Say Bruno Put Brake on Track Safety Measure;
No Senate Sponsor for Bill Laid to Political Beef

By ARI PAUL

A bill that would create state standards regulating track work safety for NYC Transit has stalled in the State Senate after being passed by the Assembly, and some union members say party politics is the primary reason.

JOSEPH L. BRUNO: A political roadblock?

Transport Workers Union Local 100 stepped up its campaign to pass the bill after two Track Workers died in accidents on the job in April. In a letter to all Maintenance of Way employees after the deaths, Local 100 President Roger Toussaint said, "Our mass transit system is exempt from enforceable safety guidelines. We need strict guidelines for the safety of rider and worker alike."

Bruno's Payback?

According to several union sources, at a meeting on May 21, Mr. Toussaint said that Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno was keeping the bill from a full vote in retaliation for the union's support of Democratic Party candidates in the last election.

Mark Hansen, a spokesman for Senator Bruno, denied the claim saying that because the bill does not have a sponsor in the Senate it remains in legislative limbo.

He added that the Assembly bill was "outdated." The MTA, said spokesman Jeremy Soffin, opposes the Assembly bill but supports the stated purpose of protecting Track Workers. He said the MTA is working with Local 100 on new language to which both parties can agree.

Thomas Creegan, chairman of Local 100's Division of Power Distribution, circulated a petition last week among Track Workers urging Mr. Toussaint to organize an emergency rally and Lobby Day in Albany. He said that if Senator Bruno is responsible for stalling the bill, he should have to answer to Track Workers.

Virtually all publicly subsidized railroads, including Amtrak and Metro-North, are subject to government safety regulations. NYC Transit is self-regulated.

"We don't deserve safety?" Mr. Creegan asked. "Why can't we have it?" Neither Mr. Toussaint nor others on his staff responded to requests for comment.

Task Force Alternative

There is another Senate bill, introduced by Sen. Serphin Maltese, on track safety that would set up a task force to investigate safety measures rather than actually implement any.

Local 100 pushed the track safety bill several years ago and the State Legislature passed it in 2004, but it was vetoed by then-Governor Pataki. Heski Bar-Isaac, a Professor at New York University's Stern School of Business, speculated that most firms prefer not to be regulated.

"They have to answer to more people, they have to fill out more forms and add more features to the platforms, I imagine," he said. "All those things raise costs."