LIRR banning alcohol on overnight weekend trains

  Eyewitness NewsNEW YORK (WABC) -- Forget the BYOB on the LIRR at the midnight hour.

Starting this weekend, the Long Island Rail Road is banning alcohol on overnight weekend trains out of Penn Station.

The pilot program is an effort to curb disorderly passengers and attacks on train crew members.

It will affect all trains out of Penn Station between midnight and 5 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

Officials say attacks on LIRR train crews have been on the rise. Six attacks were reported last year, the highest in at least five years.

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MTA plans overnight 'fasttrack' subway repairs

NEW YORK (WABC) -- The MTA is launching a bold subway repair plan. Instead of doing the work on the weekends, it is conducting repairs overnight. Major lines will be shut down, starting Monday night with the Lexington Avenue line.

The MTA is planning to knock out a lot of projects, from track maintenance to spot painting to power washing. They will also be repairing wall tiles, platforms and lighting. They are calling the series of repairs "Fasttrack," and they hope that straphangers will just grit their teeth and bear it.

Starting Monday, the 4, 5 and 6 lines will close from 10 p.m. until 5 a.m., and will do that every night through Friday.

The MTA says this will allow crews to safely and quickly handle more than 300 repair jobs along 27 miles of track. But it will add at least 20 minutes to the average ride.

The closures will stretch from Grand Central Terminal to Atlantic Avenue. The 1, 2 and 3 lines from 34th Street to Atlantic Avenue will be next up, closing overnights from February 13 to February 17. The Sixth Avenue line, parts of the B, D, F and M from 59th Street to 4th Street, will be under repair in late February.

And the A, C and E lines will have overnight work in mid-March from 59th Street to Jay Street.

There will be conductors and traffic checkers at subway stations Monday to answer commuters' questions.

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