The need for additional rail service on Long Island is obvious to everyone who drives on the Long Island Expressway or rides on LIRR trains.
Which is to say everyone.
The Long Island Expressway is constantly congested and trains come too infrequently — especially for riders trying to travel to Long Island in the morning.
Gov. Cuomo has addressed this problem with a $1 billion to $1.5 billion proposal to build a third track along 9.8 miles of Long Island Rail Road between Floral Park and Hicksville.
The 9.8 miles is among the railroad’s most congested stretches, providing service to four lines — Port Jefferson, Oyster Bay, Ronkonkoma and Montauk.
Transportation advocates, business leaders and union chiefs have hailed the plan as a boon to commuters and economic development on Long Island.
According to the Long Island Index, a nonprofit group funded by the Rauch Foundation, the third track would add 14,000 jobs, $3 billion in personal income, $5.6 billion to Long Island’s gross regional product, 35,000 new residents, $40 million in additional sale tax revenue and $103 million in added property tax revenue in its first 10 years.
The plans would help Long Island businesses attract employees by giving young professionals living in New York City the ability to commute to work on Long Island and Long Island residents who work in New York City an easier commute.
Ironically, the plan is opposed by Republican elected officials led by state Sen. Jack Martins as well as village, school and civic leaders from villages along the proposed track including Floral Park, New Hyde Park and Mineola.
Martins, who led the opposition to a larger version of the third track plans as mayor of Mineola 10 years ago and is currently running for the Republican nomination for Congress in the 3rd District, called the proposal “dead on arrival.”
Opponents have expressed concerns about an extended construction period, the loss of parking at train stations, the cost of lost sales to businesses in the construction zone, an estimated 50 property acquisitions to accommodate the new track and delays at seven grade crossings along the corridor.
Village of New Hyde Park Mayor Robert Lofaro said the crossings at New Hyde Park Road, Covert Avenue and South 12th Street are already down 45 minutes during rush hours each day.
These are legitimate concerns and in the case of the grade crossings a significant problem even without the proposed project.
But the answer to those concerns is not an effort to kill a project crucial to the future economic health of Long Island.
If a third track cannot be built along the existing rail line, where on Long Island can it be built? And if it can’t be built, what do Martins and other critics propose to do to address the congestion that makes commuters’ lives miserable and hinders economic development across all of Long island?
The mayors of eight villages along the corridor did offer a proposal this week to address LIRR service that included several good ideas, including the elimination of all grade crossing along the corridor. But the proposal does not go far enough to address congestion on Long Island.
Opponents should instead use the project as an opportunity to fairly compensate people and businesses harmed financially by the project, win improvements that will serve their communities such as the elimination of the grade crossings and make improvements to the stations along the corridor.
This is what is known as a win-win.
LIRR officials have thus far not done a good job in assuaging the concerns of officials or the public.
LIRR President Patrick Nowakowski and other Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials said they were receptive to New Hyde Park officials’ concerns about grade crossings last week.
But, Lofaro said, they gave no specific plans for the third track.
Given that a similar plan was rejected due to local opposition 10 years ago, it is hard to fathom how the LIRR doesn’t have an answer ready for that question.
Nowakowski has also not made himself available to discuss these concerns, leaving it to the opponents to present what he told them. Hardly a winning strategy.
We think this is a project vital to Long island’s economic future.
We also think that a project that could cost up to $1.5 billion ought to have an answer to the opponents concerns — and that the opponents need to accept them if they are offered.
Let’s hope the two sides don’t blow the opportunity.
