Dec 7, 2011

More New York Railways Prohibit Platform Smoking

There’s one less place to enjoy a cigar outdoors as the anti-smoking annexation of New York continues. Metro North and Long Island Railroad platforms will join the list of territories lost as the campaign against outdoor smoking presses forward. Current rules already prohibit smoking on trains and in any indoor area associated with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. But the new law now extends to include ticketing and boarding areas and platforms with open air, effectively banning outdoor smoking from all railways. In order to smoke, rail patrons will now have to light up in parking lots or other off-premises locations before enter- ing their station, making hearing—and catching—a train much more difficult. Similar restrictions were already in place in New York City and New Jersey stations.