MTA gets moving on new East Yaphank station

The MTA issued a solicitation last month for the construction of a new East Yaphank/Upton station, finally getting moving on this long-stalled project to build a new station on the Main Line that's more centrally located in the Yaphank area.  The existing Yaphank station is mostly in the middle of nowhere, and is the least used station on the LIRR.  The new station will include a single 2-car platform with a shelter, a parking lot with 50 spaces, a kiss-and-ride/bus loop and access road, and bike racks (along with the standard station features like AVPS displays/speakers, CCTV cameras, help points, etc.).

This relatively simple project has been delayed for years as the project became ensnarled in real estate issues and it stayed low on the MTA's priority list.  Former NYS Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the initiative as part of the 2017 State of the State announcements and put $20 million in state funding towards the effort.  The MTA awarded a $4 million contract for preliminary engineering in December 2018.  The MTA, as it often does, got into a spat with local governments over the location of the station, and along with pending real estate transactions delaying access to survey potential sites for the station.  The county and town came to an agreement on a station site east of William Floyd Parkway in late 2021, but two more years went past until the MTA is getting the procurement process moving now.  With the former Governor now out of office, I am frankly surprised the MTA and Manhattan and Ronkonkoma Railroad are even moving forward with this at all, given how little ridership the station is likely to get without better diesel service east of Ronkonkoma.

There's not much going on around the existing Yaphank station
(Photo: The LIRR Today)

The current Yaphank station (which is located just east of Yaphank Avenue) is in a desolate area with almost no residential development within walking distance of the existing station.  There are a number of Suffolk County offices both north and south of the tracks (including the homes of the Suffolk County Department of Public Works and Suffolk County Transit, the Suffolk Board of Elections, Suffolk County Police headquarters, and the Suffolk County jail), but few residences.  According to the US Census Bureau's Longitudinal Household-Employer Dynamic survey, only 54 people who work live within a half-mile radius of the station.

The MTA confirms that they have settled on a location for the new station, about 1.5 miles east of the existing Yaphank station and east of William Floyd Parkway.  This location is much closer to the cluster of biotechnology and manufacturing companies along William Floyd Parkway, as well as Brookhaven National Lab. This is a decent location, and will provide better access from both the north and the new multifamily developments that are springing up the west side of William Floyd Parkway and north of the LIE. 

The new station site provides access to more workers and jobs in the immediate vicinity of William Floyd Parkway, but ridership would be almost entirely dependent on people driving to the station (and the parking lot will have only 50 spaces) and nearby employers running shuttle buses to collect people.  Almost none of the roads in this area have sidewalks, so you will need to walk out on the open road to reach nearby Workplaces. Almost all of the residences in the catchment area are either south of the tracks or north of the LIE and will be completely inaccessible by foot—the LIRR is not planning to build an overpass across the tracks, and there is no sidewalk on the William Floyd Parkway overpass over the tracks.  There is not even a shoulder to walk on if you want to attempt trekking to Brookhaven National Lab or the large new development on the north side of the LIE.  The only way to reach the new station will be by car, and if you're already driving, why wouldn't you just go one exit west on the LIE to the existing Yaphank station?

	Existing Yaphank station		Proposed East Yaphank station
Radius	Workers	Jobs	Workers	Jobs
0.25 mi	15	101	148	84
0.50 mi	54	103	724	1,571
1.00 mi	191	1,265	2,781	1,758
5.00 mi	54,474	33,446	43,570	25,087

Governor Cuomo's initial announcement suggested that the station would be principally meant to serve BNL, which has a workforce of 3,200 people and is a big draw from across the region and some big expansion plans in the coming years.  But the station does not seem like it will be on the BNL grounds, which are closed to the public and also not really accessible to nearby roadways.  BNL's facilities are sprawled across a large area, mostly 2 miles away from the rail tracks.  In order to make taking the train to/from BNL, there needs to be a bus shuttle to bring you from the station to your workplace.  BNL already has a dial-a-ride shuttle that brings you places on the grounds, as well as a commuter shuttle that makes several trips to Ronkonkoma station (not Yaphank).

If the goal is to grow reverse-peak and intra-Island ridership, the existing Yaphank station is not that poorly located—the station is within walking distance of many Suffolk County office buildings that people could commute to either from Riverhead and the North Fork, or further up-Island from places along the Main Line.  If you live in Deer Park or Ronkonkoma or Hicksville and want to commute to those county offices, it's a pretty easy trip on the LIRR to Yaphank station.

Most of the property around the existing Yaphank station is commercial or
used for Suffolk County government offices (Photo: The LIRR Today)

But this brings us to the biggest problem with Yaphank station: it's not its location, it's the service.  Yaphank is only served by four eastbound and five westbound trains per day.  Since the LIRR reworked weekday Greenport service in 2017 and completed the Ronkonkoma Branch Double Track project, there is a decently-timed reverse-peak service option (arriving Yaphank at 7:44a and departing at 5:30p, which is slightly long for an 8-hour workday but is a reasonable option.  But the limited options and the high likelihood that you end up stranded for an extended period of time in the event that there is a delay or disruption.

Without better service, neither Yaphank station will be of any use to most people.  According to the LIRR's 2012-14 Origin and Destination study (the last comprehensive study of travel patterns across the railroad), 99% of respondents who live in the existing Yaphank station catchment area drive to another station, the most out of any station on Long Island.  About 80% of riders who live in this area drive to Ronkonkoma for better service, the rest use a combination of Mastic-Shirley, Babylon, and Hicksville.

The MTA says that it plans to abandon and demolish the existing Yaphank station near Yaphank Avenue once the new station is in service.  I don't think completely demolishing an existing station is a wise idea, given how proximate it is to the large number of Suffolk County offices in that area.  Serving both stations for a while to see how ridership equalizes between the two stations (and if the existing ridership splits across the two vs. generates new trips).  Making a very quick station stop would add at most a minute to the trip.  If riders merely split between the two stations, then mothball the existing Yaphank station until the service can be improved.

The MTA says that the contract term is expected to be about 710 days, or a little less than two years from start to finish.  Assuming the contract is awarded in the next few months, we could see the new East Yaphank/Upton station open at some point in 2026.