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| A Oyster Bay Branch train at Mineola. |
But what the LIRR is/was thinking about doing is taking all those Oyster Bay Branch trains that normally run to Jamaica and truncate them back to Mineola, where the Oyster Bay Branch meets the Mainline.
At Mineola passengers would have to transfer to other electric train service for travel to points west.
The logic behind a move like this isn't all that flawed. Basically, by truncating the Oyster Bay Branch trains to Mineola, more track slots are freed up on the congested Mineola-Jamaica segment of the Mainline. This would allow for more trains to be run from other more popular destinations like Hicksville, Huntington, or Ronkonkoma. Why have valuable track slots be taken up by skimpy little three-car diesel trains that are only half full anyways?
However, while it might make some sense to do that, I personally don't think it's a good idea.
First of all, the amount of track slots freed up would not be all that many. The Oyster Bay Branch sends 17 eastbound trains and 15 westbound trains over the Mineola-Jamaica segment of the Mainline on a normal weekday. That works out to be roughly a train every two hours (the Oyster Bay Branch as bi-hourly off-peak service with a couple extra trains thrown in during rush hours). An extra track slot every two hours isn't going to make all that much of a difference. Furthermore, over the course of a four-hour peak period the Oyster Bay Branch only has six trains operating over the Mineola-Jamaica segment, or an average of 1.5 trains per hour. Again, one or two trains an hour during the rush isn't going to make all that much of a difference.
Second, what is the LIRR going to do with those extra track slots? The Ronkonkoma Branch is already at capacity during rush hours and the MTA has no desire to expand off-peak service on the branch to operate at 30-minute headways. Huntington can only store so many trains on the South Side Track there before trains have to be deadheaded back west (and that only makes the track capacity problem worse), so I'm hard-pressed to find a place where the LIRR can run six extra trains during rush hours. You could run more trains to Farmingdale, but how many more rush hour trains do Bethpage and Farmingdale need before all the trains show up there half-used?
Third, people hate transfers. Years and years of observing Long Islanders and their commuting patterns would dictate that they hate transfers. Why should I be tossed out of my comfortable seat on this train only to have to cram onto another already-crowded Huntington train for the last 45 minuets of my journey? At least at Jamaica there are more options to distribute the load. And patterns dictate that if a person has to transfer at some point in their trip they would prefer to do it as close to the beginning or as close to the end of their trip as possible. A person traveling from Montauk to Penn Station will always prefer to transfer trains at Jamaica and not Babylon. They can remain comfortable in their seat for a longer period of time before having to get up and move. A person transferring at Jamaica can sit comfortably for the first 2.5 hours of their journey and only have to shift to another train for the last 20 minutes. That is usually much more preferred to the idea of spending 2 hours on one train only to have to transfer to another train for a whole additional 1.5 hours to your destination. Making Oyster Bay Branch customers transfer at Mineola instead of Jamiaca will only move the transfer further away from the end points of their journeys, where riders prefer transfers to be scheduled.
Fourth, you are making people transfer more times. People hate having to transfer just once, but if they want to connect to a train that's going someplace other than the limited destinations served from Mineola, they are now going to have to transfer twice. And if people hate transferring once, just imagine how much they'd dislike having to transfer twice. A Jamaica connections are available to almost every single destination in the system. At Mineola, you can only really go to Penn Station, Huntington, or Ronkonkoma. That's about it. A person who wants to go from Locust Valley to Atlantic Terminal now has to transfer twice. A person who wants to go from Locust Valley to Valley Stream now has to transfer three times (instead of just twice). You are basically taking intra-island travelers and giving them a big kick right where it hurts by adding in yet another painful transfer. Currently, just about any destination on the railroad could be reached with a two-seat ride from an Oyster Bay Branch station. Now if they're going anyplace other than Penn Station, Huntington, or Ronkonkoma it now turns into a three seat ride. If I hear three seat ride I am much more likely to just get in my car and drive to my destination instead.
