New price tag to fully electrify all LIRR lines

Daily Point

NYU study recommends cheaper overhead wire systems instead of a third rail

As state officials battle over how to fund the next Metropolitan Transportation Authority capital plan, which includes funds for electrification and other expansion strategies, a new report from New York University’s Marron Institute illustrates in extensive detail just how much such efforts would cost — and what the potential benefits would be.

Electrifying the full Long Island Rail Road system, including necessary double-tracking and other upgrades, would cost between $12 billion and $13 billion, according to the "Momentum" report, released last week.

The report, by transit writer Nolan Hicks, provides a long-needed updated and comprehensive look at what electrifying the LIRR would cost and what the impact would be. It also recommends a significant change in the source of power. Rather than a third rail as the source, the report recommends "adopting overhead catenary systems commonly found elsewhere in the U.S., U.K., Australia, France and elsewhere."

Such a change could cut costs from as much as $62 million per mile to $27 million per mile or less, saving $700 million for the Huntington to Port Jefferson stretch alone, where total up-front costs would fall from $3.1 billion to a maximum of $2.4 billion. Under such a scenario, trains could start their journeys from the east each morning running on the overhead wires, then automatically switch to the third rail power source.

The study examines every LIRR line that’s not currently fully electrified. Costs would range from as much as $700 million for the currently unelectrified part of the Central branch to $3.5 billion for the stretch of the Montauk branch from Babylon to Speonk. Those costs don’t just include electrifying the system, but also installing double tracks, eliminating grade crossings, improving rolling stock, and adding new yards and other upgrades, as necessary.

The report noted that each branch’s costs were within the amount often spent on commuter rail during a typical Metropolitan Transportation Authority capital program.

"This would build a rolling and iterative electrification and modernization effort that upgrades one or two major line segments at a time," the report said.

And while the costs are significant, even on a line-by-line basis, the impacts would be, too, the report showed. On electrified rail, LIRR riders could travel from Manhattan to Port Jefferson in 90 minutes — shaving 19 minutes off the ride. Riders going to Oyster Bay could get there in less than an hour, 20 minutes shorter than their trip is now. And those heading to Southampton could save more than a half-hour on an electrified route.

As the length of the ride decreases, ridership is likely to increase. The largest percentage increase would, according to the report, occur on the Oyster Bay line, which could see a 21% bump, producing 232,000 new trips annually. Of those, 70,000 trips would be entirely new, while the rest would be riders who currently use other branches or don’t ride as often. Bringing increased ridership to the Oyster Bay line could free up parking spaces and overcrowded train cars on the Main Line. The report noted that unlike some of the other lines, the Oyster Bay branch is already double-tracked, allowing for overall costs to remain lower.

"The Oyster Bay Branch is an excellent candidate for electrification, as the short distances between stations mean it would benefit massively from the improved performance of electric service and see the largest percentage increase in ridership," the report said. "However, its low ridership baseline means it would be the fourth-most used line overall."

The unelectrified portion of the Port Jefferson branch — from Huntington to Port Jefferson — could see a 13% increase, with 218,000 new trips a year. That could result in the Port Jefferson branch becoming the most heavily used on a per-mile basis of any of the LIRR’s diesel lines. The Montauk branch, which the report considers as two segments, between Babylon and Speonk and from Speonk to Montauk, could see a total of 372,000 new trips, more than 100,000 of which would be new riders. Every line would see a double-digit percentage increase, the report found.

To those on Long Island who’ve been pushing electrification for decades, the report puts new numbers to their long-standing advocacy. But at a time when the MTA is having trouble securing funding even for maintenance and state-of-good-repair work, it’s unclear whether any talk of electrification and other expansion projects will become anything more than a wish list anytime soon.

— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com

Pencil Point

A titanic hit

For more cartoons, visit www.newsday.com/aprilnationalcartoons

Reference Point

It was always about planning

It is the job of an editorial board to cajole, criticize, praise and, when appropriate, lament. In theory, the topics are endless. But over the years, Newsday’s editorial board in its many iterations has returned time and again to certain issues of eternal interest to Long Island — traffic, the Long Island Rail Road, education, and official corruption, to name a few.

But one of the board’s longest-running themes — and one which the board has cajoled, criticized and lamented but rarely if ever praised — is the lack of regional planning in the region’s development.

That concern has been present almost from Newsday’s origin, and it was expressed clearly in the first year of the paper’s existence in an editorial on April 10, 1941, titled — what else — "A Planning Commission."

The spark was a proposal from the Long Island Association to create an industrial zone along the LIRR Main Line, from Mineola all the way to Ronkonkoma. The idea, the board reported, was that such a zone would attract "light industries" that would be in position to hire people who would be out of work when the defense industry and its aircraft factories inevitably slowed down. Another benefit, the board wrote, would be that the plan would keep industry in one place "and make for a better county all around."

The board noted that a planning commission as laid out in Nassau County’s charter would have authority over such a project but it had not yet been appointed — which the board deemed a mistake since Nassau was then the fastest-growing county in the nation.

"Thousands of homes have been planned or completed since the national nose-count and there is little doubt that our growth will be just as sensational in the next decade as it was in the past. It is only logical, then, to suggest that a Planning Commission is urgently needed here," the board wrote. "The Planning Commission that is established after the building and expanding is over will have missed the boat."

That 1941 board saw such a planning group as working to protect Long Island "from becoming a hodge-podge of industrial and residential zoning, unchartered and ugly."

Eighty-four years later, it’s clear that old Newsday board had reason to be fearful about the lack of regional planning, given the jumble of development that plagues some areas of the Island to this day.

Which leads to one more job of an editorial board. Sometimes, it has to say: We told you so.

— Michael Dobie michael.dobie@newsday.com

Subscribe to The Point here and browse past editions of The Point here.