New opportunity as freight contract expires

Daily Point

MTA open to new freight contract 

For nearly 30 years, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has had a contract with a company called New York & Atlantic Railway to provide freight service on the Long Island Rail Road tracks during off-peak hours.

That contract is set to expire in May 2027. And area politicians, including Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine, are saying it's an opportunity to open up a new competitive bidding process and evaluate what's possible for expanding the region's freight rail service in the future.

In a letter to LIRR President Rob Free this month, Romaine suggested that the MTA should issue a request for proposals for the freight contract.

"An open and competitive RFP process would allow the LIRR to determine whether prospective operators are prepared to offer stronger service, greater capital investment and a more ambitious plan for growing rail freight," Romaine wrote. "Such investment could produce benefits extending beyond freight operations."

Romaine noted that expanding freight by rail would help grow local industries, reduce traffic and potentially address the "looming solid waste crisis."

State Sen. Leroy Comrie, who chairs the State Senate committee that oversees the MTA, and Adrienne Esposito, the executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, each issued their own letter, making the same request.

The appeal does not come in a vacuum. Officials with a potential competitor of New York & Atlantic called OmniTRAX told The Point that they are hoping a new RFP would give them an opportunity to compete for Long Island's freight territory. They've been meeting with elected officials and other stakeholders across the region, making a push for a new bidding process.

"It's coming up for renewal," David Loewenthal, OmniTRAX's director of strategy and research, said in an interview Tuesday. "We know we can do this. We just want an open bid process, so we have the chance to put our plan out there, with everything we'd like to do."

MTA officials said they're aware of the new push — and open to it.

"We as an organization have always wanted there to be competition on this," said John McCarthy, the MTA's chief of policy and external relations. "We welcome it and we look forward to it and we're probably going to look to make sure there are others involved too."

McCarthy said the MTA is aware of the current contract's upcoming expiration.

"We're developing a plan that ensures the continuity of freight operations and future growth," he said.

New York & Atlantic originally signed a 20-year contract with the MTA that allowed it to launch operations in May 1997. The company received a 10-year extension in 2016. Shortly after that extension was issued, the Federal Railroad Administration issued a report about New York & Atlantic finding what the MTA called "serious safety concerns" that eventually led to changes in the company's leadership and management.

OmniTRAX already operates in Yaphank at the Brookhaven Rail Terminal, in partnership with Northpoint Development. There, Home Depot is building a 414,000-square-foot warehouse that will use the rail infrastructure for its freight transportation. OmniTRAX is also planning to bring another company to the additional 50 acres of available space on the property.

Each freight railcar, OmniTRAX officials said, represents the equivalent of four trucks taken off the road. And OmniTRAX chief executive Colby Tanner told The Point that he sees Long Island's freight rail as "underutilized."

"You could be doing so much more with it," Tanner said. "You could take more traffic off the road. You could be making more investment that would actually enhance passenger rail."

That's possible, Tanner said, thanks to infrastructure improvements that could help LIRR trains too, such as track upgrades or spurs that could allow for more train traffic.

And OmniTRAX officials note that they're willing to make infrastructure improvements to help make added freight service a reality, which could happen even as the LIRR maintains or expands existing passenger rail service in the future.

The company currently handles freight rail for Chicago's Metra system in tandem with the passenger system there. Generally, officials said, about half of freight service occurs during overnight hours, while half happens at off-peak times or otherwise in between passenger trains during the day.

"We just haven't seen the growth out here that really, to be on Long Island, with this much traffic, with this much infrastructure, that we should be attracting," Tanner said. "You've got to do it smart. You've got to do it right. You have to get buy-in. And you have to make the investment. But the opportunity is there."

— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com

Pencil Point

Stranded 

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Final Point

Suffolk clerk write-in candidate gets more backing

Abigail Field appears to be the write-in front-runner to challenge Suffolk County Clerk Vincent Puleo this November in an election that's already gone off the rails.

A Suffolk Facebook group called "Progressive Suffolk County Clerk 2026” announced Tuesday they are backing Field as their write-in candidate for clerk. Field was first selected as the write-in candidate of Southold Town Democratic Party chair Kathryn Casey Quigley's splinter group earlier this month.

Suffolk Libertarians are running Chris Padgett as their write-in candidate for clerk. Padgett last week told The Point he was running "to give people a choice."

Casey Quigley gained prominence by challenging but failing to oust Suffolk County Democratic Party chair Rich Schaffer for control of the party. The feud and the perception of a deal with Republicans and Conservatives caused a rift among Democrats that ultimately led to two Democratic Party picks for clerk bowing out.

It gets messy after that.

Back in April, Democrats picked Stacey Salamone, a committee member from Islip, as their clerk candidate. Salamone withdrew to make way for Anthony Portesy, the then-Brookhaven Town party chair who has since moved to Melville. Portesy, however, took the Conservative Party line for a judgeship in August as a technical maneuver to get off the November ballot for clerk. That move was widely seen as part of a deal to clear the field for Puleo, a Conservative who runs with Republican backing.

With no Democrat on the ballot for county clerk, a few Suffolk groups began feeling around to see if anyone was interested in becoming a write-in candidate, a long shot under the best of circumstances.

Progressives held online straw polls, selecting Field with 96% approval, urging voters who believe "in progressive and democratic politics over Conservative Party politics" to vote for Field by typing her name on the touch screen voting machine on Election Day.

Casey Quigley told The Point that Field appeals to voters of all political stripes. "She's standing up to corruption among all 3 parties," Casey Quigley texted. "Libertarians, Republicans, Independents, progressives and conservative voters all want corruption out of their government."

Puleo won the seat in 2022 with 59% of the vote against a Democratic candidate who was on the ballot. We'll have to wait until Election Day to see how he fares against two write-in candidates.

— Mark Nolan mark.nolan@newsday.com

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