Gov. Cuomo’s promise of significant increases in LIRR service to coincide with the Islanders Hockey Team stadium planned opening by 2021 at Belmont Park continues to be unrealistic. “New coalition fights to halt Belmont” (Rebecca Klar — May 25). Conversion of the Belmont Park LIRR Station and other capital improvements such as additional track interlockings to provide improved and more frequent service to and from the future new Belmont Park Islanders Arena may take between three to five years. You may just end up with off peak shuttle service between Jamaica and Belmont Park LIRR Stations. The most difficult challenge will be trying to provide full time rush hour service evenings in both directions. This may not be possible until both East Side Access to Grand Central Terminal begins in 2023 and renovations to all four East River Tunnels are completed by 2032.
There is also the need for a bus terminal to accommodate Nassau Inter County Express (NICE), New York City Transit and private charter bus operators who may establish new routes for serving Belmont Arena. The Rockville Center NICE Bus Garage closed in April, 2017. This resulted in consolidation of the existing bus fleet to the Mitchel Field Bus Garage. In coming years, how will NICE Bus be able to provide additional new services to support LIRR East Side Access to Grand Central Terminal with new feeder services to various LIRR stations, future Nassau Hub Bus Rapid Transit project and the Belmont Islanders Arena at the same time? There is limited capacity at the existing Mitchel Field Bus Garage to accommodate all the buses transferred from Rockville Centre, let alone fleet expansion.
Promised improvements for the existing LIRR Belmont Park station to accommodate many of the up to anticipated 18,000 Islander game attendees are years away from becoming a reality. There is only a series of closed door meetings between the New York State Economic Development Corporation with MTA and LIRR. MTA Chairman Joe Lhota said earlier this year that his agency must first perform a planning study. Several months later, there is no evidence any planning study is under way. This would be followed by design, engineering and construction. As I previously wrote, he also agreed with me that there is no current capacity at Penn Station to support new Belmont Park service. Future additional Belmont Park service would have to compete against new Port Washington branch service to Mets Willets Point for connections to the LaGuardia Air Train along with other LIRR, New Jersey Transit, Amtrak and Metro North trains for platform and track space in and out of Penn Station via the East River Tunnels in coming years.
Cuomo’s adopted April 1, 2018 through March 31, 2019 $168.2 billion budget contains no line item to provide the MTA LIRR with additional funding for this project. These non-existent dollars would have to be amended into the current MTA $32 billion 2014-2019 Five Year Capital Plan for supporting design and engineering, let alone construction of any future Belmont Park LIRR Intermodal Transportation Center.
Who knows if these funds will appear within the proposed next MTA 2020-2024 Five Year Capital Plan. MTA HQ, Planning, Operating and Finance along with LIRR staff, are already working behind the scene to develop this document. There is pressure to find $4.3 billion balance needed to fully fund the $6 billion Second Avenue Subway Phase 2, $1 billion more to complete LIRR East Side Access to Grand Central Terminal, several hundred million more to fully fund the $2.6 billion Main Line Third Track along with New York City Transit Presidents Andy Byfords proposed $38 billion accelerated NYC Subway Signal upgrade program which is looking for $19 billion under the next Five Year Capital Program.
Historically, these plans are adopted one year late. That means any new funding for the future Belmont Park LIRR Intermodal Transportation Center might not be available until 2021. Many of the proposed 2020-2024 Five Year Capital Program projects and programs will come from the MTA 2014-2034 Twenty Year Long Term Capital Needs Assessment report. Both the current MTA Five Year Capital Plan and Twenty Year Capital Needs reports are available on the MTA web site. Perhaps the proposed new 2020-2024 Five Year Capital Program will be publicly released in late 2019. It will make great reading.
It will be several more years before the LIRR completes upgrading interlockings and signals adjacent to Jamaica Station. East Side Access to Grand Central Terminal may not be completed until 2023. Installation of several new interlockings east of Belmont Park could cost tens of millions. These are necessary if the LIRR wishes to provide direct west bound service on the Hempstead, Ronkonkoma, Oyster Bay, Huntington, Port Jefferson and Speonk (via Babylon to Hicksville connection) branches rather than have riders switch at Jamaica and double back to Belmont. This new direct service would conflict with east bound trains especially those operating during evening rush hours from Jamaica, resulting in significant delays. Completion of the Ronkonkoma branch double tracking by 2019 will increase off peak service to every thirty minutes. Completion of Main Line Third track by 2022 will increase rush hour service on the Ronkonkoma branch. In addition, there will be an expansion in rush hour reverse commute services on the Hempstead, Ronkonkoma, Oyster Bay, Huntington and Port Jefferson branches. Finally, LIRR access to Grand Central Terminal will also result in increased peak and off peak services. Slower speeds are required when transversing interlockings. Just stand on the Manhattan bound Queens Village LIRR Station platform and observe how long it takes for a Hempstead Branch west bound train from the Bellrose LIRR Station to travel thru two interlockings before reaching the Queens Village LIRR Station. Eastbound trains can sit for several minutes until the westbound train clears all the interlockings. Imagine the congo line of trains traveling east in the evening rush hour with thousands of passengers waiting for a west bound Belmont Arena train to pass. Any delay of several minutes creates a domino effect resulting in numerous east bound trains running late. New equipment to expand the current fleet also needs to be delivered. Amtrak may delay the start of work by six years from 2019 to 2025 for work on the East River Tunnels.
Remember only one of four East River tunnels can be worked on at a time. This will result in a direct reduction in rush hour service. It will take one to two years to finish work on each tunnel. As a result, this project may not be completed until 2032.
Initiation of LIRR East Side Access to Penn Station will result in the end of direct service to Atlantic Terminal Brooklyn. This will be replaced by a scoot service to Jamaica. This means change at Jamaica for riders to and from Brooklyn. Not very appealing to Islander fans traveling to and from Belmont looking for a one seat ride.
Based upon all of the above, it may be many years for LIRR to provide new service to Belmont Park, especially during evening rush hours after the Belmont Islanders Arena opens.
Larry Penner
(Larry Penner is a transportation historian and advocate who worked 31 years for the US Department of Transportation Federal Transit Administration Region 2 NY Office.)
