Late Friday Links 1/31

Here are some Late Friday Links before Super Bowl Weekend hits us:

• Weekend Regional Transit Diagram
• SuperBowl weekend is here, and if you're going to be taking to public transit this weekend, particularly to get to the game itself on Sunday, the Regional Transit Diagram that the SuperBowl Planning Committee put out in December isn't going to be much use.  You might recall that shortly after the above diagram came out I presented a 'revised' version that more accurately indicates what weekend service will be like.
• Long Island Rail Road workers will ‘punch in’ via fingerprint time clocks
• The Daily News reports that LIRR workers will punch in with their fingerprints at time clocks.  This is an effort to cut down on people getting paid for time when they're not actually there.  It's not a perfect solution, since one can punch in and then go sit and watch TV for eight hours, but I guess it will help.
• Grade crossing equipment, technology help railroads continue quest to improve crossing safety
• This excellent article from Progressive Railroading goes into some of the present, and upcoming, technologies that railroads are implementing in an effort to minimize the huge increases in grade crossing incidents that have arisen over the last couple of years.  Perhaps the LIRR could look to implement some of these technologies as well...especially on the Mainline.

The LIRR will continue to offer a handful of additional trains on the Babylon Branch and one late night train to Huntington this weekend for the SuperBowl, but other than that, it's just a normal, run in the mill weekend.  Enjoy the SuperBowl!