It doesn’t make a “pew pew pew” sound, but a Metro-North Railroad train that uses laser technology to clean troublesome leaf residue off tracks has returned to Connecticut this fall.

Joana Flores, a spokesperson for Metro-North’s parent organization, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said the “laser train” is operating on the New Haven Line once a day during the evening.

Metro-North has used the system made by Amsterdam-based Laser Precision Solutions to remove what the railroad has described as “slimy leaf sludge” from tracks since 2022.

The lasers are located under the train and blast the debris as the train travels over the tracks.

When trains run over fallen leaves, the residue on the rails can create slippery conditions, according to a video that MTA and Metro-North recently posted to Instagram. If a train slides along the tracks while braking, flat spots can form on the wheels, a voiceover says in the video. The railroad then may need to take train cars out of service to repair them.

Wheels must be “true,” or perfectly circular, for trains to run safely and quietly, Metro-North has said.

“The laser train prevents all of this and covers hundreds of miles every day without getting in the way of regular train service,” the voiceover says in the social media video. “Thanks to the laser train, Metro-North has seen a 30% reduction in wheel defects and a 65% reduction in train delays caused by leaves.”

Metro-North was the second MTA railroad to start using the laser technology, after the Long Island Rail Road. In 2023, Metro-North received an award from the American Public Transportation Association for working with Laser Precision Solutions to roll out a laser train that can travel at 60 mph, up from 25 mph.

The same year, the train began sporting a wrap with a “retro-futuristic design” inspired by the NASA logotype known as “the worm.” The railroad’s more recent social media video ends with a new laser train logo, featuring a cat with laser beams shooting from its eyes.

MTA says it also uses trains with water jets to clean rails and manages the vegetation along tracks so fewer leaves fall on them.

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