At next week's MTA Board and Committee meetings, the MTA Board will be asked to give the LIRR a green light to take $37.2 million in funding that was included in the 2010-2014 Capital Program for the purpose of purchasing Alternative Diesel Equipment (i.e. Diesel Multiple Units or DMU's) that could be used to provide better train service on the East End of Long Island by allowing the LIRR to run a more frequent intra-Island shuttle service and instead use that money to purchase 24 re-manufactured work locomotives to replace the LIRR's existing work locomotive fleet.
NYS Assemblyman Fred Thiele has said "the MTA and LIRR continue to ignore the needs of the East End. In the meantime, limited mass transit service is choking our local roads with traffic." A survey conducted by the Assemblyman's office showed overwhelming support for shuttle train service on the East End--65% supported the idea while only 8% opposed it.
It's very disappointing that the LIRR is quite literally robbing Long Islanders who live on the East End by diverting money that was intended for purchasing equipment to increase service and using it for another project instead of trying to find a way to get it to work. The lack of enough train equipment has often been cited as the primary roadblock to increasing service to an area that sees only a single-digit number of trains per day in each direction (and, as a direct result, has so little ridership). DMU equipment was sought because it is typically a lot cheaper than conventional diesel equipment and would have been an excellent fit for shuttle train service on the East End. The DE or Dual Mode locomotives the LIRR uses today can work (if there was enough of them), but is overkill for this type of service, especially once you consider that more than half (52%) of those that live on the East End and are employed also work on the East End--just 7% of those that live out East and work do so in Manhattan--almost everyone else doesn't need Dual Mode trains to Manhattan or anything fancy like that.
The five easternmost Towns on Long Island already pay much more into the MTA in dedicated taxes and subsidies than they get back in service. The LIRR's latest move will block any real chance of getting that corrected in the coming years, as the MTA's 2015-2019 Capital Program also includes no real funding that would allow for more trains to what's likely one of the most underserved parts of the MTA's service territory.
