This month the LIRR reintensified its effort to fix one of the most troubled stretches of single-track railway: the Ronkonkoma Branch between Ronkonkoma and Farmingdale. Currently the LIRR Main Line has four tracks from LIC to QUEENS interlocking, where the Hemsptead Branch and the Main Line split with two tracks apiece. The line then continues double tracked to FARM interlocking, just east of Farmingdale Station. But that's where the fun ends. With the exception of a short stretch of double track between Deer Park and Brentwood stations and a couple passing sidings, the Ronkonkoma is single tracked for much of its length.
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| A view of a train leaving Pinelawn Station. Pinelawn Station, which sits between Wyandanch and Farmingdale sits along the longest portion of single-track territory on the Ronkonkoma Branch. |
And that single track has a whole lot of implications for trains on the Ronkonkoma Branch. First off, flexibility is horribly nonexistent. If something happens on that stretch of railroad, then the whole branch east of Farmingdale can be tied up with no service for hours! All the Ronkonkoma Branch commuters could remember a time when a train had equipment problems or there was police activity at a station and they had to find another-much longer-way home. Secondly, reverse-peak service is virtually non-existent. If you were to take a look at the Ronkonkoma Branch timetable, you'd see that in the evening a train leaves Ronkonkoma at 4:18pm, and if you miss that one the next one leaves....at 7:13pm! An almost three hour gap! (And that gap is even worse for people at Brentwood and Wyandanch, as that 4:18pm train skips those stops, leaving them to wait even longer.)
So bi-directional capacity is hampered pretty badly. In order to run trains in both directions they have to have to specifically schedule meets to occur in locations where there are two tracks (so that's west of Farmindgdale, between Deer Park and Brentwood, at Central Islip, or at Ronkonkoma). Therefore, due to the single track, during off-peak times Ronkonkoma Branch customers can only see trains on an hourly basis. In order to get trains more frequently (every half-hour, like some of the other busier branches), they need more stretches of double track--and that's what this project is going to accomplish.
When all the tracks have been laid, passengers along the Ronkonkoma branch will benefit from greatly increased and more flexible service. Reverse-peak and off-peak service will greatly improve, spurring ridership growth in that market, and travel times can be cut down, as more express service along the branch could be possible. Additionally they can add even more trains once East Side Access is completed and more and more servie is added to the timetables.
The Project
Well, nobody said it's going to be easy. Double tracking a right of way will likely be quite the task, a task that hasn't been attempted since the Port Jefferson Branch was double tracked from east of Syosset to Huntington. And trying to do it while not disturbing the track right next to it is going to be even harder. I'm afraid that many "bustitution" outages are on the horizon for Ronkonkoma Branch customers. Midday, late night, and weekend riders will likely feel the short-term effects of this project in a big way once ground is broken. For Phase 1, we're likley to see lots of busing between Brentwood and Ronkonkoma, and then following that Phase 2 will likley cause busing of the whole enchilada for the time.
But don't worry just yet-substitue bus service and schedule changes are not quite coming up just yet. The LIRR has not make known its exact plans for going about double tracking. All they've said is that they plan to do it in two phases. Phase 1 involves double tracking from Ronkonkoma to Central Islip, and Phase 2 involves the rest, from Central Islip to Farmingdale. They have not specified how they would go about doing so. Are they going to do it while disrupting service very little? Are they going to bustitute off-peak trains? Or are they just going to bus the whole stretch being worked on 24/7 and work as fast as possible to get it
done with no interference? We don't seem to know as of yet, but I suspect we'll learn some of the more unpleasant particulars in the upcoming months.
But, as stated, the LIRR is going to attack this project in two phases, as shown in this map below (click for larger image):
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| (Photo Credit: MTA) |
North or South?
So where are they putting this track? Well, first of all, the second track is going to be installed entirely within the LIRR's existing right-of-way. So no additional property is going to be needed to make this happen.
The plan, as of now, is to leave the existing single track untouched in it's current position (as supposed to shifting it in one direction or another to squeeze the new track in). For Phase 1 (Ronkonkoma to Central Islip) the new track will go north of the existing track. Contrarily, for Phase 2 (Central Islip to Farmingdale), the new track will go south of the one that's already there. Those locations (north/south) prove the easiest places to add the new track in while staying in the right-of-way.
The Schedule
And what would be a MTA Capital Construction project without some sort of timeline that would eventually get horribly pushed back... (a la ESA, Second Avenue Subway, (7) Line extension...)
But anyways, here's the LIRR's projected schedule for this project as it stands now:
- May 2012
- $138 million in funds commited to expidite double-track project
- July 2012
- Award design/environmental contract for Phase 1
- November 2013-September 2016
- Construction of Phase 1
- January 2015-September 2015
- Preliminary design of Phase 2
- April 2016-December 2018
- Constriction of Phase 2
So the way it looks now we should expect groundbreaking sometime around November of this year, and Ronkonkoma to Central Islip would be double tracked by September of 2016. And we can expect the whole line double tracked with the completion of Phase 2 around December 2018. That's not all too far away, is it?
As part of the LIRR's renewed efforts this month regarding the double track project, they put together a nice video detailing their goals and aims for the project, here it is, as uploaded to the LIRR's YouTube channel:
The LIRR has also set up a whole webpage devoted to the Double Track project on their website. It includes lots of good information on the project, as well as contact information should anybody have any questions or concerns. There is also a Double Track project brochure available on the MTA's website, which is quite informational.
For more information, you can visit the LIRR's Double Track project webpage on the MTA's website.
Additionally, in order to inform the public on details of the upcoming work there will be two Double Track Project Information Centers open duirng January 2013 in Ronkonkoma and in Farmingdale. You can find out more information on these centers on MTA's website by clicking here.
