Dangerous Roads newsletter: Long Island's 282 railroad crossings a stubborn problem

Newsday typically has two transportation reporters: one primarily covering the Long Island Rail Road (me) and one primarily covering roads (my buddy Peter Gill).

There is one area where our beats intersect. Actually, there are nearly 300 of them.

Ubiquitous railroad grade crossings are among the factors that make driving on Long Island particularly dangerous. We got a reminder of that a week ago, when an LIRR train struck a car on the tracks at a crossing just east of the Pinelawn station in East Farmingdale on Feb. 2. MTA officials said the driver abandoned the car when it got stuck on ice. Thankfully, nobody was hurt in the fiery wreck, according to the MTA.

As illogical as it may seem to have the LIRR share space with road and foot traffic, the reality is that the 192-year-old railroad was here first. Suffolk County alone has 214 locations where roadways intersect with train tracks — more than any other county in New York. Nassau’s 68 grade crossings are among the busiest in the state, handling the bulk of train traffic on the busiest commuter railroad in North America.

Long Island accounted for fully one-third of the 33 grade crossing incidents in the state last year, according to the Federal Railroad Administration, which defines an incident as any contact between a train and a "highway user," including vehicles and pedestrians. The seven incidents in Suffolk and four in Nassau resulted in seven injuries and four deaths.

Hours after the East Farmingdale crash, state Sen. Siela Bynoe (D-Westbury), at a state transportation budget hearing in Albany, pressed MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber on whether the LIRR had any plans to eliminate dangerous crossings in the near future. Lieber said the MTA "would be thrilled" to do so, but offered no concrete plans.

Except for eight grade crossings eliminated in Nassau between 2019 and 2021 as part of the construction of a 10-mile long Third Track on the LIRR’s Main Line, such projects have been few and far between, sinking a road below the LIRR’s tracks, elevating it above them, or just closing it off altogether. In the 20 years before the Third Track project, the LIRR took out just two crossings, both in Mineola.

A year ago, the LIRR announced that it had earmarked a $2.24 million federal grant for preliminary work for the eventual elimination of two more crossings — at Ocean Avenue and Pond Road in Ronkonkoma. MTA officials have not released a timeline or price tag for those projects, but have previously estimated grade crossing eliminations at $100 million each.

Even after those two crossings are gone, Long Island drivers and pedestrians will still be left with 280 places where their journeys could put them in the direct path of an oncoming train.

Over the years, I've covered my share of crossing "incidents." And, sadly, the cars are not always empty.

Readers speak up

Last week I wrote about how property owners’ failure to clear snow from their sidewalks was forcing pedestrians into the middle of the street. Count this reader among those who have encountered similarly dangerous conditions.

"This morning I parked my car on Broadway in Bethpage, just north of the train tracks. Then I walked across the street to the west side of Broadway, and there was a huge section of the sidewalk not shoveled yet. I think the biz went out of business, however the landlord should do something about it. People park in this location, plenty of stores and shops. Someone is going to get hurt."

-Brian Bofill, Bethpage

Have unshoveled sidewalks put you in harm's way? Let us know at roads@newsday.com.

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.