From: jackson@white.com   
      
   XPost: nyc.general, alt.society.labor-unions, alt.railroad   
   XPost: alt.machines.cnc   
      
   A contractor operating a drill as part of the MTA’s East Side   
   Access project mistakenly penetrated a Queens subway tunnel on   
   Thursday, and the massive bit scraped the top and side of an   
   occupied F train, transit officials said.   
      
   Some 800 passengers were aboard the Jamaica-bound train at the   
   time, about 11:45 a.m. Nobody was hurt in the terrifying   
   blunder, but it was far too close for comfort.   
      
   “That’s a near miss,” an MTA supervisor said, wondering what   
   would have happened if the bit had made a direct hit and   
   punctured a subway car’s passenger compartment. “Oh my God! If   
   it had hit the train, you could forget about it! Of course we   
   are concerned.”   
      
   As a regular straphanger on the F line put it: “I would have   
   died of a panic if I was on that train,” said Angela Bradley,   
   35, who rides the F to visit her husband at Riker’s Island twice   
   a week. “They would have had to bring me to Bellevue.”   
      
   A contractor working on the Metropolitan Transportation   
   Authority’s East Side Access project, which will connect the   
   Long Island Rail Road to Grand Central Terminal, was operating   
   the drill above ground, roughly at the intersection of 23rd St.   
   and 41st Ave. in Long Island City.   
      
   http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/massive-drill-bit-   
   cuts-occupied-f-train-article-1.1993584   
      
   --- SoupGate/W32 v1.03   
    * Origin: LiveWire BBS -=*=- UseNet FTN Gateway (1:2320/1)