by lirr42
ThirdRail7 wrote:I guess they are taking this proposal to the next level since the window of opportunity is narrowing. Apparently, LIRR has been approached about temporarily abandoning West Side Yard.The LIRR mainline is about to get a whole lot busier. (Aside: Hmmm, if only the LIRR still had the Lower Montauk to put all the desiels on. That'd sure be helpful)
A brief "fair use" quote:
Amtrak tunnel project to uproot LIRR facility
http://newyork.newsday.com/news/new-yor ... -1.5129041
But anyways, not only is the loss of the maintenance facilities going to be problematic, that article kinda looked over the fact that it a huge strategic staging yard for the LIRR. The LIRR is going to need to make a lot more equipment runs to get all that equipment out of there during rush hour. The East River Tunnels, HAROLD, and such will be busier as well (I hope Amtrak's going to afford the LIRR the sufficient amount of extra slots in the ERT's for any new equipment runs, if they had to start canceling trains because of this it would not go over well at all). And if there are any delays, bad things are going to pile up quick.
Do they know when they would start this? (like are we talking this summer, next year, after ESA opens, or what?)
(PS: by the way, the article says that the LIRR is slated to get $1 billion from the lease—they're not. That money's going right to MTA Capital Construction to offset the cost of ESA, SAS, and the like.)