Rail Shuttle Ahead

As soon as next year, the South Fork could see a rail shuttle designed to help cut congestion on the roads and provide a meaningful alternative for people traveling among the hamlets and villages. 

Credit is due to State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. for pushing the idea over many years. It might be too soon for congratulations, but in a sit-down meeting at his Bridgehampton office last month, Mr. Thiele got the Long Island Rail Road president to commit to initial east-west rail shuttle sometime in 2017 as a goal. The service is envisioned as two trains in the morning and one in the afternoon, and it would use existing L.I.R.R. stock. Help would be sought from county and local officials with marketing and for transportation to and from train stations and workplaces or other places that riders might want to get to. 

As a sweetener, one of Mr. Thiele’s ideas is to free up about $37 million in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s capital budget that had been set aside to buy new, light locomotives for the South Fork shuttle. Instead, with existing trains likely to be used in the pilot program starting next year, that money could be used for other L.I.R.R. projects.

With only a single track running between Southampton and Montauk, it will take some juggling on the L.I.R.R.’s part to get trains running at times that make sense. However, it is a worthy undertaking and one that might help broaden the work force, particular out East Hampton way and farther east, where an already limited pool of potential employees is made that much worse by the difficultly of getting to and from attractive jobs.

A South Fork rail shuttle is something that transportation advocates have hoped for for a very long time. It would be a remarkable accomplishment if it were to actually become a reality.