Times-Newsweekly: Funds For New Rail Link Into Manhattan - Federal Act Provides $2 Billion by Ralph Mancini...

Funds For New Rail Link Into Manhattan
Federal Act Provides $2 Billion

by Ralph Mancini

A provision in the recently passed Renewable Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2007 by Congress’s Ways and Means Committee provides $2 million for the addition of a rail ink connecting Lower Manhattan to Long Island, Jamaica, Downtown Brooklyn and JFK International Airport.

The measure—which was supported by Rep. Joseph Crowley, among others—was seen as a step to “solidify Lower Manhattan as one of the world’s premiere centers for finance, create tens of thousands of new jobs ... and produce between $9 and $12 billion annually in economic output” by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The bill also reportedly provides several tax incentives for energy conservation and renewable energy, as well as tax credits for plug-in hybrid vehicles and an increase in gas stations with alternative fuel pumps.

When asked to what degree this new bill would help enhance mass transit options in the areas surrounding JFK, Community Board 10 Chairperson Elizabeth Braton told the Times Newsweekly that she hasn’t analyzed the federal initiative properly enough to determine the benefits.

In the past, Community Board 10 board members have repeatedly called for the reactivation of the abandoned Long Island Rail Road Rockaway Line to help better facilitate residents’ daily commutes into Manhattan.

Queens Chronicle: LIRR Line’s Reopening Debated...by Joseph Wendelken, Assistant Editor...

Calls this week for the city to improve mass transportation to and from the Rockaway peninsula by reactivating a long-retired Long Island Rail Road branch met resistance from some mainlanders concerned about the quality of life in their communities.

Before 1962, trains ran on the Rockaway Beach Branch out of Manhattan through Rego Park and Forest Park and south through Richmond Hill, South Ozone Park, Howard Beach, Hamilton Beach, Broad Channel and the Rockaways. Roughly four miles of track still run through Forest Park to Aqueduct Race Track, only blocks east of Woodhaven Boulevard. This, coupled with the peninsula’s steady population growth since the branch’s closing, have prompted many to advocate for its revitalization for years.

But with Rockaway now experiencing a population explosion — a 10 percent jump is expected in the next decade, according to Community Board 14 District Manager Delores Orr — the revitalization plan has new momentum.

Dozens of Rockaway residents attended a City Council Transportation Committee hearing on Tuesday night in Broad Channel to implore Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials to at least consider the project.

Lew Simon, the co-chairman of the Rockaway Subcommittee of the Regional Rail Working Group, which has advocated for the reopening of the line for 11 years, said: “We in our district have the worst abomination of transportation.”

Simon argued that the ride from Rockaway to Penn Station on the revitalized line would take 32 minutes, a trip that many say now takes between an hour and 45 minutes and two hours and 15 minutes when riding on buses and the A train.

John Fazio, a Howard Beach resident, said that the line’s reopening would be good news for mainlanders as well. An LIRR trip between Ozone Park and Penn Station would take 18 minutes and one between Howard Beach and Penn Station would take 20 minutes, he said.

In light of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s recently announced congestion pricing plan, Fazio added: “That’s a lot of cabs and buses off the roads.”

But others off the peninsula say that construction on the line and the trains that would run on it would bring detrimental quality-of-life issues to nearby residents. The Rockaway Beach Branch Greenway Committee is trying to gather momentum for the construction of a bicycle and pedestrian path along the existing tracks, but in March, Community Board 6 would not endorse efforts to study its feasibility.

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Rockaway Beach Branch Greenway Committee...

The Rockaway Beach Branch Greenway Committee is a group of New York City residents who propose to establish a greenway, consisting of a bicycle and pedestrian path, on the abandoned Long Island Railroad Rockaway Beach Branch right-of-way, which extends for about four miles from Rego Park to Ozone Park in central Queens. (their web site)