Plan to bring Amtrak to Long Island still an option

Federal railroad officials are still considering a plan to bring Amtrak onto Long Island, and off it via a bridge or tunnel across the Long Island Sound.

The Federal Railroad Administration earlier this month released its draft environmental impact statement for its Northeast Corridor Future project, which aims "to improve the reliability, capacity, connectivity, performance, and resiliency" along the busy 457-mile rail corridor stretching from Washington, D.C., to Boston.

In the report, the railroad administration, which initially considered 98 different plans to improve service along the corridor, whittled it down to three specific alternatives.

Among them is a proposal to extend the high-speed, intercity rail network from Penn Station to Ronkonkoma, then north across Long Island Sound and to New Haven, Connecticut. The route would terminate in either Providence, Rhode Island, or Worcester, Massachusetts.

Far more ambitious than the two other options being considered, which entail adding tracks and making other improvements along portions of this existing corridor, the Long Island plan -- known as "Alternative 3" -- effectively "transforms the role of rail," according to the study.

Expanding the Northeast Corridor onto Long Island would more than double the volume of intercity rail trips, according to the study. It would also result in the greatest cost savings for travelers among the options considered and create the most jobs -- more than 24,000.

But the Long Island plan would also be the most expensive of all the proposals, costing an estimated $290 billion -- more than twice as much as the next most costly option. A railroad spokesman said that the cost estimates are "highly conceptual."

SEE PHOTOSLIRR trains and commuters through the years

The administration expects to select a final plan late next year, but has not figured out where it would get the money to fund any of the various proposals. According to the report, even maintaining the corridor as it is "requires a level of investment higher than what has historically been available."

Amtrak spokesman Craig Schulz said the agency is reviewing the study "and will submit a formal response" to the railroad administration.

Mitchell Moss, director of the Rudin Center for Transportation and Policy Management at New York University, said that while he appreciated the administration's "big picture approach to planning," the notion of building a rail link across the Long Island Sound is "among the least likely capital projects I've ever heard of."

"Most of the challenges that Amtrak faces are ones that have to do with modernizing the current system, rather that building out new connectivity to Long Island," Moss said. "Dreaming is always good. But dreaming with public dollars is not wise."

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.