The expansion of electrification on Long Island (and in the United States in particular) is a critically important way to modernize and advance the LIRR, but it is something that has received very little attention in recent years. The expansion of electrification has a number of significant benefits:
- Faster speeds, with greater acceleration and deceleration, so trains can get up to speed faster when leaving stations or passing speed restrictions. Studies have shown that electric MU’s typically have acceleration rates of as much as 2.5 times those of diesel locomotives. The LIRR’s M-7’s can accelerate at about 3 ft/s2, but were derated to about 1.5 ft/s2, in part, so the LIRR wouldn’t need to upgrade its power infrastructure for the more power hungry cars. Faster speeds means greater travel time reduction, especially on lines with closely spaced stations or lots of slower curves (like the Oyster Bay and Port Jefferson Branches).
- Better reliability, as shown previously, the LIRR has significant reliability issues with its diesel fleet. The LIRR’s M-7 fleet has MDBF figures that are more than 16x higher than the DE’s and DM’s, and even the 30-year old M-3’s, which look very worse for wear, are still about twice as reliable as the LIRR’s diesel locomotives. And while LIRR’s diesel fleet is exceptionally unreliable, electric MU’s being more reliable than traditional diesel push/pull trains is a trend that extends industry-wide. Better reliability means fewer breakdowns and delays impacting service on diesel trains.
- More flexibility, expanding electrification means that LIRR has more opportunities to reroute trains to other lines, either due to planned or unplanned service changes. The LIRR is currently extremely limited in the amount of extra service it provides, so if it needs to reduce service on the Ronkonkoma Branch, for example, it can’t really increase service on the Port Jefferson or Montauk Branches to pick up the slack.
- Greater fleet commonality, when it comes to maintenance costs, the more common your fleet is, the more efficient you can be with maintenance, the fewer types of parts and maintenance equipment you need to buy and maintain, and higher productivity overall.
Other reasons commonly cited include electric power being cheaper and more environmentally friendly, but neither of those are particularly true on Long Island. According to LIPA’s Electric Resource Plan, 79% of Long Island’s power comes from burning natural gas and fuel oil, so by electrifying you’re not really reducing emissions, you’re just moving them elsewhere. New EPA-compliant diesel locomotives are also so efficient that they emit almost no particulate matter anyways. And as far as costs are concerned, you may be surprised to learn that last year, the LIRR spend almost 50% more per revenue mile on power for electric trains than they did on fuel for diesel trains (and this just reflects scheduled service…extra (e.g. seasonal) service is predominately diesel trains, and the LIRR’s work engine fleet and track car fleet consumes diesel fuel but doesn’t contribute towards revenue miles, so the disparity is even wider). You can also hedge on fuel prices (the diesel fuel hedge was one of the few bright points for the MTA financially during the last recession).
The LIRR has been very averse to expanding electrification in their shoulder shrugging era. After the LIRR’s last electrification project (to Ronkonkoma in the late 1980’s), the railroad was in a position to do the Port Jefferson Branch next. The Port Jefferson Branch was actually supposed to be electrified first—as part of the extension of electrification to Huntington, the LIRR built 12-car long high platforms at every station and even constructed three additional DC substations east of Huntington (Greenlawn (P09), Smithtown (P16) and Port Jefferson (P24)…they sit unused to this day), all in anticipation of electrification going there next. But in the 1980’s the LIRR abandoned that idea and instead brought electrification to Ronkonkoma, because there was space available to build large parking lots near the stations. The LIRR figured that was just as good, since people could just drive down from the Port Jefferson Branch or up from the South Shore and park along the Main Line. After they completed electrification to Ronkonkoma, the LIRR stated it was going to do the Port Jefferson Branch next (and they even had funding in place to go as far as Smithtown, if not further), but, all of a sudden, LIRR officials chickened out…the price of electrification mysteriously doubled overnight and now it was supposedly unaffordable.
The LIRR doubled down on that in the mid-1990’s with the ill-fated new diesel fleet and the claim that dual modes were just as good as electrification. As part of the new dual mode order, the LIRR promised 10 round-trips per day from the diesel branches into NY-Penn Station, but to this day, the LIRR has fulfilled just half of that promise (with Speonk getting a second dual mode in February of this year).
In the 2000’s the LIRR has not been any friendlier to idea of electrification. Despite rather widespread support for electrification, the MTA has put up every obstacle it could find to avoid expanding it. A December 2016 Long Island Association/Sienna College poll found that 70% of Long Islanders would support expanding electrification to Port Jefferson, Riverhead, and Patchogue. On the Port Jefferson Branch, in particular, extending electrification has garnered support from every level of local government—from the villages and towns along the route, to Suffolk County, and both houses of the state legislature, few seem to be in opposition to the idea of faster and more reliable train service.
