Relief for New York City’s Transit Deserts? Commuter Trains Might Help

If this comes to fruition, the passengers will ride across the Hell Gate Bridge connecting the Bronx to Astoria. On clear days, what a view they will enjoy of the City's skyline! Assuming, of course, that they can pry their eyes from their mobile devices.

It's too bad there is no stop planned in LIC. A direct rail connection from the Bronx to Queens would be welcome.

I'm starting to feel that this Penn Station Access via the East Bronx is going to be another Second Ave Subway: talked about for generations before it's actually built. Well, maybe it won't take that long, but I don't think much can happen until LIRR's much-delayed East Side Access is finished. That being said, I do think it is good idea, not just for access into Manhattan, but also for Bx residents traveling to Westchester and CT. As far as the fare is concerned, perhaps City Ticket should be expanded to weekdays. Also, something similar to the Atlantic Ticket pilot could be instituted. Most Co-op City residents would still have to take a bus to access the station. For current MNR use, it only costs $3 to travel within a zone, even during rush hour. I used to ride the Harlem line to/from work within the Bronx. Of course, the frequency does not match the subway or bus.

“Commuter trains might help” says the headline... Might? Seriously?

There are actually two separate initiatives: Atlantic Ticket, initially conceived of by @PCACriders and the NYC Transit Riders Council in 2015 as the Freedom Ticket; and City Ticket (another of our initiatives). The Atlantic Ticket offers a 51% reduction in the one way fare for ten stations in Southeast Queens and Brooklyn, with an alternate $60 weekly LIRR ticket and MetroCard option. City Tickets are $4.25 for Saturday and Sunday travel between Brooklyn or Manhattan and Queens on the LIRR, and Manhattan and the Bronx on MNR. We’re very proud to have called for these reduced fare opportunities and continue to work with the MTA to ensure that they remain in place and expand to all commuter rail stations in the boroughs, including the 4 new Bronx stations that will be part of the Penn Access project.

This article focuses on The Bronx, but similar situations exist in Queens. City Ticket is NOT available to Far Rockaway residents on the LIRR Far Rockaway branch. Our Assembly members, initially Phil Goldfeder and now Stacey Pheffer Amato have been advocating for reactivation of the Rockaway Beach Branch of the LIRR. It would replace the rails on an unused 3.5 mile section of track to reconnect the Rockaways with central Queens and Manhattan. Activation of the QueensRail plan would provide a half hour trip to central Queens and an under an hour trip to Penn Station for Rockaway residents vs. what is typically an hour and a half to two hour trip. And it would provide a half hour trip to Kennedy Airport. More information is available at www.queensrail.org.

This is a great idea and I hope MetroNorth and Amtrak can come to an agreement. Otherwise MetroNorth should charge more to Amtrak for using it's rails between New Rochelle and the Connecticut border on their New Haven line. In the end they both need each other! It would also be great if the state and the city can look into the Triboro rail proposal, a train line from Brooklyn via Queens to the Bronx. The right of way and rail tracks already exist, but in Queens and Brooklyn is only used by freight trains now, and would be great to avoid having to commute via Manhattan if you need to go from the Bronx to Queens. To the Bronx it would use Hells Gate bridge and the existing Amtrak line to New Rochelle that is discussed in this article. See here for the proposal: http://library.rpa.org/interactive/the-triboro/

The Bronx is not the transit desert that the other outer boroughs are. And it is long overdue to understand that "transit" in NYC can no longer mean just shuffling people in and out of lower Manhattan every day. It's also long past due to deal with the fact that Robert Moses was wrong; he destroyed transit to build freeways, and now NYC cannot survive unless all the transit he didn't build, gets built. NYC needs a line that goes down the eastern Bronx, crosses the east river, goes south through Queens connecting to the subways, goes across the Veranzano (take one deck for the transit) and gives Staten Island real transit connection to the rest of the city. Will this ever happen? Don't bet on it ... the developers need to cram evermore people into and through Manhattan to keep jacking up the rents there. None of them ever think that the rest of the city exists for any reason other that to house the the little people who can't afford to live in Manhattan. "Amtrak has demanded that the transportation authority pay additional money to use the tracks and repair a bridge along the line, Mr. Donovan said. Amtrak faces major financial challenges to upgrade its aging network. “They’re just trying to milk it,” said Ruben Diaz Jr. ..." Does Diaz think it should be free? Why? What's wrong with metro commuter service paying its share of the up-keep on a ton-mile basis?

