Long Island Fail Road

Long Island Fail Road
 

They are spending millions of dollars to create and revitalize the transportation hub at Ronkonkoma.  It has become one of the busiest train stations on Long Island.  But what good is this project when it will still service the same old railroad.  And this morning was a prime example of it.  I was hit with the exacta of track trouble.

1) Equipment Failure: This is when a train breaks down.

Since half the fleet was built before I graduated High School, this happens on a regular basis.  It also happened to occur on a single-track section.  This blocked everything.  No trains in, no trains out.  The Ronkonkoma station was crippled.  Eventually the one train that bottlenecked the whole system was cleared.  Then there were signal problems...

2) Signal Problems:  Crossing signal at an intersection is no longer closing as a train passes.

Obviously this is a serious issue.  Of course, not serious enough for the LIRR to ever fix the problem and upgrade them.  An already backed up system was now handicapped because trains had to pass through the inoperable signals at a snails pace.  And not just AT the signal, but the whole block of track associated with it.  Multiple signals out means a LONG slow commute.

In what is considered the “Main Line”, there is 12.6 miles of single track.  A single line creates the antiquated ritual of waiting for a train from the opposite direction to pass on the double track area before your train can proceed.  This is something that was done in the 1800’s when it was difficult to maintain two tracks let alone one because of the terrain.  It was not a commuter line that carries 100,000 people a day through the suburbs.  Knowing how poorly the LIRR runs, I am in shock there has not been a head on collision.  Ironically, the LIRR must be prepared for that eventuality since most of the single line track goes directly through the Pine Lawn cemetery.  Of course there is plenty of room on either side to add a second track.  You would not have to move the headstones…oh, and of course the bodies…remember to move the bodies.  Maybe the empty area is actually plots purchased by LIRR riders that want to stay near and dear to their beloved railroad when they pass.  However, I believe Al Czervik said it best ”I tell ya, golf courses and cemeteries are the biggest wastes of prime real estate”.  So how come the LIRR can’t purchase this wasted space to run a second line?  Was Old Man Smithers haunting the cemetery trying to get away with something?  They double tracked to Sayville back in 1917…They double tracked Syosset to Huntington in 1982…What about Ronkonkoma?

The LIRR tells us a second track will be built.  The project will be completed in 2019.  12.6 miles of track…7 years.  Less than 2 miles per year.  And that is if they stay on schedule.  Please see my blog titled “American No How”…I don’t feel like repeating myself.

But lets fast forward to 2019.  What good is a second track when the crossing signals have not been updated since the 1950’s?  Even if just ONE of these fail, a train has to go through it at 15 miles per hour.  And fail they do.  As I passed one of these failed signals last night…yes, it happened last night too…I saw a group of LIRR workers looking at the exposed electrical equipment that runs the signal.  I expected to see a bunch of wheels with squirrels on them.  There were 7 workers…it was easy to count since the train was crawling past them.  They stared blindly into the box and prompted the old question, "How many LIRR workers does it take to fix a broken signal?"  Well, obviously the answer was not 7.  Seems they needed more LIRR guys.  And more LIRR guys it will have to be.  You see, there are NO plans to upgrade these signals.

I have been riding the LIRR now for 6 years.  I get it, it is MUCH better than driving into the city.  But that is no excuse for the riders to put up with this…and I am not sure why they do.  Antiquated filthy trains that break down along a single track that has failing crossing gates.  And that is just the stretch of the LIRR that runs from Hicksville to Ronkonkoma.  There are other lines and hundreds of thousands of riders that deal with different issues.  They need to unite and be heard as a single voice.

Maybe it starts here…