We're Waiting

The eight stations on the Montauk Branch between Speonk and Montauk generally, on a weekday, will see 10 trains stop throughout a 24-hour period. The problem: Only half are between the hours of 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., presumably when most people might actually use the train to ride from local stop to local stop.

The South Fork Commuter Connection went a long way toward improving the usefulness of the LIRR for a daily commute, making sure there were reasonable morning and afternoon options for east-west commuters, and adding in shuttle buses to get workers from the buses to their workplaces. It’s getting more use all the time, which makes clear that people will use the trains to avoid the gridlocked roads. It just has to be at least a little bit convenient.

If the LIRR had more trains — smaller cars that could use the two or three hours between citybound trains to shuffle people to hamlet and village business districts, doctor’s appointments and home again — it could begin to ease the car-centric culture that is choking the region’s roads. Suffolk County’s expanded use of on-demand buses fits into the idea like a glove, providing that same “last mile” service as the shuttles in the morning and afternoon.

On Friday, May 17, a rally at the Hampton Bays LIRR station will try to get the attention of Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials and ask for more train service on the South Fork, a request that has fallen on deaf ears for far too long. If the MTA would begin to invest even small amounts in its capital budget over the next few years, it could quickly bring the new sidings that are needed to allow more traffic safely on the Montauk Branch’s single track.

State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. calls the rail line “the most under-utilized infrastructure we have,” and he’s right. The SCCC was a great first step toward more utilization, but there is an incredible amount of room for expansion, affordably. Thiele has lobbied the MTA to include the South Fork in its capital plans over the next two decades — but its five-year plan is going to be inked this fall.

Now is the time to get the MTA’s attention and convince them that, although this region doesn’t have the density of our neighbors to the west, it is primed for increased ridership, which would benefit both the MTA and the people here who are eager to use the trains, if only they’d come a little more often.