(The Suffolk Life Newspapers posted the following article by Larry Swasey on its website on March 5.)
SUFFOLK, N.Y. — Two town supervisors teamed up last week to say the Long Island Rail Road needs to be run from Long Island.
Huntington Supervisor Frank Petrone and Babylon Supervisor Steve Bellone held a press conference February 25 at the Wyandanch Long Island Rail Road Station to announce they would go to Albany together if needed to stop the reorganization of the New York/New Jersey Metropolitan Transit Authority if it meant the LIRR would not be run from Long Island.
Bringing the LIRR into “one huge bureaucracy is a continued assault on our commuters and a slap in the face to our commuters,” Bellone said. “We are here to oppose it.”
“Certainly, we are very, very opposed to any merger,” Petrone said. “We are not going to stand back and watch the commuters be assaulted. If we have to go to Albany, we will go together.”
The reorganization was announced in October 2002 by the MTA, which stated the Long Island Rail Road and the Metro North Railroad would become one system, and renamed the MTA Rail Road. At the time, MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow said the reorganization would save “millions of dollars.” The reorganization was supposed to be phased in over two years, according to the MTA. The LIRR transports 306,200 passengers per day, up from 295,200 per day in 1995, according to the MTA.
Bellone and Petrone stated at the press conference the reorganization would virtually mean that Long Islanders and area elected officials would lose their voice on issues concerning Long Islanders and the railroad due to the growing bureaucracy of the system.
They also said the area may lose a voice on the advancement of capital projects undertaken by the MTA on behalf of the LIRR, meaning the level of maintenance would drop and projects such as electric lines being extended farther east into Suffolk County would rank lower on the overall list due the burgeoning reorganization. “Will these take a back seat to other issues at the MTA? We don’t know,” Bellone said. “The Long Island Rail Road is big enough to have its own management.”
The supervisors noted that the MTA has stated there would be millions of dollars per year in savings as a result of the merger, but there were questions about the potential savings. “There is no study to show these savings,” Petrone said. “I do not think there is enough savings that justifies merging the railroad,” Bellone said.
“I like to see the name Long Island on it, it just sounds better,” said commuter Todd Malone of North Babylon. Malone, who commutes daily from Wyandanch to Queens on the LIRR, agreed with the supervisors on how the merger would affect how well Long Islanders would be heard on railroad issues.
He also was glad the local representatives were standing up for keeping the LIRR management on Long Island. “I think it’s going to help having someone to stand up who is in a top position for us,” Malone said. “That is their job.”
“I don’t think it is right,” said David Gutierrez about the proposed merger. Gutierrez commutes twice a week from Wyandanch to Jamaica. “I think as a people we should have a say on how our commute should be.”