 bags, a 41% increase when compared to 2004. While garbage in stations and on tracks is unsightly and in some cases unsanitary, it presents another, more serious, problem: when litter gets on the tracks, it can catch fire, and those fires have an impact on service and safety.
Adam Pierce Boneker, Office of System Safety: Fires are going to cause delays in service. That's the main idea behind how it's going to affect customers.
Ozzie Cruz: Adam Pierce Boneker is a manager of Safety Analysis in New York City Transit's Office of System Safety.
Adam Pierce Boneker: There are very few major fires in the system that actually cause health problems to a customer or to the riding public. But, track fires (…) are going to cause delays in service, and it's going to affect customers getting to or going home and every other portion of their ride…
Ozzie Cruz: Overall, there were 579 incidents of fires and smoke conditions in the subways last year. Which resulted in almost 5,300 delayed trains, making it the third leading cause of delays system-wide for the year. This year, the plan is to drastically reduce those fires and resulting delays.
Al Wojcik: In the subway, the first couple of months of the year, … a one third decrease since late last year. I think by the end of the year, we'll see a significant decrease in the number of fires as well as (... ) such as clogged drains, flooded drains, and we'll see a big decrease in … incidents.
Ozzie Cruz: So the next time you bring a paper, a snack or a drink into the system, contribute to a cleaner subway by throwing your trash in receptacles, because litter goes a long way. At New York City Transit, we're serious about safety, your safety.
For TransitTrax, I'm Ozzie Cruz.
Back to Transittrax Main Page
