Will Amtrak Be Coming to Long Island?
Proposed Runs Between Washington and Ronkonkoma Get FRA Funds to Produce a Service Development Plan
After covering developments in distant Southern California and Central Florida in my last two posts today I write about something happening in my back yard: Extending Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor onto Long Island: more specifically through service between Washington and Ronkonkoma.
Never heard of Ronkonkoma? It is a hamlet approximately 50 miles east of New York Penn Station with a population of just under 19,000. It is also the terminus of an eponymous Long Island Rail Road line. As such, its station has ample parking and is adjacent to Long Island MacArthur Airport.
Over the years there have been numerous proposals to bring Amtrak to the Island but none have panned out. In 2019 Amtrak said it was in discussions with New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The idea was included in Amtrak Connect Us, the intercity passenger carrier’s strategic vision plan for 2035 released in 2021.
Finally, last December the Federal Railroad Administration awarded Amtrak $500,000 to produce a service development plan for its proposed Long Island Northeast Regional Extension. This was one of 69 Corridor Identification and Development Program grants for Fiscal Year 2022 FRA made to Amtrak and other agencies across the country. The plans produced with these grants are a first step toward additional federal funding.
The extension would offer passengers a seamless one-seat service between eastern Long Island and Northeast Corridor destinations between New York and Washington.
Many folks argue there is no need for Amtrak to run out to Long Island. After all, the Long Island Rail Road provides ample service to New York’s Penn Station where passengers can catch more Amtrak trains than at any other location.
I’ve lost count of the number of times I made connections between Amtrak and the LIRR at Penn Station, and I never had problems. But I’m not the kind of person Amtrak is looking for.
If you are not a regular rider Penn Station can be intimidating. For starters, it is large and difficult to navigate. In addition, at peak travel times it can be very crowded with people rushing in all directions to catch their train or get to the street.
Further, its accessibility leaves something to be desired. Once you get to the Moynihan Train Hall, where Amtrak’s New York station is located, you’ll have to queue to board.
For a novice rider the idea of having to change trains at Penn Station can be a deal breaker. When you take the LIRR there is a good chance you already had to change in Jamaica, Babylon, or Huntington. Doing this traveling with luggage and small children can be daunting. So rather than risk getting stuck you park your car at LaGuardia or sit in traffic on the Belt Parkway.
It is no easier for travelers bound for Long Island. They have to navigate a railroad with 11 routes and more than 120 stations. Even seasoned LIRR commuters sometimes get on the wrong train at Penn Station. Being able to make across-the-platform connections at Jamaica and Hicksville would be much simpler
If Amtrak wants to get people like these on board it will need to make its product easier to use and more dependable. That includes going to places people want to go and not just the urban core cities.
The Northeast Corridor already has suburban stops at Route 128 outside Boston; New Rochelle in Westchester County, NY; Metropark, in New Jersey, and New Carrollton, just north of Washington. But Long Island, the nation’s first suburb and one of its largest, is unserved.
It is a big market. More than eight million people live on Long Island, counting Brooklyn and Queens. Seventy of the Fortune 500 companies have facilities there. More than 100,000 students attend its colleges and universities. Visitors come for beaches, boating, fishing, golf, museums, top-notch concert venues, and professional sports.
Amtrak proposes to extend three daily Washington – New York trains out to Ronkonkoma, with intermediate stops at Jamaica and Hicksville. They would cover the New York – Ronkonkoma segment in 1:25, which is a few minutes longer than the LIRR’s fastest express runs. In its strategic vision plan, Amtrak stated the new service would generate $44 million in new economic activity annually, not including needed capital investments.
The extension would offer passengers a seamless one-seat service between eastern Long Island and Northeast Corridor destinations between New York and Washington. You wouldn’t need to go all the way to Washington. You could take Amtrak to get from Long Island to Newark or Trenton without having to get out of your seat.
Going west, passengers would probably have first “dibs” on the best seats in coach since they would board ahead of people who get on in New York. Eastbound riders would not have to get off until they reached their destinations or changed at Jamaica for LIRR service.
Passengers from or bound for stations on other Amtrak routes, such as the Empire and Keystone Corridors, could travel on a single ticket. They would still have to board the train for Long Island in New York but they wouldn’t have to walk from one end of Penn Station to the other.
Other connection opportunities include the SkyTrain to Kennedy Airport from Jamaica station plus commuter (regional) lines west of the Hudson such as NJ Transit, Philadelphia’s SEPTA, and Baltimore – Washington’s MARC and VRE.
Some of Long Island’s main east-west highways, including the Northern and Southern State Parkways, date to the 1920s, a time when farms dominated the landscape. These roads were designed with day trippers from New York City in mind instead of hundreds of thousands of commuters.
Consequently, Long Island experiences huge traffic congestion at all times of day. The social, economic, and environmental costs are staggering: 91 million hours of drivers stuck in traffic; $1.9 billion of lost productivity, and 41.5 million gallons of additional fuel. In coming years the problem will only get worse.
To their credit, the MTA and LIRR have made tremendous progress since 2000 to increase capacity and build redundancy into the system. The Ronkonkoma line is now triple track to Hicksville and double track east of there. A year ago, Grand Central Madison station opened, giving LIRR customers a station on Manhattan’s East Side and reducing the number of trains going into Penn Station.
Connect NEC 37, a 15-year plan to upgrade and increase capacity along the Northeast Corridor, envisions the number of trains between New York and Washington doubling by 2038. If Amtrak gets funding to make the improvements needed to bring its trains to Long Island these runs most likely would be part of that expansion.
As with almost every other public infrastructure project, many years will pass before Amtrak starts running to Ronkonkoma. Eric Seims has posted to his LinkedIn feed an excellent analysis of issues that must be addressed first.
Amtrak will require lay-up tracks, a crew room, and materials storage space at the LIRR’s Mid-Suffolk Yard. The LIRR will want to be paid for costs it incurs to host Amtrak trains. Unions for both railroads must agree on whose rules Amtrak crews will follow on Long Island. The service plan will also need to cover ticketing, parking, scheduling, and cross-honoring of LIRR tickets.
These issues are not complicated and if they get resolved Amtrak should have little trouble extending service to Long Island. If I am still living here I could look forward to a conductor telling me to “change at Jamaica for Washington.”
That still leaves Amtrak service from Long Island to Boston on the table. I fantasize about boarding a train in Hicksville or Mineola, being in Beantown 90 minutes later, catching a game at Fenway, and getting home in time for dinner – while keeping my feet on the ground. There is a good case to be made for this, but I’ll leave that for another day.