Fifth, (oh, no, I'm not done yet), the station layout in Mineola does not lend itself to be used as a terminal station. Mineola is configured with two side platforms. Much like Huntington, the station lacks the typical layout of the more common transfer stations which have island platfors to ease transfers. However, unlike Huntington, Mineola does not have the track infrastructure in place to make things "work" like Huntington does (i.e. pocket tracks on both sides of the station). Currently only one train dumps its passengers off at Mineola, train 501, the 5:12am Oyster Bay departure. That train discharges its passengers and then has to go all the way to QUEENS interlocking miles and miles to the west to turn around before it can come back east. You are not going to free up one single track slot if every train has to deadhead all the way to Queens Village, five stations to the west. While the Newday article doesn't give any tangible evidence as to how the LIRR plans to get around that little logistical nuisance, there has been talk on occasion that the LIRR will build a third stub-ended track north of the current station platforms, underneath the big Mineola Boulevard overpass for trains to turn. This stub track would lay to the north of the current two platforms and two tracks and would be used exclusively for Oyster Bay Branch trains terminating at Mineola. However, due to the lack of a flyover at NASSAU interlocking, where the Oyster Bay Branch meets the mainline, there would be no platform and stub track on the south side of the station for eastbound passengers. So not only will the LIRR make passengers transfer at Mineola, they are going to make them walk up and down several flights of stairs to do so (a situation which is especially exaggerated at Mineola due to the absurd height of the new overpass from the Mineola Intermodal Center). Transferring is bad enough, but transferring up and down several flights of stairs is particularly unpleasant. Just wait until the first handicapped or old/slow person gets left behind by their connecting train as they attempt to make the painful trek to the other side of the tracks, the LIRR will never hear the end of it.
In summation, the idea is certainly not a good one. Oyster Bay Branch ridership stinks already, making them transfer at Mineola will only cause those already unpleasant figures to drop substantially. I can assure you that pretty shortly after the LIRR moves the transfer to Mineola they will start talking about abandoning the branch altogether...
The LIRR could increase frequencies and all that jazz along the Branch, but if they have to transfer up and down stairs at Mineola, people will not do it and ridership will suffer. Mark my words.
So I offer a solution: instead of shortening Oyster Bay Branch trains' trips, how about the LIRR lengthens their trips? The vast majority of Oyster Bay trains end their runs at Jamaica. How about the LIRR extends all the Oyster Bay Branch trains to Hunterspoint Avenue and Long Island City. All day long and weekends too. Doing this would have a number of benifits:
First, people are brought closer to their destination and transfers are reduced. If I'm going from an Oyster Bay Branch station to someplace in Midtown Manhattan I can either take the train to Jamaica, transfer for a train to Penn Station, and then transfer again to the subway to my final destination. BUT, if my Oyster Bay train ran all the way to Long Island City, I can take the train directly to Hunterspoint Avenue and pick up the subway there. It solves two of the problems pointed out in points three and four above. I am making my transfer as close to my destination as possible (transferring at Hunterspoint Avenue instead of Jamaica) and the number of transfers I have to make is reduced (transferring only at Hunterspoint Avenue instead of Jamaica and Penn Station).
Second, congestion in Jamaica would be reduced. While freeing up track capacity on the Jamaica-Mineola segment of the Mainline is one of the reasons why they want to cut Oyster Bay Branch service back to Mineola, the fact that Oyster Bay Branch trains cause unnecessary congestion in Jamaica is also one of the points at issue. A train that simply passes through Jamaica can do so much more quickly and easily than a train that terminates at Jamaica, fumigates, goes to Richmond Hill, turns, and comes back in to the station on the other side and starts another run there. Let all the lengthy turning procedures be taken care of at Long Island City or Hunterspoint Avenue really speeds things up through Jamaica and eases congestion at a vital choke point on the system. A train can pass through Jamaica in a matter of minutes while a train that has to terminate on one side of the station and make its way over to the complete other side of the complex to originate as a different train takes considerably longer.
Third, it would help boost Long Island City and Hunterspoint Avenue's roles as stations. Part of the reason why HPA and LIC are used by almost nobody is that they are only served by a handful of trains in one direction during rush hours. A person wanting to go to the Long Island City area of Queens by rail on the weekends can't do so and a person who lives in LIC and wants to go out east for the day cannot. Establishing more consistent and all-day and all-week service to these two stations will really help their ridership figures explode. Furthermore, there is a massive amount of development going on in the Hunterspoint and Long Island City sections of Queens, as well as the Greenpoint and Williambsburg sections of Brooklyn (which are easily accessible via the 21st Street (G) train station a short 3-4 minute walk from Hunterspoint Avenue). These waterfront areas are becoming popular destinations for people to live and for companies to work. The building up of these areas will only benefit rail travel to HPA and LIC stations--but only if the LIRR decides to take an interest in them first.
