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| Proposed Long Island Rail-Truck Intermodal Project Divides Environmental Groups - Read More - Page 3 |
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| Features - Features | |||||||
| Written by Stuart Vincent | |||||||
| Monday, 29 June 2009 13:46 | |||||||
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The DOT says that only 1% of freight delivered to Long Island gets here via freight rail, compared with a national average of 15%. The main reason for that is that only one freight rail bridge, located in Selkirk, south of Albany, spans the Hudson River, greatly reducing freight rail service not only to Long Island but to the entire metropolitan area, New York State and the Northeast. The only other freight rail bridge over the Hudson, located in Poughkeepsie, was abandoned following a 1974 fire, and a system of using barges to float freight cars across the river is seldom used anymore. The result is that the vast majority of goods shipped to the region comes in on trucks over a handful of bridges such as the George Washington. The intermodal project is part of a larger national effort to address that problem that also includes a proposed new freight rail tunnel under the Hudson River from Jersey City to Brooklyn, according to Ilan Kayatsky, spokesman for U.S. Rep. Jerome Nadler, a supporter of the Intermodal project. “This is not something Congressman Nadler invented. This is part of the original charge of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey when it was formed in the ‘20s to reconnect New York to the national rail network and rationalize the movement of goods through the region.” Last year, opponents of the Brentwood intermodal project appeared to have won a major victory when they convinced the state Assembly and Senate to adopt a measure that would have added the intermodal site to the existing Edgewood Preserve. But following the intervention of some national elected officials, including Nadler, Gov. David Paterson in August 2008 vetoed the measure.“Enacting this bill would…forever block the only opportunity to build LITRIM at Pilgrim, a project that may have enormous benefits for the residents of Long Island in improving congestion and air quality,” Paterson wrote in his message to lawmakers. The governor also questioned whether it made sense to add this particular parcel to the nature preserve, noting that it was “significantly disturbed and degraded since it was used for industrial purposes.” Paterson directed state agencies to work with elected officials, civic groups and developers on a comprehensive regional traffic plan with an “exhaustive analysis” of an intermodal proposal either at Pilgrim or at alternate sites. Department of Transportation spokesman Charles Carrier said the DOT held a series of meetings with community groups, planners and others in an effort to discern what was kind of transportation system was needed on Long Island to keep the region economically competitive in the future. A group known as the University Transportation Research Consortium is preparing a report for the governor, he said. “I was shocked,” Patricia Burkhart, director of Friends of the Edgewood Preserve, said of the governor’s veto of legislation preserving the intermodal property. “I thought, ‘It passed in the Assembly 140-0. It passed in the Senate 48-7.’ But he [Paterson] was pressured. He was pressured not by state people but by federal level people – [U.S. Rep.] Gerald Nadler (D-Manhattan) and [U.S. Rep.] Steve Israel (D-Setauket), and this is Israel’s district. Nadler wants this cross harbor tunnel and he thinks this is the endpoint for an intermodal.” Legislation to make the intermodal land part of the Edgewood Preserve has been reintroduced by State Sen. Owen Johnson (R-West Babylon), who wrote the original 1986 legislation that created the Edgewood Preserve, and State Sen. John Flanagan (R-East Northport), and by Assemb. Phillip Ramos (D-Brentwood). Gordon Canary, Johnson’s district office manager, said that while Johnson supports reducing truck traffic through the use of freight rail, he believes that the Edgewood site is not the place for an intermodal facility. “The final version of the DOT plan was not what we were told was going to happen,” he said. “They said they there was going to be a dedicated truck route off the LIE into this facility, leading us to believe there would only be one way in and one way out for trucks.” But plans for that ramp were abandoned as too costly. Instead, trucks will use already congested roads in Brentwood, Deer Park and Dix Hills to get to the facility, he said. While the DOT has promised to make local road improvements, there would still be significant additional truck traffic on those roads. |