Somewhere is the NYCTA archives is a study from the 1970's. Something like "Transit Service to the NE Bronx". I don't recall the recommendations but this isn't a new idea. When the NY, West. & Boston closed in the '30s, the NY region missed the opportunity to acquire its ROW all the way to White Plains. It would have been an excellent addition to provide commuter rail/subway service between the Harlem and NH lines. The ROW most likely can't be put back together since many parts are in other hands.

I love that Metro North exists and can connect southern CT (as far as New Haven) to NYC so easily. What is amazing is that one living in Stamford can reach GCC or Harlem 125 in less time than many NYC residents living in BKLN, QNs and Bronx. I think the area should consider to invest in passenger and commuter rail even beyond its current status as it really does connect the area and increases property value and productivity. CT has New Haven line, New Canaan line and increasingly serviced Waterbury line which -- if the state did not have -- would be limit the state greatly.

I know at one point there had also been talk of re-establishing some of the old LIRR stations on the Long Island City branch between LIC and Jamaica (although most of those "stations" were just a patch of gravel). Back when I rode the LIRR to Hunterspoint Ave., the LIC train, which only ran about twice a day each way, was a savior when there were problems on the main line. Now there are more trains to LIC, but I don't know if any of them use that old branch. I'm pretty sure it runs through some subway-deprived neighborhoods, so it could be a good solution. And why does it cost so many $millions to build a station??

How about Northeast Queens?? The 7 train ends is about 12 miles from the Nassau country border. Along with expanded express service...the QM3(which runs on Northern Blvd.) only has 3 buses inbound and outbound. Hopefully this would take some cars off the streets

Charge $2.75 to get to Manhattan from Queens on the LIRR and you will have every commuter in western Nassau driving to those stations. The peak time fare from Nassau is $15.00.

For New Yorkers living in the Whitestone area there is no bus to the nearest Long island railroad station, located in Bayside. The best way to improve the commute would be a convenient local bus.

I'd expect suburban legislators to fight the MTA on this proposal as adding stations in the Bronx will add travel time to their constituents commutes into Manhattan.

Great idea as it was over 100 years ago when passenger trains ran on this route. Four of the abandoned stations in the Bronx still existed in 2009 (see NYT Streetscapes article Nov. 25 , 2009) not sure if they still do. Passenger service was discontinued in 1931. If you are interested in more info on these stations see Forgotten NY "Abandoned Rail Road Stations of the Bronx". Co Op City would certainly benefit from new transit links.

Only a $1 billion? That's "chump change." However, I need to revise my estimate for toll increases on the Verrazano Narrows Bridge to $35 from $25.

For those searching for where the stations will be, I found a map of the proposed route on page 26 of the MTA's capital plan for 2015-19 (ha!) http://web.mta.info/capital/pdf/Board_2015-2019_Capital_Program.pdf By the way, this exact same story was news … over four years ago: https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20140925/hunts-point/4-new-metro-north-stations-coming-bronx/ More commuter rail in the Bronx was a good idea then, and it's still a good idea. But given the amount of subsidies required to build these stations/hubs and bring the cost down to $2.75 a ride (which, I agree with Mr. Gera, seems laughable as something the MTA would charge for a peak-hour commuter train), and the ridiculous cost overruns, delays, debt, etc. … in the interim they could subsidize some true dedicated bus lanes and smartly scheduled, much more frequent bus service to and from existing transit hubs across and up and down the Bronx (and every other outer borough). Reliable, frequent, and cheap 7-day bus service is much less sexy, but would be much more helpful to the vast majority of workers, shoppers, and students of all stripes.

While this is encouraging for riders of considerable economic means, let's not fool ourselves. Despite what Cuomo, Stringer, or any urban planner says, the fares required by this expansion will exclude the vast majority of Bronx residents. The current one-way fare on Metro North between Marble Hill and GCT ($9.25) is over 350% higher than the one-way fare on the subway ($2.75). Does anybody really believe that this expansion into the Bronx will allow local riders to board for the same fare that they currently pay on the subway? If you believe that, I've got a couple of bridges in the Bronx that I'd like to sell to you.

