The Long Island Association on Wednesday said the Metropolitan Transportation Authority needs to include in its 2009-2014 Capital Plan funding for the Long Island Rail Road’s third track project.
The LIA said that Long Island’s future economic well being depends upon that project’s timely funding and completion.
Here’s a quote from Matthew Crosson, the LIA’s president:
We understand [...]
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One day soon, the Long Island Rail Road will stop at New York’s Grand Central station. And, according to the Associated Press, the project is moving ahead on schedule.
From the AP brief:
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said Wednesday that after eight months, the first of two tunnel boring machines has ended its one-mile-long journey that started [...]
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The Long Island Rail Road will pay nearly $44,000 to settle an Environmental Protection Agency complaint regarding the railroad’s handling of “burned out” fluorescent light bulbs.
According to an article in Occupational Health and Safety, the EPA was up in arms with the LIRR because the rail road threw out some of the bulbs in dumpsters [...]
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Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Long Island Rail Road on January 17, 2008 | No Comments »
Surely there are droves of Long Islanders worried that a possible Amtrak strike will make it tough to get to work, especially if the strike causes the closing of Penn Sation.
Worry not, The Long Island Rail Road will drop off commuters in Queens and Brooklyn, and from there riders must take the subways to Manhattan.
Problem [...]
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Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Long Island Rail Road on October 3, 2007 | No Comments »
On Long Island, anything that adds minutes, or hours, to our already exhausting morning commutes is a major public enemy. In this case, it’s slippery, wet leaves.
The Long Island Rail Road is taking action against these multi-colored menaces because when they gather on the tracks, they trigger the trains’ emergency brakes, grinding down the wheels [...]
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Posted in Uncategorized, tagged gap, Long Island Rail Road on August 23, 2007 | 1 Comment »
Waiting for a train in Syosset? Wondering what those rectangular boxes are everywhere you look? Well it’s a $1.3 million closed circuit television system recently installed by Zandar Technologies, and Ireland-based maker of video systems.
The CCTV system was installed to help conductors monitor those troublesome, and even deadly, platform gaps.
From the CCTV Core story (CCTV [...]
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The first woman president of the Long Island Rail Road, Helena Williams, was supposed to speak at the Long Island Association this morning. That’s why I got in my car at 6:45 a.m. and inched my way from Port Jefferson to Melville this morning. I got here at 8:30 a.m.
But I guess all of that [...]
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Two-wheeled wonder scooters have changed mall patrols forever, but do we really want these Segways clogging up our sidewalks? It’s bad enough when a stranger steps on your foot.
Environmental organizations the Adirondack Council, American Lung Association of New York State, Citizens Campaign for the Environment and the New York Public Interest Research Group all [...]
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Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Long Island Rail Road, construction on August 6, 2007 | No Comments »
The Long Island Rail Road is hardly paradise - on this we all agree. The railroad’s been hammered for failing to run on schedule and fare increases. We won’t even mention the issues with riders falling through the gap. Oops, I think we just did.
Anyway, it’s a nice summer afternoon, so let’s put a positive [...]
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Haven’t done this in a long time.
I’m headed into New York City to cover our parent company’s initial public offering. We’ll be filing reports on the IPO at LIBN.com, as well as the Web sites of sister papers such as neworleanscitybusiness.com.
But for the next hour, I’ll be watching the gap, sitting next to commuters and [...]
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Posted in Uncategorized, tagged construction, Long Island Rail Road on August 1, 2007 | No Comments »
Welcome to the Pop’s Deli Ronkonkoma station. On the way to Penn Station, this train will stop at the First Class Bagels Deer Park station and the McDonald’s Hicksville station.
Don’t laugh, it could happen.
The Metropolitan Transit Authority is considering the idea of selling name rights to stations in order to bring in more cash. Tonight [...]
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Who said politics isn’t a game?
New York Republicans launched a new Web site that pairs good old-fashioned partisan finger-pointing with one of our oldest, most recognized game shows: Jeopardy.
The party, according to a New York Times story, set up the Web site, www.nyinjeopardy.com, to bash the 10 Senate Democrats most vulnerable in the next election.
