How the Long Island Rail Road Could Shape the Next Economy
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2013 Long Island Index Special Analysis How the Long Island Rail Road Could Shape the Next Economy LIRR LIRR Report by Regional Plan Association / January 2013 Table Of Contents Executive Summary .............................................................................................................................................................................. 1 I. An Opportunity to Reconnect Housing, Transportation and Jobs ................................................................................................ 4 The Potential for Change .............................................................................................................................................................................4 II. The Long Island Rail Road: Past and Future Catalyst for Economic Growth ................................................................................ 6 The First Century: Long Island Grows WITH the Railroad .......................................................................................................................6 Before Long Island Had Cars… .................................................................................................................................................................7 Post-World War II: America’s First Suburb Grows AWAY From the Railroad .........................................................................................8 The Last Two Decades: Increased Transit Capacity and Growth…but not on Long Island ..................................................................9 Case Study: New Jersey Transit Midtown Direct: Increased Home Values and Station-Area Revitalization .....................................10 Case Study: Harlem Line Third Track: Increased Reverse Commutation With Downtown Housing and Jobs in Westchester .......11 Future Prospects: Three Projects, Multiple Possible Outcomes ...........................................................................................................13 III. East Side Access ......................................................................................................................................................................... 15 Benefits of East Side Access ...................................................................................................................................................................16 Planning Challenges Presented by East Side Access ...........................................................................................................................17 IV. Double Track to Ronkonkoma ..................................................................................................................................................... 20 Benefits of Double Track .........................................................................................................................................................................21 Challenges to Meeting the Objectives of the Double Track Project ...................................................................................................22 V. Main Line Third Track ................................................................................................................................................................... 23 Benefits of a Third Track on the LIRR Main Line .....................................................................................................................................25 Challenges to Implementing the Third Track .........................................................................................................................................28 VI. Realizing the Potential of a Different Long Island Rail Road ..................................................................................................... 30 Footnotes ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 32 Table Of Contents Executive Summary Since it was first chartered in 1834, the Long Island Rail Road project—a third track on the LIRR Main Line—has the (LIRR) has been central to the growth and development of potential to greatly improve service and support job Long Island. The LIRR was the core of a rail-oriented trans- growth within Nassau and Suffolk. portation network that connected growing communities East Side Access will bring both immediate and long-term to jobs in both Manhattan and Long Island in the century benefits to everyone on Long Island, not just LIRR riders: between the Civil War and World War II. As a car-dominated culture pulled jobs and people farther from the railroad, • Nassau and Suffolk residents would have improved the LIRR fell into disrepair in the 1940s and 1950s. access to 560,000 jobs in Manhattan, where the median wage is more than twice as high as on Long Island. In the last 30 years, the LIRR network has been revived and These higher incomes will help support local businesses improved with billions of dollars invested in new cars, on the island. upgraded systems and repairs to tracks, stations and rail yards. Long Island’s economy and way of life would be • Thousands of commuters will save an average of 18 impossible without the railroad, and many of its impacts minutes and as many as 42 minutes a day taking the are not widely recognized. train to Grand Central instead of Penn Station. • One out of every four dollars of income earned by Long • 400,000 homeowners in Nassau and Suffolk will see Island residents is brought home from jobs in New York the value of their homes rise by an average of $7,300. City. In 2011, this constituted $26 billion in income -- • With three tunnels into two terminals, rather than two 34% of all income earned by Nassau residents and 14% tunnels into one location, service into Manhattan will of income earned by Suffolk residents. be more reliable and less vulnerable to storms, terrorism • 30% of employed Nassau residents and 11% of or breakdowns. employed Suffolk residents commute to New York • LIRR riders will be able to board Metro-North trains in City for work, and a third of them take the LIRR. the same terminal at Grand Central. • Auto traffic would congeal on highways as it would • The system will have the capacity to add more service require 10 new traffic lanes to carry the daily equivalent at a later date. of LIRR riders into Penn Station. • There will be more commuters with higher incomes Yet the reach and capacity of the railroad has remained that will support local businesses. unchanged since it first connected to Manhattan’s Penn Station in 1910. While the other commuter railroads in the • Highway congestion and air pollution will be reduced. New York region—Metro-North and New Jersey Transit— Doubling the track capacity to Ronkonkoma will greatly have greatly increased ridership in the last two decades improve service reliability and support needed housing with new services, LIRR ridership has hardly budged. and jobs in the heart of Long Island. Three transit-oriented Now, for the first time in in more than a century, the LIRR is development (TOD) projects, currently in the planning poised to provide new capacity on its network. With this stages, would benefit from this improved service. A joint new capacity, the railroad could lead a new era of economic project by the towns of Brookhaven and Islip would growth for Long Island. By 2019, the East Side Access create a new transit hub at Ronkonkoma, including improved (ESA) project will give LIRR riders direct access to Grand connections to MacArthur Airport, which could create an Central Terminal and east Midtown Manhattan, the densest estimated 11,000 jobs. Wyandanch Rising, an initiative by concentration of jobs in the country. Track capacity is also the Town of Babylon, would generate housing, employment being expanded on the island itself. A second track from and opportunity for Suffolk’s poorest community. The full Farmingdale to Ronkonkoma could be completed by 2018 Double Track project also includes a new station at Republic and expand service options and reliability on one of the Airport as part of a plan to create a transit-oriented mixed- fastest growing yet most overcrowded lines in the system. use hub around the station. Beyond these two projects, a deferred and long-debated The Long Island Index Page 1 These improvements will bring more income and wealth • Employers will have access to many more potential into Long Island and tie it more closely with the dynamic workers, including a minimum of 350,000 for Mineola regional economy anchored by Manhattan’s central business and 226,000 for Hicksville, for example, increasing the district. They will also unlock the potential for a much more attractiveness of Long Island to prospective employers. robust and transit-oriented economy on Long Island. • Major economic development initiatives, including To reach this potential, however, Long Island will need to Wyandanch Rising, the Ronkonkoma-MacArthur Transit take additional measures. Municipalities, supported by Hub and a Republic Airport Hub, would have an even federal, state and regional actions, will need to adopt land greater chance of success. use and economic development policies that will create • Travel within Long Island would be more transit-oriented, jobs and housing around the transit network. These will both on the LIRR and along bus routes feeding into it. need to include funding for sewers and other