Yes, finally! This is so overdue. If Amtrak is trying to hold the commuters who would benefit from this hostage and squeeze the MTA for lots of money, let's remind them of the many taxable assets they have in New York City and surroundings. I have some direct experience with the current situation, which apparently is still the same. About 20 years ago, I had to travel frequently to this part of the Bronx from downtown Manhattan. For my first week, I tried to do this reverse commute by subway and walk the last mile and a half or so. Then, I caved and drove by car. Why? The subway ride itself averaged 70-75 minutes each way, once a train came, plus a 20 minute walk from/to the station in the Bronx (didn't mind the walk!). Going uptown, the already slow subway was often held between stations in the Bronx for 10-15 minutes. Very reluctantly, I started to drive back and forth, which cut my commuting time in half. But, every day I kept seeing those train tracks running right behind both Jacoby and Weiler Hospitals, like a tease. That MetroNorth train station would make an enormous difference for this part of the Bronx. Build it!

This is a great creative re-use project whose time is long overdue. The right-of-way from New Rochelle to the former Harlem terminal is between four and six tracks wide and with the exception of the bridge over Eastchester Creek should not be difficult to reclaim. Amtrak uses only two tracks for the length of the line and the rest of the right-of-way is clear. Also, on the Hell Gate Bridge, only three of the four trackways are in use. It should be relatively easy to add commuter service to that underutilized bridge. Many other options exist. Mike L, another commenter, suggests reusing the Putnam division right of way, especially in light of calls for an additional track on the Harlem division, which it roughly parallels. Reawakening that line, though, might be problematic since it has been converted to a bike trail, has many grade crossings, runs through some expensive residential areas and is mainly only a single track wide. Another option is the former four-track right-of-way of the New York, Westchester & Boston which split from the New Haven south of the Cross Bronx Expressway and ran north to East 180th Street. (Its northern section is the Dyre Avenue line.) Although the original viaduct was recently removed and there is some new construction in the way, much of that corridor could be rescued for an additional subway line. Incidentally, it was originally proposed as the north end of the Second Avenue subway - still a good idea.

Including maps of the proposed routes would be very informative in articles about transit.

The Morris Park Station will be an (admittedly nice) drop in an otherwise huge, empty bucket. The city is not truly interested in reducing traffic congestion in Manhattan. Meaningful, widespread mass transit service is not nearly as sexy for de Blasio (Trump inverted) as his sprawling network of highly underutilized bike lanes (de Blasio's "wall"). Maspeth/Ridgewood/Middle Village. Bayside and points east. Anything east of Coney Island. All of Staten Island. How about quadrupling bus service on Staten Island, and re-introducing North Shore express bus service to Water St, to Houston/23 St and to 57th Street? Used to be an x19, hasn't been in years, it's insane/insulting. The few (white neighborhood only) express buses require that many take an unreliable, infrequent local bus for 20+ minutes to get and from the express stops. (The ferry is free, and great if you work south of Worth Street. Most Staten Islanders do not.) No one commutes to Manhattan by car unless they have no choice. It is hell on earth. Gosh, I wish I had a choice. But I don't live, with a bike, in Chelsea, Astoria or Park Slope.

Give Throgs Neck in the Bronx a another alternative to commuting on the Express bus or the Tremont Ave bus folllowed by the IRT 6 to Mannhattan: create a Mannhattan ferry stop on the Throgs Neck waterfront.

Bayside Queens is a great example. The LIRR station here serves about 8,000 passengers a day, but the service is only twice an hour. There are subway stations with far fewer users that have 6 or 7 trains per hour. Plus the cost for an LIRR ticket is outlandish! A senior fare is $5.00, 370% more than a subway fare. With lower fares and more frequent service, this costly infrastructure could be far better utilized.

As extensive a system that the subways are in NYC, there are considerable areas, not only in the Bronx (Throggs Neck, Riverdale, Co-op City, etc.), but Brooklyn (Flatlands), Queens (Maspeth, Bayside, College Point) that are not within reasonable walking distance of a subway station, requiring transfers from bus to subway. It seems to me a good idea to use existing commuter rail as an extension of the subways in areas where such tracks exist. Hopefully Amtrak and MTA can come to an agreement that would augment the subways to enhance commuter options to serve the currently underserved portions of the city at a reasonable cost, and relieve overcrowding on the subways, in the face of increasing population in the city. Building new stations along the existing trackways would be far less expensive than building whole new systems (tracks, signalling, infrastructure, etc.). Every opportunity should be explored to increase mass-transit use to relieve congestion, reduce carbon emissions, and increase commuter options. Now if only everyone involved can agree....

There is also an abandoned commuter rail line that used to be the Putnam Line and is now a bike trail. It runs from Brewster all the way down to the Bronx and has been abandoned as a passenger line in 1953. This would be a perfect project for more commuter rail in NY.