Union Official Unhappily Unveils New Track Vacuum System Sketches

Straphangers wait alongside a manually cleaned subway track at the Park Place subway station on Sept. 15. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) cleaning initiative, Operation Track Sweep, has shifted its focus to vacuum cleaning measures.

Deep in the confines of the Transit Workers Union Local 100’s Brooklyn headquarters, track division chairman Paul Navarro’s desk holds an assortment of framed family photos, stacked binders, and a desktop computer neighboring a miniature barrel of rum-infused cigars with “Paulie’s Cigars” etched on its exterior. Yet, it’s the two stapled documents spread across his desk that have recently drawn his attention — and ire.

On Sept. 20, a manager from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) gave Navarro illustrations of two different firms’ proposed subway track vacuum systems that would be used by New York City Transit maintenance crews. The systems are part of Operation Track Sweep, the MTA’s cleaning initiative that began in June with the aim to reduce track fires and, in turn, service delays. Track Sweep’s emphasis on updating vacuum cleaning measures emerged after a 2015 audit by New York City’s Office of the Comptroller found that only 30% of existing vacuum train station visits effectively removed debris from the stations’ tracks.

Two vacuum trains have been used by the MTA since 1997, when it acquired its first VakTrak train from private contractor NEU International Railways (NEU) for approximately $15 million as part of a pilot program (NEU built the MTA’s second train for the same amount in 2000). Despite the trains’ ineffectiveness, the MTA has ordered three more trains from NEU, with two slated to arrive in 2017 and one in 2018. The MTA didn’t return repeated calls for comment on the trains, and NEU declined to comment, citing a confidentiality agreement with the MTA.

On May 25, 2015, the MTA announced it had received proposals from two firms for a first-of-its-kind system that could be operated from the subway platform and would consist of a vacuum unit, battery source, and suction hose, according to MTA Board Meeting notes. NEU and VAC-U-MAX priced their prototypes at costs of $281,500 and $136,850, respectively.

Both diagrams are two pages. NEU’s sketch depicts two carts — a vacuum unit and battery source — operated on a subway platform with a 42.6-foot hose extending down to the track, where another worker uses it to remove trash from the track. VAC-U-MAX’s model is similar, with the only difference being an additional vacuum filter cart.

The sketches met the MTA’s requirements, but Navarro said the diagrams represent the MTA’s failure to consult with workers before undertaking such a project. He said he was never contacted by the MTA prior to receiving the proposals and therefore couldn’t raise his substantial concerns about workers’ ability to transport the hefty systems between platforms and stations: NEU’s and VAC-U-MAX’s models would weigh approximately 1,562 pounds and 2,000 pounds, respectively, according to the renderings.

“It’s impossible to get [these systems] up the stairs,” Navarro said. Workers would either have to load the systems’ carts individually onto an elevator or bring them onto refuse trains to transport them between stations, he said.

Michael Tobias, a principal at New York Engineers, said that while most permanent subway station equipment is designed to be disassembled in parts and transported by elevator, portable equipment normally isn’t. “To do that for every time you’re trying to clean the tracks seems like a pretty maintenance-intensive job,” he said.

“To me, it’s a waste [of resources],” Navarro said. “It’s stupid.”

After workers test the prototypes next month, Navarro said he will report any safety issues, which the MTA will then evaluate before deciding whether to adopt one or both of the models.