by NIMBYkiller
"However, I'm not sure that adding new lines to the LIRR is the answer to increasing ridership - simply because some people will never take the RR, regardless of how convenient it is for them. "
The point is though that people in towns like Levittown and East Meadow really don't have any choice but to drive(or take the bus).
"Truth of the matter is this - most of the people who ride the LIRR weekdays are people who are going into Manhattan. Whether it's to Penn Station, or to Flatbush where they take a subway to lower manhattan. "
We know that. What I'm trying to say though is that LIRR needs to wake up and start gearing the system more towards the intra island commuter, who makes up the vast majority of LI.
"People who work in Suffolk, Nassau, Queens and Brooklyn primarily drive - and those who work off of the island don't have a choice in the matter. A commuter is not going to take an LIRR train to Penn, change to an uptown 1 train to Times Sq, take the Shuttle to Grand Central and then hop on a MN train to get to Westchester - it's just not going to happen."
No one is suggesting they should....but just for the record, if my mom get's the Stamford job, she will be taking LIRR to NYP, then Amtrak up every day.
"It's the trucks which foul things up on the expressway, not the cars. "
Not entirely. It's mostly cars on the highways. With them being the majority, it's clear that THEY are the ones fouling things up on the expressway. It wouldn't hurt though to get some trucks off the road and onto the rails though.
Electrification aside, I think a phase by phase process of an intra-island system based around the Nassau Hub certainly is realistic.
Phase 1: Connecting trains from CLP or Garden City, via secondary to NCC
Phase 2: Build Nassau Hub loop and run trains via loop from CLP or Garden City(loop includes NCC)
Phase 3a: Rebuild line to underground station at Mineola, run trains from Mineola to loop instead of from GC or CLP.
Phase 3b: Continue underground under main line and connect with OB line. Run trains from Nassau Hub Loop to Oyster Bay instead of just Mineola
Phase 4: Double track from CLP to Hempstead and extend Bronze spur to an underground station at Merrick Av. Run trains from Hempstead to Merrick Av
Phase 5: Rebuild CLP-WH, run trains to Nassau Hub Loop from Valley Stream. (So now there are 2 lines from the hub...to Mineola and to Valley Stream).
Phase 6: Extend underground from Merrick Av to Westbury station and connect it with main line. Run trains from new park and ride at Landia
Phase 7: Rebuild CRRLI and electrify central branch. Run trains from Nassau Hub loop to Ronkonkoma and Babylon
The lines would simply extend with the expansion of electrification. An example would be once electrification reaches Patchogue, extend the Nassau Hub Loop to Babylon line to Patchogue
This would obviously be over the course of MANY years. Still, it'd provide LI with atleast some of the system that it needs.
HOV will get use if I start Island Transit, but that's about it for the future of HOV. LRT down the LIE would work well from about Hauppague to a Landia Park and Ride LIRR station
The point is though that people in towns like Levittown and East Meadow really don't have any choice but to drive(or take the bus).
"Truth of the matter is this - most of the people who ride the LIRR weekdays are people who are going into Manhattan. Whether it's to Penn Station, or to Flatbush where they take a subway to lower manhattan. "
We know that. What I'm trying to say though is that LIRR needs to wake up and start gearing the system more towards the intra island commuter, who makes up the vast majority of LI.
"People who work in Suffolk, Nassau, Queens and Brooklyn primarily drive - and those who work off of the island don't have a choice in the matter. A commuter is not going to take an LIRR train to Penn, change to an uptown 1 train to Times Sq, take the Shuttle to Grand Central and then hop on a MN train to get to Westchester - it's just not going to happen."
No one is suggesting they should....but just for the record, if my mom get's the Stamford job, she will be taking LIRR to NYP, then Amtrak up every day.
"It's the trucks which foul things up on the expressway, not the cars. "
Not entirely. It's mostly cars on the highways. With them being the majority, it's clear that THEY are the ones fouling things up on the expressway. It wouldn't hurt though to get some trucks off the road and onto the rails though.
Electrification aside, I think a phase by phase process of an intra-island system based around the Nassau Hub certainly is realistic.
Phase 1: Connecting trains from CLP or Garden City, via secondary to NCC
Phase 2: Build Nassau Hub loop and run trains via loop from CLP or Garden City(loop includes NCC)
Phase 3a: Rebuild line to underground station at Mineola, run trains from Mineola to loop instead of from GC or CLP.
Phase 3b: Continue underground under main line and connect with OB line. Run trains from Nassau Hub Loop to Oyster Bay instead of just Mineola
Phase 4: Double track from CLP to Hempstead and extend Bronze spur to an underground station at Merrick Av. Run trains from Hempstead to Merrick Av
Phase 5: Rebuild CLP-WH, run trains to Nassau Hub Loop from Valley Stream. (So now there are 2 lines from the hub...to Mineola and to Valley Stream).
Phase 6: Extend underground from Merrick Av to Westbury station and connect it with main line. Run trains from new park and ride at Landia
Phase 7: Rebuild CRRLI and electrify central branch. Run trains from Nassau Hub loop to Ronkonkoma and Babylon
The lines would simply extend with the expansion of electrification. An example would be once electrification reaches Patchogue, extend the Nassau Hub Loop to Babylon line to Patchogue
This would obviously be over the course of MANY years. Still, it'd provide LI with atleast some of the system that it needs.
HOV will get use if I start Island Transit, but that's about it for the future of HOV. LRT down the LIE would work well from about Hauppague to a Landia Park and Ride LIRR station