Featured in Newsday: Put LIRR Third Track on the Fast Track

The following Letter to the Editor was published in Newsday on June 1st, 2017. You can read the original here.

Newsday‘s editorial board is correct to call on state policymakers and elected officials to approve a third track for the Long Island Rail Road [“Let Third Track go forward,” Editorial, May 25].

Simply put, the third track project is critical to the region’s future. It would maximize the economic benefits of the multi-billion dollar investments being made by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, including East Side Access, the Second Avenue Subway, and the second track between Ronkonkoma and Farmingdale.

The sizable sums spent on these projects will mean little if the 9.8 mile bottleneck between Floral Park and Hicksville isn’t fixed.

This is a project whose benefits will be felt on the both the local and regional level, which is why it should be fast-tracked.

Richard Murdocco
Syosset
Editors’s Note: The writer blogs about Long Island land use at TheFoggiestIdea.org.