Amazon Two HQ in LIC: Impact on LIRR...

Everyone:

With the half-selection of Amazon HQ2 being placed in Long Island City (the other half will be in Crystal City/Arlington,VA) how will it affect the LIRR?
Any possibility of adding a station in the vicinity as an add-on to the ESA Project?

Any thought about expanding service to and from Hunterspoint Avenue or LIC for the added workforce addition of 25,000 Amazon employees?

I do agree with the thought that the Subway routes serving the area could be overwhelmed by the added ridership...

I expect that this subject will be a major topic for some time into the future...MACTRAXX

Prediction: Nothing will happen anytime soon. The announcement didn't come with any serious talk of MTA transit improvements. DeBlasio mentioned more ferry service and his BQX toy trolley.

Having advocated for transit improvements in LIC for two years now, I can tell you the situation will have to become completely and unimaginably bad before even the slightest improvements are made. Only when there are daily fist fights, protests, or people being pushed off overcrowded subway platforms will anything *maybe* change.

DeBlasio suggested they should build an LIRR stop in LIC. That says it all.

Treat Amazon HQ II as vaporware untill they start buying real estate, TOO MUCH HYPE still exists!
This all could be just placing various operations under 1 roof to save $$$$ on rental space.

If anything,LIRR builds a proper station for LIC yard and plants 3rd rail in the entire yard.

Backshophoss wrote:If anything, LIRR builds a proper station for LIC yard.

A new headhouse would be perfect. The original has been gone for at least 80 years, not seen on the 1940 aerial.

LIC station absolutely needs to be improved, especially if HPA is closed.

A proper passageway to the 7 would also be nice but that's probably a dream

The current station and frequencies into and out of LIC probably won't do much for when Amazon Two HQ is up and running in LIC. Only a few trains end at LIC. I'm sure that the majority of employees who work at Amazon 2 will still take the subway. If they are going to involve the LIRR, then they will most likely switch to the 7 train at Woodside. The folks who are coming from New Jersey will most likely end up taking a subway, either the 7 train or the E train.

ConstanceR46 wrote:A proper passageway to the 7 would also be nice but that's probably a dream

Was HPA always designed and intended from the beginning as a transfer station to/from IRT 7/Flushing subway for access to Grand Central and East Side Midtown? HPA station was built 1914 and the IRT subway to Queens from Grand Central in 1915, so the timing seems right.

According to the NYT on May 3, 1914...

"The station, which will ultimately become the transfer point from Long Island trains to the Steinway Tube service, was some time ago promised as soon as the tunnel was opened for travel, but owing to the continued delay in the work of preparing this tube for service and the Increasing demand for a station at that point, the Long Island decided to go ahead at once."

quite frankly i'm less worried about the LIRR and more worried what this means for the working class of NYC. Those 50 thousand jobs aren't going to the people who are from and live in those neighborhoods thats for sure.

congrats cuomo you've handed queens and probably north brooklyn over to it's feudal overlord bezos.

How can anyone predict the "impact" this early as an outsider?

The MTA board was having their 'plead poverty party' board meeting this week, so like I said: nothing will change. There will be no new LIRR station in LIC. There will be no increased service to LIC or HPA. The nearby subways will see no major improvements (beyond the 8 year old CBTC 7 project wrapping up). No bus realignments, etc. The only thing LIC is getting is Bezo's private helipad.

50,000 residents, incoming or already living within NYC will have jobs. Executives will drive their Tesla's into the parking lot each day, while the rest ride the subway and/or LIRR into work. Shipping will be from Queens to JFK or LaGuardia, and that won't be by train, which is a loss for certain. Amazon has some big muscles, so instead of complaining about it, perhaps analyzing the demands would be a better tact. There will be some increase in ridership, but not enough to make up for the infrastructure investment.
Is the footprint of construction going to occupy the old LI City Yard?

nyandw wrote:How can anyone predict the "impact" this early as an outsider?

Go talk to anyone who makes less than 30 grand and lives in Seattle, they will tell you all about impact.

Amazon helped cut down a large business tax in Seattle that would have assisted the homeless and raised money for affordable housing by threatening to stop construction. this is the kind of influence they have all and elected officials will bend over backwards to kowtow to this modern robber baron. do you want that in NYC?? I sure as hell don't.

NYC has already gained 68,600 jobs this year. Mostly high paying. Amazon is just more fuel for the fire.

Median income for a family of 4 at nearby Queensbridge is 15,800/yr.

This will drive up rents across the city. Even the south bronx councilman is concerned. People are already being priced out, that trend will continue. The 'housing surplus' in LIC is set to vanish by next summer, independent of Amazon. They will need to construct even more housing here and across the city. Again: I live here, I see it first hand every day.

The transit system can't handle this. LIRR/MN have problems too of course, but the subways are toast. It remains to be seen if any younger folks decide to move to the burbs anytime soon. That really doesn't seem to be taking place all that much, and nowhere near the scale it did decades ago. No one young wants to commute that far, or own a car to get to and from the train. Plus they all know the commuter lines are garbage service these days too (albeit while spending way more money per month).

Instead of people with money, we're going to keep seeing those with limited incomes pushed further and further into the burbs, with the city and new residents pricing out everyone else. This is already happening, and was happening before Amazon.

Anyway, LIC Coach Yard is still there, used every weekday. The old 'north shore' float yard is gone and has been for years now. Amazon is going in along the waterfront at Anable Basin. The decking over of Sunnyside is planned, but years, perhaps decades off. Of note: Amtrak is cooperating with the city EDC on the decking, while the MTA side was not in the planning study. Cuomo controls if that gets decked, and you know he's going to wager for any deal that will result in credit to him and maybe more funds for his 2020 presidential bid.

DogBert wrote:Anyway, LIC Coach Yard is still there, used every weekday. The old 'north shore' float yard is gone and has been for years now. Amazon is going in along the waterfront at Anable Basin. The decking over of Sunnyside is planned, but years, perhaps decades off. Of note: Amtrak is cooperating with the city EDC on the decking, while the MTA side was not in the planning study.

Given rapid growth (residential/corporate/commercial) in LIC, it might be worth adding off-peak/weekend service to LIC/HPA soon. It could be as simple as extending off peak and weekend Montauk/Oyster Bay trains from their western Jamaica terminal.