MTA abandons plans for new Elmhurst, Republic stations

As part of the MTA's 2015-2019 Capital Program the agency committed funding towards restoring two stations that had been previously closed: Elmhurst station on the Port Washington Branch in Queens (full design and construction) and Republic station on the Main Line in East Farmingdale (design only).  These infill stations would have expanded access to the LIRR by allowing new riders to take existing trains and better utilize existing capacity.

The site of the former Elmhurst station at Broadway
(Photo: Tdorante10/Wikimedia Commons)

Elmhurst station was first built by the New York & Flushing Railroad in 1855 and the station went through a couple of iterations (including grade separation) before ultimately being closed for good on January 1, 1985.  Reopening the Elmhurst station has been supported for about a decade by a cohort of Queens politicians, and as far back as 2012 former LIRR President Helena Williams said "Elmhurst is for the first time in over 20 years a feasible location for us" and that the railroad was seriously considering the proposal.  By late 2014, the MTA appeared ready to go, fully funding the design and construction of the project at $30.5 million in the 2015-2019 Capital Program.  But like many bait-and-switch projects the MTA promises and then never delivers, as the MTA began to run over budget and behind schedule on other projects (and were pressured to insert new projects like the Main Line Grade Crossing Elimination project) the MTA began to chip away at the funding.  First, construction funding was cut in 2017 with the agency planning on completing the design and preliminary engineering activities first, then funding construction in the next program.  In early 2018, the funding was further chipped away, and by the end of the year the MTA diverted the remaining funding to cover last-minute cost overruns on the Ronkonkoma Branch Double Track project.

A view of the former Republic station, looking east
(Photo: Art Huneke/TrainsAreFun.com)

Republic station was newer on the scene, opening on December 9, 1940 to serve workers at the nearby Republic Airport and the adjacent Fairchild Engine & Airplane Manufacturing Company facilities.  As part of the Ronkonkoma Branch electrification project, the LIRR closed this station in the late 1980's to cut down on running times and avoid the cost of building high platforms.  Efforts to restore this station date back more than a decade.  The MTA first included $3.5 million to design the station as part of its 2010-2014 Capital Program.  By the time the MTA overhauled its Capital Program following Hurricane Sandy, the project was given the heave-ho.  The MTA brought the project back in its 2015-2019 Capital Program, committing $5 million towards the design of the station again.  But like more than 15% of LIRR projects promised by the MTA as part of the 2015-2019, this project was dropped from the program completely, with the $5 million being diverted to the Ronkonkoma Branch Double Track project.  Despite more than a decade going by and us paying for the design of the station twice, we are no further than we were in 2009.

Neither of these stations were picked back up in the MTA's landmark 2020-2024 Capital Program (as approved earlier this year), making these stations officially dead.  The MTA says that they are evaluating system expansion projects differently as part of the 2020-2024 Capital Program, focusing their large-scale capacity expansion projects on "adding capacity to the system, expanding the reach of the network, and serving changing travel patterns throughout the region".

A rendering of a proposed development with a new Republic
station as part of the East Farmingdale rezoning proposal
(Rendering: Dover, Kohl & Partners)

For Elmhurst, the MTA says that they are adding modern signaling (CBTC) to the Queens Boulevard Line and that will increase capacity on the existing subway service used by more people.  At the Republic site, the MTA believes that since the Town of Babylon abandoned a rezoning plan for the East Farmingdale area along Route 110 in late 2018, there are no growth or development opportunities there.

But in both of these cases, the MTA is missing the entire point behind why the projects were proposed in the first place.  The agency says that the focus of their capacity expansion projects focus on expanding the reach of the network and serving changing travel patterns—but that's exactly what adding an infill station achieves.  From the framing of the Manhattan & Ronkonkoma Railroad, the reasoning makes perfect sense: everyone on Long Island has a car and so can just drive to a different station and take up valuable downtown land by parking their car, "transit oriented development" is just a joke, and anything that could possibly be done to make rail a more integrated part of NYC's transit network should be avoided...

Officials celebrating the launch of a survey to gauge interest
for a new Elmhurst station (Photo: MTA/Salvatore Arena)

At Elmhurst, a new LIRR station would have not only taken some pressure off of the crowded Queens Boulevard and Flushing subway lines, it would have also significantly sped up the commutes of those who could use the service.  One of the main selling points of the station was that catching the railroad at Elmhurst would get you to midtown Manhattan in about 15 minutes, as supposed to 30-35 minutes or more on the subway.  And pressing on with the Elmhurst station would have allowed the new capacity being made available by Queens Boulevard CBTC to be utilized elsewhere along that corridor.

