Long Island Rail Issues

This prospect argues for a gradual reorientation of LIRR operations to serve more of Long Island’s internal needs.

There are three related reasons why the Rail Road does not fulfill that function:

1. Service patterns. In terms of service density, the electrified part of the LIRR exceeds four of the nation’s rapid transit systems and is compar­able to Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) in the San Francisco area. Yet no rapid transit in the world offers off-peak service as infrequently as every hour or half-hour. The electric cars and power sup­ply of the LIRR are designed for fast acceleration­ which is needed when stops are frequent-but that capability is not being used because of the empha­sis on long hauls into Manhattan.
2. Crew requirements. The LIRR has to em­ploy 19 operating personnel to keep one train running for an average of seven hours during the day. The PATCO rapid transit system in southern New Jersey employs only 4.5 to keep a train running for 12 hours. While one-man crews such as on PATCO may not be feasible on long LlRR trains, cutting operating crews in half would reduce total Labor requirement by 15 percent and operating expenses by 12 percent. Each time an LIRR passenger boards a train, it costs $1 to have his ticket checked. There is also room for substan­tial productivity improvements in the maintenance of cars.
3. Labor Costs. Wages, benefits and pensions on the LIRR averaged $42,144 per worker in 1981, about 27 percent more than on former Conrail lines and 32 percent more than on Transit Author­ity (TA) subways. Output, measured in passenger­ miles per worker, was only 18 percent greater than on the subways. From 1981 to 1983, LIRR labor cost per worker rose by 16.9 percent, while general inflation was only 11.9 percent. If the escalation of labor costs and the labor needs for train opera­tion are not reduced in the future, it will not be possible to maintain competitive fares or shift to more transit-like operations.