The graph below shows the LIRR’s history with electrification, with the total number of route miles electrified at each point since 1900:
If you need any further proof that the LIRR has fallen way behind in terms of expansion and modernization, look no further than the graph above. Today, in 2018, the LIRR has 139.5 route miles of electrification—that is just 1.5 route miles more than the LIRR’s prior peak in 1928, when the Cedarhurst Cutoff was restored. The LIRR completed two major waves of electrification in the early part of the last century—the initial burst of electrification, completed between 1905 and 1913, brought electric service to 87.3 route miles of the LIRR. A second burst came in the roaring 20’s, electrifying 54.7 more route miles and bringing the grand total to 138 route miles. The Great Depression, limits on steel availability during World War II, and the Pennsylvania Railroad’s post-war “lean years” stymied further expansion of electrification for the next several decades. The abandonment of several lines reduced the total route miles of electrification to 111.4 miles by time the state took over operations in the 1960’s.
Since the state takeover in 1966, the LIRR has seen just two electrification projects: first to Huntington in the 1970’s, then to Ronkonkoma in the 1980’s. During the last five decades of public ownership, the LIRR has just 28.1 route miles more of electrification today than it did when the MTA took over. The expansion of electrification to Huntington broke a 36-year streak of no progress on electrification (the most prior expansion being the short segment from Mineola to East Williston in 1935). The inauguration of electrification service to Ronkonkoma in January 1988 brings the total route miles of electrification to where it stands now, at 139.5 miles.
In 2018, we again find ourselves in another mutli-decade dry spell without progress on electrification, with this coming January marking 31 years since the completion of the Ronkonkoma Branch electrification. But, there may be light (albeit a very faint light) at the end of that tunnel…
Breaking the dry spell?
Electrification is in the news again after LIRR President Phillip Eng announced during an update on “LIRR Forward” at last month’s MTA Board meeting that the LIRR is looking to expand electrification to the Central Branch to help improve flexibility during planned and unplanned service changes. Funding for electrification of the 6.8-mile link between the Main Line at Bethpage and the Montauk Branch in Babylon will be included in the MTA’s 2020-2024 Capital Program. The stated objective of this would be to improve flexibility in the event of a disruption that impacts all tracks on the Main Line (or the South Shore), like we have seen a couple times already so far this year.While it’s definitely nice to see the LIRR thinking outside the box in this regard, this definitely won’t be a be-all, end-all fix for service disruptions. To start, detouring from Jamaica to Hicksville via the Central Branch is a minimum 60-minute detour: the normal express trip from Jamaica to Hicksville takes about 20 minutes. Non-stop trains on the South Shore can do the run from Jamaica to Babylon in about 36 to 38 minutes, then it’s another 18 minutes up the Central Branch to Hicksville. And that assumes the train can have a non-stop run at a high speed on the South Shore and can change directions in just a few minutes, which will almost never happen. Factor in added time getting stuck behind a local (18 additional minutes), 10 minutes to ends at Babylon, then again at Bethpage or Hicksville (10 minutes), congestion in Babylon and Hicksville as these trains need to move into the station, change directions, and wait for the Central Branch to be clear (as the line is still only single tracked with no passing sidings), and it’s easily a 90 minute to 2 hour detour. While it would be nice to have the option, it would only be a practical alternative for the most severe of service disruptions (that a come at a frequency of only 2 or 3 a year), as most other blockages (due to police activity, a downed tree, etc.) should be resolvable in under two hours.
Another reason cited by the railroad in support of the Central Branch electrification is it would add more intra-Island commuting opportunities for the Main Line, Babylon, and Montauk Branches, which is likewise a nice idea, but it’s difficult to see the practicality of it. The Main Line west of Hicksville is already very constrained, and currently planned projects will not do that much to relieve peak-direction constraints. If the Main Line is operating at full capacity, adding a train up the Central Branch from Babylon would require subtracting a train from Huntington, Port Jefferson, or Ronkonkoma. And absent further electrification eastward, those trains would only serve Babylon—a station that already has very good service with Patchogue/Speonk diesels and Babylon electric trains.
While the Central Branch is one of the few “north-south” links on the LIRR, it is still a predominately east-west line, splitting off from the Montauk Branch at a rather obtuse angle. If you wanted to commute from Massapequa to Hicksville, for example, via the Central Branch, you would need to first travel 16 minutes east to Babylon, then, in the best case scenario, if you have a timed cross-platform transfer (4 minutes), it’s still 18 more minutes northwest to Hicksville. So you would be looking at a total travel time of 38 minutes—more than twice what it takes to drive from Massapequa to Hicksville, and 10 minutes longer than the existing n80 bus, which almost nobody uses.
