The MTA is dispatching crews to key spots where damaging winds from the incoming Nor’easter could topple trees onto tracks and disrupt service, with a particular eye on the New Haven line of the Metro-North Railroad, officials said Friday.
“Right now the wind is, by far, our biggest concern,” MTA chairman Janno Lieber said Friday.
“Crews are being deployed at strategic locations across the entire MTA regional network so they can respond quickly if and when there are any conditions like downed trees,” Lieber said. “We have debris trains, trucks, chainsaws ready to go.”
The MTA is planning to run service as usual through this weekend’s storm — but is keeping an eye on the winds along above ground subway lines, bridges and commuter rails.
The Metro North’s proximity to the coast of the Long Island Sound — combined with the line’s reliance on overhead catenary power lines — make the route particularly vulnerable to storm damage. Crews are also preparing for potential problems on the low-lying and flood-prone Hudson line.
“There are buses that have been secured to stand by for both of those Metro-North lines,” Lieber said.
The potential for high wind conditions also means the agency is banning empty tractor-trailers and tandem-trailer trucks from the bridge crossings it controls, starting Friday at midnight and running through the weekend.
On the subway system, workers had rolled out some flood mitigation tools at Coney Island and Howard Beach stations, and had begun pre-storm work of covering up system vents and clearing out drainage systems. The threat of high winds meant crews were also on standby to clear downed trees from the tracks on above-ground lines.
“This is a well-worn storm playbook,” Lieber told reporters. “We’ve handled big weather events before and we’re going to do it this weekend.”
“I want to thank our employees who are going to put in some long hours — it’s no secret that one of the reasons we’re about to deal with weather events is we call a lot of people in to make sure that we’re ready and that we can respond promptly,” he added.
