As a daily rail commuter, I find LIRR President’s Helena Williams’ comments published in the News to be an insult to our intelligence.
Ms. Williams talks extensively about the importance of a second storage track, without quantifying how many times a day it might be used. There’s also an implication that our neighbors in Manhasset or Port Washington will not benefit from service to Grand Central Station. And how will there be “quick and easy access” if all trains originating in Great Neck run local?
Why is she stating that the bridge can’t get replaced without the pocket track, while her project engineers told the public otherwise?
A widened train track necessitates killing vegetation. Even planting of new trees will result in a net loss. The species she proposes don’t normally grow here. Why should we put up with an eyesore because the LIRR doesn’t like pruning?
Anyone who walks to the station from Shoreward Drive knows how noisy idling trains on the existing pocket track are in the morning. Fortunately, that area is primarily industrial, compared to the residential newly area of the new site.
Ms. Williams has made no apparent attempt to listen to the feedback her staff received from the public meeting. An acknowledgement of any of these concerns would have showed that she cares.
Steven Hirsch
Great Neck