That [...]
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As we all know, the Long Island Rail Road’s platform gaps need fixing, but the state wants to know exactly when we can count on the dangerous situation being remedied.
The Public Transportation Safety Board wants the LIRR to deliver a repair timeline by summer’s end, and by October, the board wants quarterly reports on how [...]
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Those of us who spent time commuting on the LIRR have a pretty strong opinion of Penn Station. Mine: It’s ugly, cramped and filthy.
We’ve all wished for - and are waiting for - the day the LIRR runs into Grand Central Terminal, a swankier location on the East Side.
So this story in The [...]
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In 2005, New York state passed a law that makes sense. It demands school board members have some basic understanding of finance if they want to make fiscal decisions for school districts.
Today, new comptroller Thomas DiNapoli says board members can get their training online.
From the Empire State News brief:
State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli has announced a [...]
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Industrial Development Agencies are meant to create jobs, so what if they’re not doing that?
New York Jobs with Justice released a survey that claims the state’s IDA system needs to be retooled. The organization claims that in 2005, almost half of the IDA-funded projects did not create jobs while 21 percent failed to meet job [...]
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Patrick Foye, the old head of the United Way of Long Island, announced a plan Monday that would further unify the Empire State Development Corp.
Foye, who is chairman of the ESDC/Downstate, said the organization, which is the state’s chief economic development agency, will dissolve 13 of its subsidiaries and merge another 25 of its subsidiaries [...]
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The New York State Department of Environmental Conversation joined the redesign-those-drab-Web sites bandwagon, and unveiled its new Internet home on May 4.
Maybe Suffolk County will follow the organization’s lead.
Anyway, the state’s DEC said the new site “provides features that make it easier for visitors to find the information they are looking for,” according to a [...]
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The deadly gaps between train platforms and Long Island Rail Road trains in certain stations have prompted a barrage of press, public outcry and, of course, repairs.
According to a story on 1010 Wins, 70 percent of the widest gaps, ones larger than 10 inches, have been narrowed. That’s 105 out of 154.
Just 49 more to [...]
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Posted in Uncategorized, tagged construction, Long Island Rail Road, rates, studies on April 18, 2007 | No Comments »
The New York State Public Transportation Safety Board said today the gap problem that has plagued the Long Island Rail Road since August, when a Minnesota teen was killed when she fell between the train and the platform, is grave.
The state organization said Metro North, which operates the LIRR, needs to launch a public awareness [...]
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Gov. Eliot Spitzer and state legislators hammered out a $121 billion budget Sunday. Now it’s time to spend it.
According to the Empire Center for New York State Policy, the state’s moola will evaporate at rate of $3,834 per second. In fact, the institute created a Web-based odometer-styled Spend-O-Meter to keep track of the state’s spending.
Here’s [...]
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The New York Association of Convenience Stores says a proposal to tack a $2 local tax onto an already high-priced pack of smokes is crazy talk, as smokers would turn to the black-market before turning against their Marlboro reds.
From the press release:
“If the rationale for higher cigarette taxes is to compel smokers to quit [...]
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The state’s $120.9 billion budget passed late Sunday, and it looks like Long Island’s education system was a big winner.
But where there is a winner, there is a loser.
According to a New York Times story, that loser was Westchester County.
From the story:
More than half of nearly $21 million in new aid for special education went [...]
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Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Long Island Rail Road, terrorism, security on March 21, 2007 | 2 Comments »
The Long Island Rail Road just got a bit more cramped, as armed agents of Uncle Sam will ramp up their presence on the regions most-used public transportation system.
According to reports, federal security officers will board the trains as part of a new, more intense anti-terror push.
Though the increase in security is not in response [...]
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Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Long Island Rail Road, transportation on March 12, 2007 | 4 Comments »
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has banned booze from its trains for one day. Too bad that day is perhaps the biggest drinking day of the year.
On St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, there will be no alcohol allowed on The Long Island Rail Road.
From the LIRR press release via the New York Press story:
“In an [...]
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