Anyways, here is the list (in no particular order):
- Babylon Branch Grade Crossing Elimination
- Ordering the M1 Fleet
- Electrification of the Ronkonkoma Branch
- Merging South Side Railroad and Flushing & North Shore Railroads into the LIRR
- Going to all high-level platforms
- Initializing Dual Mode service
- Constructing West Side Yard
- Getting The Franchise to dig a tunnel under the East River
- Moving the Cannonball to depart form Penn Station
- Beginning East Side Access
Projects like the Babylon Branch Grade Crossing Eliminations and the Herricks Road Grade Crossing elimination substantially decreased the amount of grade crossing incidents that have been experienced at those locations, thus improving both the reliability and safety of the trains and the roads in the surrounding neighborhoods.
The expansion of electrification on the Ronkonkoma Branch (and to Huntington, which gets honorable mention), has allowed for substantial increases in service and ridership. East Side Access' eventual opening will open up even more doors for LIRR passengers, and hopefully ridership will explode just like it did along the Ronkonkoma Branch.
The purchase of the M1 Metropolitans significantly modernized the LIRR's fleet and provided much higher level of comfort, reliability, and safety for passengers. The introduction of Dual Mode service to Penn Station has also become incredibly popular among those who are given the opportunity to ride them, and it has made commuting in on the LIRR from diesel territory even more attractive.
Looking to this list we can hopefully find guidance in making more future decisions. Many of these decisions could be repeated by the LIRR in the next decade. It is no doubt that grade crossing eliminations and expanded electrification, while unpopular when the actual projects are going on, bring substantial benefits to those who live near those lines. Not all of these decisions are repeatable, though, there are no more competing railroads on Long Island for the LIRR to buy up and the Pennsylvania Railroad isn't around to dig more East River Tunnels, (and hopefully we won't have to "begin East Side Access" ever again!).
The LIRR has had an interesting history, and it has made great leaps and bounds since it's first days in service connecting Brooklyn to Greenport. Hopefully, the decisions the LIRR will make in the next several years will be candidate to add to this list and not the "10 Worst Decisions the LIRR Ever Made." But only time will tell.
A decent list.
ReplyDeleteI think you should also do a "10 Future LIRR events that need to happen" poll as well (e.g. third mainline track).
An interesting and thought-provoking list.
ReplyDeleteHowever, 1837 is far from the correct date for the SSRR/F&NS merger. Indeed, the LIRR itself had only reached Hicksville by 1837, so there weren't too many other railroads in existence on the Island that early on. The Flushing & North Side wasn't merged into the LIRR until 1876, and the South Side wasn't formally acquired until 1889 (though it was leased by the LIRR starting in 1876 as well).
Building on your #8, I would argue that the decision back in the 1860s to abandon Brooklyn as the primary western terminus and move operations to Long Island City (then called Hunter's Point) should also qualify, since that was what made regular connections to Manhattan (initially by ferry) possible in the first place, much more so than from Brooklyn. It was this more northerly approach via Queens that cleared the way (and literally provided part of the right of way) for the later East River tunnel franchise. I am convinced that one could not have happened without the other.