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Third track finally coming to LIRR Main Line between Hicksville and Floral Park


46Dover

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"His agenda"

 

Lol.

 

Anyway, this is pretty good, although I am curious to see how construction will go on about. I'm guessing it's an extra track on either the north track or the south track, making the side platforms into island platforms.

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Additionally, the LIRR will conduct a comprehensive safety analysis to address and ensure all aspects of safety at the seven remaining street crossings.

 

Taking this at face-value, does this mean the project won't involve any grade-crossing eliminations?  Right now, there are seven grade crossings left between Floral Park and Hicksville: three in New Hyde Park, two in Mineola, and two near Westbury. The options the MTA studied in the 2000s would have gotten rid of two to four of the grade crossings (depending on the option picked). I guess this is part of how the MTA was able to reduce the amount of land acquisition needed so drastically. If dropping the grade crossing elimination work is needed to drag this out of NIMBY hell, I can understand, but really it's best to do it all at once. 

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I'm wondering where they managed to chop off 1.7 miles from the length of the project. I mean, the PJ & Ronkonkoma branches diverge east of Hicksville, and the Hempstead branch gives you the extra 2 tracks at Floral Park. It has to run between those two points or you're going to end up with a bottleneck.

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I'm wondering where they managed to chop off 1.7 miles from the length of the project. I mean, the PJ & Ronkonkoma branches diverge east of Hicksville, and the Hempstead branch gives you the extra 2 tracks at Floral Park. It has to run between those two points or you're going to end up with a bottleneck.

 

Queens Village to Hicksville is ~11.5 miles; Floral Park to Hicksville is ~9.8 miles. That's where the difference is coming from. So it looks like there were some improvements planned between Queens Village and Floral Park, but those were dropped? We really need more info. 

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From what I heard, this has actually been proposed many times but the residents of Floral Park and New Hyde Park keep fighting it because it would be a noise nightmare and supposedly requires elevating the tracks. Granted, yes, much of the LIRR main line could use a third track, but there are so many space issues.

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From what I heard, this has actually been proposed many times but the residents of Floral Park and New Hyde Park keep fighting it because it would be a noise nightmare and supposedly requires elevating the tracks. Granted, yes, much of the LIRR main line could use a third track, but there are so many space issues.

 

Two tiny towns should not be able to dictate transportation policy for the rest of the Island. Grade separation is not necessary, but it would be in the towns' best interest to do so since the gates are already down for most of the rush hour. The current version with no grade crossing eliminations that Cuomo is currently proposing only requires 50 takings, with an average of five square feet per taking. That's not a lot of space.

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It would be great if that were true. After this, reactivate the LIRR Central Branch, but there would be NIMBY opposition as well.

 

What's the Central Branch LIRR? Is it those abandoned tracks on back of Nassau Community College?

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Yes. They go through Levittown, East Meadow, etc and connect Farmingdale to Country Life Press. (I don't think there were any old stations on that line)

 

Levittown and East Meadow would oppose the reactivation of the Central Branch, even if the MTA presented a reasonable option.

 

The Central Branch isn't abandoned, but there were two stations on the line.

 

Right, the circus uses the tracks whenever they have a show over at Nassau Coliseum.

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LIRR trains use it as well. It's the same color as the Ronkonkoma Branch on maps and allows diesel trains access the Main Line. Funnily enough though, you'll only find the schedules for these trains on Babylon and Montauk Branch timetables.

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Both Garden City and New Hyde Park villages are officially opposed to the project. I hope LIRR demonstrates more backbone than they have in the past. Look at how they kept chickening out over the decades with various proposals for MU yards at Northport, Kings Park, and Smithtown, and electrifying to Port Jeff. As it is now, they have scaled back the 3-track project from Queens interlocking to Floral Park. What do they plan to do with that bottleneck ?

 

Perhaps they should tweak the schedules by 1 and 2 minutes so as to keep the gates down continually at NHP for a whole hour during each rush period. Or maybe there are too many trains stopping at the various Garden City and NHP stations. It would be a relatively simple matter to run non-stop between Jamaica and Mineola, and non-stop between Bellerose and Hempstead, perhaps stop at the skipped stations every 3 or 4 hours. That could teach them a lesson in their keeping the LIRR from progressing out of the 19th Century.

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Both Garden City and New Hyde Park villages are officially opposed to the project. I hope LIRR demonstrates more backbone than they have in the past. Look at how they kept chickening out over the decades with various proposals for MU yards at Northport, Kings Park, and Smithtown, and electrifying to Port Jeff. As it is now, they have scaled back the 3-track project from Queens interlocking to Floral Park. What do they plan to do with that bottleneck ?

 

Perhaps they should tweak the schedules by 1 and 2 minutes so as to keep the gates down continually at NHP for a whole hour during each rush period. Or maybe there are too many trains stopping at the various Garden City and NHP stations. It would be a relatively simple matter to run non-stop between Jamaica and Mineola, and non-stop between Bellerose and Hempstead, perhaps stop at the skipped stations every 3 or 4 hours. That could teach them a lesson in their keeping the LIRR from progressing out of the 19th Century.

 

The problem becomes that you screw the wrong people in those areas: The people working long hours who don't have time to come to the meetings, who would love the increased, more reliable service that the third track would bring. A lot of these people protesting are people with too much time on their hands: Seniors and stay-at-home moms who worry about "the children, the children playing in the streets" (they're playing on busy streets like New Hyde Park Road? And near railroad crossings to boot? But anyway....)

 

Keeping the gates down, you screw over people who just need to pass through, not to mention NICE bus riders (e.g. n25).

 

I do agree that I would love to "teach them a lesson", but if they're stupid enough to be making these types of arguments, are they going to be smart enough to learn the lesson we're trying to teach them. The fact that "the town" is against the proposal doesn't mean that the majority of the residents within that town are against it.

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