The LIRR should be taking a page out of the book of Metro-North and New Jersey Tansit. Do you see Metro-North making Upper Hudson Line passengers transfer at Croton-Harmon to free up track slots? Do you see New Jersey Transit making Hackettstown customers transfer to electric trains at Dover because there aren't all that many people on them? No. NJT and MNR both run their diesel services as close to Manhattan as possible. And you know what, people ride them. A lot.
Long Island City and Hunterspoint Avenue could well be equated to Hoboken Terminal on the other side of Manhattan. Look how well that station does considering the fact that customers could very well transfer for direct service to Penn Station at either Secaucus or Newark. When Secaucus Junction opened did NJTransit slash all but a handful of peak-direction trains to Hoboken Terminal? No, they continued to operate as many trains as possible to their waterfront terminal and people still use it. Hoboken Terminal sees over 16,000 passengers on the average weekday. Hunterspoint Avenue and Long Island City combined can't even break 7,000--not even half.
In conclusion, I heartily believe the MTA is looking at this whole situation the wrong way. Cutting the Oyster Bay Branch back to Mineola will only substantially damage ridership. However, extending the Oyster Bay Branch trains, as well as all other diesel and West Hempstead Branch trains, will do a world of good for the LIRR and its ridership distribution. While most of the talk up until this point has been mostly hearsay with little factual backing from the MTA, if the LIRR does end up deciding that something has to be done with the Oyster Bay Branch, I do hope that they take a very close look at things.
Very intelligent and thoughtful analysis.
ReplyDeleteMineola station was clearly not built as a transfer station and for it to be efficient there would need to be serious reconfiguration. They need to build a new track specifically for Oyster Bay trains so they won't interfere with the Main Line's traffic while sitting there offloading. However I don't think there is any space to add new tracks. An island platform needs to be created on the north and south sides so people can easily transfer to/from the Main Line. If not they need to build a third (or even fourth) overpass with escalators and wider staircases like at Jamaica to easily get people over.
This now will make my commute from Hicksville longer. Trains will have to stay longer at Mineola to get all these extra people on.
How will Merillon Avenue and New Hyde Park be served if no Oyster Bay trains will go there? Now more Huntington/Ronkonkoma trains will have to stop there making my commute longer.
Instead of Oyster Bay passengers getting on their own dedicated train at Jamaica, they will now be crowding up the Huntington/Ronkonkoma trains until Mineola making it less likely that I will able to get a seat.
Capacity will have to be increased on Huntington/Ronkonkoma to accommodate the increased ridership. Is adding more trains on those lines (and reconstructing Mineola) really cheaper than running the Oyster Bay line?
I feel bad for those in Oyster Bay who need to go to Brooklyn or LIC. Making 3 transfers is more like riding a subway than commuter rail. Hopefully ticket fares will be reduced to compensate for the inconvenience, though I doubt it.
Simple solution: Build the new stub track BETWEEN the EB and WB main (yes, this will require moving the WB main to the north about 20 feet). Mineola would then have 4 platforms: WB and EB main platforms as they exist today; a platform between the pocket track and the WB main track for WB transfers from OB to Main Line trains; and a new platform between the pocket track and the EB main for EB transfers from Main Line trains to OB trains.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with that is that without a proper flyover the Oyster Bay trains would have to cross to that new middle track at grade--and that is part of the problem facing today. A eastbound Oyster Bay train moving through Mineola ties up both the eastbound AND westbound tracks, this would not remove too much of the problem (especially since the westbound connection would presumably have to come in pretty quickly after the Oyster Bay train arrives. You're setting yourself up for trouble scheduling a westbound Mainline train and a Oyster Bay train crossing at grade so close together.
DeletePlus you still have to leave room for a possible third track trough Mineola. It may not be a possibility this decade, but the option must be kept open--especially when there's no way to move a parking garage.
~ Patrick @ The LIRR Today