LIRR cuts could hurt real estate market, say leaders

Beyond inconvenience to travelers, the Long Island Rail Road's plan to eliminate weekend service on the West Hempstead branch beginning Saturday could hurt the real estate market in several communities, devastate small businesses and set back years of planning, civic and business leaders said.

The change is among the most drastic of the LIRR's recent service cuts, which aim to help the struggling Metropolitan Transportation Authority close an enormous $900-million budget gap. Eliminating the 17 weekend trains that run on the West Hempstead branch will save $474,000 a year.

LIRR officials have advised the 350 customers who usually travel to or from one of the branch's five stations- Westwood, Malverne, Lakeview, Hempstead Gardens and West Hempstead - to instead use nearby stations on the Long Beach and Hempstead lines.

But Rosalie Norton, president of West Hempstead Community Support Association, said that the real toll of the service cuts cannot be measured in a simple head count of train passengers. She noted that the elimination comes just as a developer comes close to finalizing a deal to purchase the site of the blighted Courtesy Hotel on Hempstead Avenue, planning to transform it into a 150-unit apartment complex.

Proximity to the LIRR was a major selling point for prospective residents of The Alexan at West Hempstead Station, as the development will be known, Norton said.

"They're going to eliminate weekend service for the first transit-oriented development that's being planned in the Town of Hempstead," said Norton, who said the new development would certainly increase weekend ridership on the line. "It's mind-boggling. You certainly aren't going to get more riders by running fewer trains."

LIRR president Helena Williams said the West Hempstead line remains "an important part of our branch operations" but said there is not enough demand to justify weekend service. The LIRR has said customers' fares on the line cover just 10 percent of the cost to operate it.

"We will always look to customer demand," said Williams, who added that the cuts are not necessarily permanent. "The tracks are there. The service can be provided. And when there is a customer demand, we'll work to meet it."

Henry Stampfel, president of the Malverne Merchants Association, said the cuts are especially hard for business owners to digest because they come at the same time that they are forced to pay the new MTA payroll mobility tax.

"I guess the MTA is trying to get its house in order, but they're really stressing us on both ends," said Stampfel, owner of Malverne Cinemas, located blocks from the Malverne station.Lakewood Stables, the only horseback riding stable on Nassau's South Shore, has for decades counted on the LIRR to bring in weekend customers and employees to the nearby Lakeview station.

"We get a lot of people calling and asking about our train service. That's one of the great things about our location," said stable manager Tish Talia, who said she will have to drive to Valley Stream now to pick up riding instructors coming from the Bronx and Brooklyn. "It's not right. It's not fair."