Don’t get me wrong—the absence of viable north-south links is a gaping hole in the LIRR network, but I don’t think there are any cases or lines (former or new) where a LIRR heavy rail link would be practical. If we want to address north-south commuting on Long Island, we would be much better off investing in Bus Rapid Transit or light rail along existing north-south commercial corridors. If the LIRR thinks the market for Babylon-Hicksville traffic is large enough to justify sacrificing existing Main Line service, perhaps it’d be wise to add Hicksville stops on Montauk Branch trains that currently operate via the Main Line now (pink shaded trains), but pass Hicksville without stopping, to prove there is a market for this service.
When it comes to what location presents the best value for electrification, there should be no question: the Port Jefferson Branch. The Port Jefferson Branch is the heaviest traveled diesel branch, by a lot, and reviving the LIRR’s abandoned electrification plans would have a number of key benefits. In addition to great travel time improvements, as there are a lot of curves and speed restrictions east of Kings Park, greater reliability (as the Port Jefferson Branch has historically had one of the lowest OTP’s on the LIRR), extending electrification all the way to Port Jefferson would unlock the ability to use the large east and west yards at Port Jefferson to store electric trains. This has been a big problem on the Port Jefferson Branch, as Huntington was always meant to be the temporary terminal of electric service, and as a result, does not have adequate facilities to store trains, or serve as an effective transfer point between diesel electric trains.
If the LIRR never stagnated, and instead modernized aggressively towards the end of the last century, like nearly every regional railroad did in Europe, then the expansion of electrification should not have stopped after Ronkonkoma. The LIRR should have rolled right on to the Port Jefferson Branch, then continued to expand electrification on the Montauk, Central, and Oyster Bay Branches.
In 2018, the need for expanding electrification exists far beyond just the Central Branch. Electrification should really be expanded to the Port Jefferson Branch (as the top priority), as well as the Montauk Branch, at least as far as Patchogue, and the entire Oyster Bay Branch—now. Doing that would fully electrify the territory used by the vast majority of the LIRR’s current passengers, and leave only two segments of diesel territory on the East End of Long Island: between Patchogue and Montauk, and between Ronkonkoma and Greenport. Now, I can definitely see entertaining arguments for extending electrification to Riverhead and Speonk as well, but I think the commuting demographic east of Ronkonkoma and Patchogue is different enough (it’s a very gray area, but you have to draw the line someplace) that is sufficient to end electric service there, and instead operate frequent shuttles (no less than hourly, or half-hourly on the South Shore during rush hour and over the summer) using faster DMU equipment and timed transfers at Patchogue and Ronkonkoma.
In his presentation, Mr. Eng mentioned that he thinks it important to “take a look at” electrifying the Port Jefferson Branch as well. Again, while that is definitely a step in the right direction, and an idea more out-of-the-box than what we are used to hearing from LIRR officials, we are well beyond the time for “taking a look at”, “evaluating”, and “considering”. It’s time to start doing.
If there is to be any semblance of forward motion, Port Jefferson Branch electrification should be at the top of the list for the next capital program (2020-2024). Funding for full electrification of all four of the segments mentioned above should be included, but if that’s too much to swallow, it would be reasonable to first prioritize the Port Jefferson Branch to be done before East Side Access opens, then the Montauk Branch to Patchogue by the end of 2024. Then in the 2025-2029 Capital Program, do the Central Branch by the end of 2026, and the Oyster Bay Branch by the end of 2028. That timeline, while protracted, would mean we would have all active LIRR territory west of Patchogue-Mount Sinai Road electrified within 10 years. It would be a great way to make up for lost time.
While things can definitely change, based on the comments made at the last MTA Board meeting, I think it is likely we see the 2020-2024 Capital Program provide the funding for electrifying the Central Branch, but only providing a small sum for studying or “design only” work for the Port Jefferson Branch (it’s the MTA’s way of saying they’re not diametrically opposed to a project, but they don’t care about actually doing it anytime soon). That would be a big setback for forward motion on electrification. In 2013, the MTA issued its 20-year capital needs assessment report for the 2015-2034 time frame, which recommended the expansion of electrification to 16 additional stations in Suffolk County. If this is the only action the MTA takes in the 2020-2024 Capital Program, then at the end of 2024—halfway through the term covered in the 20-year capital needs assessment—they would have made little progress on that, expanding electrification to an even zero stations.
In terms of modernization and progress, there are few things with benefits so clear-cut as expanding electrification. The LIRR should seize upon the widespread support among Long Islanders and their elected officials and make up for lost time.
