LONG ISLAND RAIL ROAD COMMUTER’S COUNCIL
MINUTES OF MAY 12, 2016
A meeting of the Long Island Rail Road Commuter’s Council (LIRRCC) was convened at 4:30 pm on May 12, 2016, in the LIRR East Side Access Readiness Conference Room at 450 7th Avenue, 20th Floor – Manhattan, New York.
The following members were present:
Gerard Bringmann
Mark Epstein
Ira Greenberg
The following members were on the telephone:
Matthew Kessler
Raymond Pagano
Larry Rubinstein
The following members were absent:
Sheila Carpenter Mike Godino
Owen Costello Maureen Michaels
Bryan Peranzo
In addition, the following persons were present:
William Henderson -PCAC Executive Director
Approval of Agenda and Minutes
The agenda for the May 12, 2016 meeting was accepted. The Minutes were accepted as amended. The change involved Ira Greenberg being quoted incorrectly about New York City noise regulations due to an extra “not” included in his comments. William Henderson said that he would make the correction in the official record.
Chair’s Report
A copy of the written Chair’s report is attached to these minutes. Mark. Epstein highlighted an upcoming Association for Commuter Transportation meeting that he had noted in his report and said that anyone interesting in attending could contact staff for registration information.
Board Report
There was no Board report as the MTA Board did not meet since the last LIRRCC meeting.
Staff Report
Mr. Henderson said that few communications with riders had been received since the last meeting, but that some riders have raised issues about parking, and the Council should be involved in this issue. Mr. Epstein agreed that the LIRRCC should work on the parking issue.
Member Report
Ray Pagano stated that Flushing Main Street is undergoing rehabilitation and that the parking lot next to the station is being closed. Mr. Greenberg said that he does not believe that the parking lot is owned by the Rail Road. Mr. Pagano said that the change in parking would have a major impact on the riders who use the Flushing Main Street.
Matt Kessler said that the M subway line is being rehabbed in addition to the L train tunnels. Mr. Greenberg said that the work on the M line is in preparation for the work on the L line and that the L line construction is still several years away.
New Business
Mr. Epstein invited Hector Garcia to discuss the Mineola Information Center that has been opened for the Main Line third track project. Mr. Garcia said that the station is being used for a project office, but that the Rail Road has also opened an information center in the Mineola station building to give riders and community residents information about the proposed project. He said that the commuter comments to date have been positive, but that neighboring residents are concerned about the impact of the project on their homes.
William Henderson stated that there will be several scoping meetings held on the 24th and 25th of the month and that he wanted to get the sense of the Council in order to prepare the statements that the LIRRCC would make at these meetings. One of the issues that Mr. Henderson raised was the degree to which the statement should address reverse peak service, as the Council primarily represents commuters. He also noted that the scoping meeting may address ADA and pedestrian access to stations, as well as kiss and ride access to the New Hyde Park station, and asked members to forward any comments that they had about these subjects or about the content of the Environmental Impact Statement for the project.
Mr. Garcia stated that they are thinking about building parking over drainage areas that are acquired for the project. Mr. Henderson noted that there is a set of preliminary recommendations in the scoping document that lays out a possible path for the project.
Mr. Pagano stated that there are many stations in need of work in the within the project area. Mr. Henderson said that specific work is not identified in the document but that the LIRRCC could include comments about these needs in its statement on the scoping document.
Larry Rubinstein asked whether the project is currently funded. Mr. Greenberg said that there is no funding in the current Capital Program for the project, but that there is unspent funding from a prior Capital Program that was intended to advance the building of a Main Line third track. This funding is being used to pay for the activities that are currently underway. He also noted that it has been said that the grade crossing elimination work in the project would be accomplished with New York State Department of Transportation funds, and that in this way the work could begin before new funding is made available through the MTA.
Mr. Pagano noted out that a lot of the civic organizations along the Main Line are displaying negative reactions to the project based in part on a lack of funding committed to the project.
Mr. Epstein asked for a report from the Council’s communications working group.
Mr. Rubinstein said that the group is still collecting data and examples and that they will soon be formulating recommendations and working on report shortly.
Mark Epstein commented that the Council has been invited to tour the LIRR’s Communication Center. He stated that he is working to get a date and time so that all of the members can attend. Mr. Greenberg said that some of the perception that communication has improved may be related to the better performance that the system has seen in the past year.
Old Business
Mr. Henderson distributed a list of the most crowded trains in 2015. He noted that they are several trains that are above 90 percent of capacity and that riders will perceive these as very crowded. Most of the very crowded trains run in the peak of the peak, and some trains are very crowded west of Jamaica, but are not crowded on the other side of this station. Mr. Henderson said that these figures are based on operation according to schedule, but that the system does not always operate perfectly and in these cases there will be a great deal of crowding. The Council discussed crowding on the trains and the trains on the list. It was noted that certain cars on particular trains may be crowded
Mr. Henderson presented the results of the staff’s analysis of the most crowded trains on each of the branches. He said that the analysis was done at the suggestion of Maureen Michaels and that the month that was used for analysis was April, when the LIRR performed well. He said that a total of 3 out of 231 of these trains were late under the 5:59 standard used by the Rail Road. Mr. Epstein noted that even with this performance, connections could be missed. Mr. Greenberg noted the statistic that had been included in the analysis discussing the absolute adherence of trains to schedule and that this displayed a different picture.
The third analysis that Mr. Henderson distributed was a summary of potential on-time performance measures that could act as a starting point for the Council making a recommendation to the LIRR on a more meaningful performance measure for train service. Mr. Henderson noted that the present standard counts a train as on-time if it arrives at its terminal less than six minutes after its scheduled arrival. He then reviewed a number of performance measures that have been proposed and are used elsewhere, which include features such as reducing the grace period before a train is considered late, measuring schedule adherence at multiple points in time, weighting performance measures based on the number of passengers on board individual trains, and modeling passenger flows to estimate the impact of poor on-time performance on individual passengers.
Mr. Epstein suggested that members read over the material that was provided and make comments on how the Council should proceed in the next week. He said that he would like to see the LIRRCC issue a report on the subject, as this is an important issue to riders. Gerry Bringmann said that the importance of connections should be a part of the recommendation.
Mark Epstein raised the issue of the Council’s positions on fares and its involvement in upcoming fare hearings. Mr. Greenberg said that the MTA is looking at a lot of options. For instance, the City talking about subsides to commuter rail service and the MTA will certainly take any city proposals into consideration in the options that it develops. Mr. Epstein suggested that the members hold a conference call on the Council’s position for the upcoming fare hearings.
Mr. Rubinstein asked whether there is a need for a fare increase in view of the ridership increases of the past few years. Mr. Greenberg stated that the MTA assumed ridership increases in its financial plan and still has projected future fare increases. Mr. Epstein said that one approach that the Council could take is to discuss the need to moderate the rate of fare increases if the LIRR is to maintain ridership growth and attract new riders as East side access opens.
Mr. Epstein asked about the potential timing for a field trip to the LIRR’s Communication Center. Mr. Henderson said that he had spoken to Hector Garcia about this and that he indicated that it should be possible to visit in the late afternoon to early evening, but that the amount of time that the Council can spend in the room and and availability of staff to discuss the work taking place there might be limited.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 5:40 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
William Henderson
Executive Director