LIRR Looking to Supplement Current Diesel Fleet

To be honest, when I first heard of the concept for DMU's for the LIRR a couple years ago I sincerely hoped the idea would die a natural death.  The idea, however, does not seem to be going away and I delved into the DMU idea this morning.  But last night, only a few short hours after I finished up and queued that post, a "Request for Expression of Interest" (RFEI) popped across my computer monitor.

Yesterday, a document popped up on the MTA's website saying that the LIRR was considering leasing some sort of supplemental diesel equipment to supplement the current fleet which is far too small to carry on like it is now.

From the RFEI: "MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) is contemplating supplementing a portion of its current fleet of passenger diesel locomotives and passenger rail cars via a lease agreement. The LIRR is interested in obtaining sets of equipment which are highly reliable and are in good working order in the following configurations:

• "Group A: Up to five consist that contain two locomotives and seating for 420 passengers each
• Group B: Up to two consist that contain two locomotives and seating for 280 passengers each"

As it stands, the cars designated in "Group A" would supplement Oyster Bay Branch sets with trains of five cars seating 420 passengers (roughly 84 people per car, so a standard single-level coach would be more than sufficient).   "Group B" would be for two car sets that seat 280 passengers.  Two cars that can seat 280 passengers could be a bit tricky.  280 divided by two is 140 seats per car.  So that would very likely have to be a bi-level car of some sort.  Finding leftover/used equipment that are bi-levels and seat 140 people will be quite difficult, so I hope the LIRR's not going to adhere to that requirement all that strictly.

The document goes on to say that the cars have to have heat and AC and the like (consider yourselves lucky, that used to not be the case on many railroads!).  The document also says that the cars must be ADA accessible and able to board at high-level platforms.  The cars must also be able to meet all of the LIRR's clearance requirements (presumably including New York Penn).

The document then says that the equipment would be able to run at speeds as high as 80 m.p.h. (though there's not an inch of anything close to 80 m.p.h. territory east of Ronkonkoma and for the vast majority of the Oyster Bay branch).

There's not that much else to it.  It's basically just a "feeler" that the LIRR's putting out to see if anyone possibly has something that they would be able to lease to the LIRR.

So who could the LIRR possibly lease from?  It would have to be another passenger railroad, unless some random Joe Snobgrass is sitting around someplace with seven cars and four locomotives tied up in his backyard.  Because they would have to meet pretty tight clearance regulations, the only real candidates are other New York-area railroads.  Obviously the LIRR isn't going to lease stuff from themselves, so we can cross them off the list.  Moreover, Metro-North doesn't really have a surplus of Shoerliner coaches, and judging from their ongoing implosion on the New Haven Line, I'd think they'd quite like to keep what they have on their own rails, even if they aren't getting used.

The only candidate I can think of is NJTransit.  However, they're equipment took a hit after Hurricane Sandy and they are still yet to completely recover.  Of their 932 normally available coaches (both Comets and MLV's), 213 were damaged during Hurricane Sandy, and 54 of those have still yet to be returned to service.

If Hurricane Sandy hadn't happened I'd say NJTransit would be the best bet.  A while back they tried out the "Atlantic City Express Service" (ACES) where there would be a direct train from NYP and NWK to Atlantic City.  For that service, NJTransit acquired four hand-me-down P40's from Amtrak and the casino owners pitched in for eight specially modified MLV cars.  Since then, that service has gone belly up, and those locomotives and/or cars have been either damaged or pressed into everyday service on NJT.  The four P40's and eight MLV's would be perfect for the LIRR since they would positively fit every dimension in NYP, and very possibly on the whole railroad.

But with NJTransit's shaky recovery after Hurricane Sandy, I can't quite see them floating some cars over to the LIRR without having their full fleet restored in the first place.

Once you go outside the New York Metro things get dicey.  Other railroads might have surplus equipment, but if they can't work with the LIRR's pretty tight clearances and requirements, they won't be too good.  And while some out of the ordinary stock might be fine for the lowly Greenport Branch, where there are hardly any overpasses and all of them leave plenty of room, keep in mind that that equipment will have to touch the rest of the LIRR system at some point to get fueled and repaired.

Bottom line, I like what I'm seeing from the LIRR, their diesel fleet is far too small and it needs more cars and more locomotives, especially in the summer.  What they're doing is a smart move as any new equipment purchases (yes, even DMU's) are still years away from hitting the rails.   However, due to the unique characteristics of the LIRR,  I wouldn't hold your breath for the LIRR to get too many e-mails back about this.