At Republic, the point of that station was never to just serve a local transit-adjacent development around the airport...  A new Republic station's principal offering is providing an easy connection to transit services along the extremely busy NY-110 Broadhollow corridor.  The Melville-East Farmingdale area is Long Island's single largest job center with over 80,000 jobs, including nearly 12,000 people who commute there from the city, according to the US Census.

But how many LIRR stations does Long Island's largest job center have?  Zero.  The only way to get here is to either drive (many of the large office clusters are located conveniently off the LIE) or take the LIRR way out of your way to either Huntington Station or Amityville—at the very north and south ends of the NY-110 corridor—and then make your way back to Melville in the center of LI on the S1 bus (which takes a minimum of 30 minutes and is, of course, not timed to meet the trains).  In order to make it to Melville for a 9:00a start, you have to get the 6:55a train to Amityville, then wait 15 minutes for the next S1 bus to come and take you up NY-110.  By time you factor in the detours and connection times, it can take well over two hours, nearly double what it takes to drive even in reverse-peak traffic.

A proposed BRT/bus network feeding
out from Republic (Town of Babylon)

A new station at Republic would put riders within spitting distance of most of the major commercial and industrial sites, and it would link up well with the proposed NY-110 Bus Rapid Transit route, part of the ConnectLI effort that was started by the Town of Babylon and has been handed off to the Suffolk County Department of Economic Development and Planning.  Even during LIRR's promotional video for the Ronkonkoma Branch Double Track project, a number of elected officials (and even some from the railroad itself) cited the value of connectivity to the NY-110 corridor at Republic as a reason for the importance of that project.  And therein lies the key point the MTA is missing: a Republic station is not so much to serve the people immediately around the airport (though any TOD that goes along with it would be great), but rather to better connect people to the existing employment center just a few miles up the road.

I will explore this in greater detail later this week, but the current crop of LIRR stations is only within walking distance of a very small portion of Long Island's jobs.  The MTA is spending billions and billions of dollars for the sake of improving reverse-peak capacity (principally on the Main Line Grade Crossing Elimination Project), and that's great...but if every station is surrounded by a sea of underused parking land, low-density residential, and few to no businesses within walking distance, what's the point?  People can get in their cars and drive from their homes to the train station, but it doesn't really work that way on the other end.  When you get off the train in the city, you don't get into another car and drive the rest of the way to your workplace...you either walk to someplace a short distance away from the station or get on a subway or bus to get where you need to go.  None of that really exists on LI...  In order to really be successful in the reverse-peak market, the LIRR will either have to add new infill stations in key locations to expand the amount of area within walking distance of the train, or work with connecting transit providers to substantially increase connecting bus or BRT services to link train stations to existing job hubs (and be prepared to cough up the cash to support those services).

Value capture vice

While the MTA has abandoned its course to publicly finance a new Republic station, LIRR officials seem to have not completely given up on the idea, if someone else were to pay for it through a value capture scheme.  At a meeting of the LIRR Commuter Council in November 2018 (just after the final stake was driven through the proposal through the Capital Program process), when asked by a member of the council about the Republic station, LIRR Senior Director of External Affairs Hector Garcia said "That's a value capture...in the past we said we would have said we were going to build it, but now it has to be part of a plan and somebody has to provide some funding".  LIRR President Phillip Eng added "we met with the [Town of Babylon] and we told them that we are certainly ready to sit down at any time with them and any developer that has interest, but we did say that it needs to be a value capture opportunity."

And, there you have it, a perfect example of one of the core flaws of value capture: because there's no demand for development at the Republic site (the ground surrounding the former station is very contaminated, so any developer is already stepping up to the plate with two strikes on the count) and so nobody to fork over money to build the station, the station doesn't get built...irregardless of the overall value the project would have even without a value capture scheme or even any development at all...

While the MTA has said that "new stations and increased service will support local land use and economic development strategies, revitalizing the region through new job opportunities, more housing and increased mobility" it certainly seems like the railroad will be first looking for someone willing to step up and finance most or all of the construction costs before being willing to entertain talks of requests for infill stations.  Earlier in that LIRR CC meeting, when prompted about "all these requests for new stations", Mr. Eng remarked "that's what I've been telling folks...we need private sector support, value capture.  The railroad just cannot continue to say yes to everything..." (though I struggle to see everything the railroad has been saying yes to...LIRR runs more or less the same levels of service to the same stations today as they did in the 1990's...).

Sure, the railroad should not just be saying yes to any little request that comes in for a new infill station...they are right on that.  But, there should be a holistic, arm's-length assessment of where there are gaps in the network and where there could be potential for new infill stations to expand access to mass transit—whether that's to existing commercial or residential areas, or by supporting new development.  But that doesn't seem to be happening at all.  Stay tuned for more on this topic...