Believe it or not the most prolific vandals on the Long Island Rail Road are its own train crews.

The new M7 cars have what is known as a transverse cab. This means that the engineer's cab takes up the full width of the first car. But what about the rest of the train? Well, the M7s are run in pairs with cabs at the end of every second car. The rear cab may or may not be completely closed off for use by the brakeman but the middle cars usually have their cab doors closed allowing passengers to pass between the cars. This leaves a fold-down seat opposite the resulting smaller cab.

Unfortunately, some crew members feel that this area is their private property and do not like passengers sitting in their territory. To enforce the passenger ban they sometimes lock the seats in the upright position. Some crews will unlock the seat if asked politely but I've known some to refuse even if they weren't going to operate the doors from that location. Some crew members are not satisfied with simply locking the seat. They illegally remove the seat cushions. Sometimes they stow them in a coat closet built into the cab but lately they just toss them out the window in the yard!

Complaints have been registered with LIRR personnel but to no avail. The seats just keep disappearing. With the economy in its current state can we, the taxpayers, afford to let the crews literally toss money out the train window?

Besides the obvious cost of replacing the cushions, there's the fact that a 12 car train of M7s seats 200 less passengers than the M1s and M3s they replaced. Now the crews are leaving even less seats for those who pay a substantial fare to ride.

It's time for this absurd conduct to end. If you see seat cushions missing on your car, call the LIRR Customer Relations number at 718-558-8228 and complain. If you get no satisfaction there, call the MTA Inspector General's office at 800-MTA-IG4U (800-682-4448) and ask for an investigation.