A key MTA official wants to bring the Long Island Rail Road to a redeveloped Nassau Coliseum using nearby tracks that haven't been used to transport rail passengers in more than 50 years.
New LIRR president Patrick Nowakowski said MTA board member Mitchell Pally's plan to bring passenger trains near the Coliseum using the little-known Garden City-Mitchel Field Secondary line is feasible. However, a recent study commissioned by Nassau County, which owns the property, rules out the proposal as "fatally flawed."
"We can get a track close to there. We can build a station close to there," Nowakowski said last week. "The challenge is, would anybody use it?"
Pally first publicly proposed creating the transit link during a meeting last month of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board's LIRR Committee, which he chairs. Pally said he had a preliminary discussion with representatives from the Coliseum's new developer, Forest City Ratner, and from the county to urge them to consider the idea.
The line -- a 19th-century vestige of the old Central Railroad of Long Island that later was absorbed by the LIRR -- served the Mitchel Field air base during World War II and other stations until the LIRR discontinued passenger service on it in 1953. And when plans for development of a "Nassau Hub" that included the Coliseum were floated in the late 1990s and during the administration of County Executive Thomas Suozzi, the line was mentioned as a possible connector in the transit visions for that area.
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LIRR service to Nassau Coliseum proposed by key MTA board member
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