The first tracks for Long Island Rail Road were laid in 1832.
Nearly two centuries later, LIRR is the busiest commuter railroad in the country, transporting just over 300,000 people a day on 735 daily trains.
The LIRR is a massive conglomeration of 11 branches, consisting of 124 stations and over 700 miles of track.
Penn Station, built in 1910 and primarily designed by architect Charles McKim, was commissioned to be one of the greatest architectural gems on earth.
When created, Penn Station was a majestic light-filled structure that served as the gateway to New York City.
The demise of LIRR and Penn station started with the massive construction of America’s highways, created by President Eisenhower’s signing of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956.
With increasing availability to new interstate highways, train ridership began declining.
In the mid 1950s, to generate revenue, Penn Station sold its air rights (the right to build above a property) to the developers.
In 1963 the beautiful Beaux Arts exterior of Penn Station, and its cavernous main hall, were demolished to make way for the creation of Madison Square Garden, which now sits right above Penn Station’s tracks.
Penn Station subsequently became a bleak, poorly lit terminal, a far cry from the magnificent structure it once was.
After the “new” Penn Station replaced the old one, there was little in the way of long-term planning to update Penn Station and the LIRR, and patchwork maintenance became the only reactive response that kept the trains running.
The original 1910 Penn station track and narrow platform system are still in place, even though commuter trains today are much longer and can handle well over 1,000 passengers per train.
In addition, the signal system to direct trains, created in the 1930s, hasn’t been updated.
Also, damage from Hurricane Sandy’s corrosive salt water flooding into train tunnels is still being repaired.
Essentially, the LIRR and Penn Station have become a quagmire, thanks to years of underfunded neglect and poor planning.
Unfortunately, infrastructure funding isn’t sexy, so addressing this issue over the years has fallen on the political back burner.
Amtrak, the owner of Penn Station, which acts as a hub for NJ Transit, LIRR and Amtrak trains, has embarked on a long needed infrastructure improvement project called “The Gateway Program” also commonly referred to as “Gateway.” Gateway is planning for an ambitious $23 billion in upgrades but funding is in jeopardy because President Trump may eliminate the federal grant program Gateway needs to fix NY Metro track, tunnel, bridge and station capacity.
The Gateway website lists the entire infrastructure project in the planning stage, showing only $300 million as being spent to date on corridor work.
The long-awaited East Side Access Project, which when finished will run LIRR trains directly into Grand Central Station and relieve Penn Station congestion, has been pushed back well over a decade since it was first proposed in the late 1990s.
Meanwhile, the cost for the East Side Access project has ballooned to over $10 billion and the completion date, an ever-moving target, is now late 2022.
Another LIRR infrastructure project, the proposed 9.8 mile third track between Floral Park and Hicksville, is currently being fought by New York State senators Elaine Phillips and Kemp Hannon, along with some local village mayors bordering the proposed new track, over worries of disrupting residents.
Supporters of the third track feel it’s necessary for the East Side Project to be successful and to keep Long Island’s economy growing.
There are concerns that without the third track, LIRR East Side access won’t reach its full potential.
In summary, LIRR and Penn Station are antiquated and upgrades have been neglected.
Infrastructure funding is not an issue most politicians fight for because it doesn’t help with re-election, and elected officials are pointing fingers calling for fare discounts instead of finding solutions.
In the meantime, Long Islanders, through cancelled or late trains and overcrowded highways, are bearing the brunt of all this malfeasance.
