Environmental Impact Statement on the Long Island Transportation Corridor in New York City, New York

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Transit Administration

Environmental Impact Statement on the Long Island Transportation

Corridor in New York City, New York

AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration (FTA), DOT; Federal Highway

Administration (FHWA), DOT.

ACTION: Notice of intent.

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SUMMARY: The FTA, the FHWA and the MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR),

are issuing this notice to advise the public and all other interested

parties that in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act

(NEPA), they intend to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)

for transportation improvements in the Long Island Transportation

Corridor of New York, Kings, Queens, Nassau and Suffolk Counties, New

York. The Draft EIS (DEIS) will include a Major Investment Study (MIS)

in accordance with 49 CFR part 613 and will be coordinated with other

affected agencies. The LIRR will ensure that the EIS also satisfies the

requirements of the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act

(SEQRA) and serves as the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) required

by SEQRA.

Among the alternatives that the MIS/DEIS will evaluate are the No-

Action and Transportation System Management (TSM) alternatives,

reasonable highway alternatives and extensions of the existing LIRR

transit network to a new East-Midtown Manhattan rail terminal. Any new

alternatives generated through the scoping process in addition to the

study goals, evaluation criteria and other relevant issues and comments

will also be considered.

Scoping will be accomplished through correspondence with interested

persons, organizations, and federal, state and local agencies, and

through three public meetings.

COMMENT DUE DATES: Written comments on the scope of alternatives and

impacts to be considered should be sent by September 5, 1995 to Ms.

Pamela Burford, Director Special Projects, Long Island Rail Road,

Jamaica Station Mail Code 1145, Jamaica, New York 11435.

SCOPING MEETINGS: Public scoping meetings will be held on Tuesday July

18, 1995 at 7:00 pm at the Long Island Association Headquarters, 80

Hauppauge Road, Commack, New York; Wednesday July 19, 1995 at 7:00 pm

in the Nassau County Board of Supervisors Meeting Room, Nassau County

Executive Building, 1 West Street, Mineola, New York; and on July 20,

1995 at 5:30 pm in the MTA's Fifth Floor Board Room, 347 Madison

Avenue, New York, NY.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Letitia A. Thompson, Deputy Regional

Administrator, Federal Transit Administration 26 Federal Plaza, New

York, NY 10278, Phone: (212) 264-8162, Fax: (212) 264-8973, Harold J.

Brown, Division Administrator, Federal Highway Administration, Leo W.

O'Brien Federal Building, Albany, New York 12207, Phone: (518) 431-

4127, Fax: (518) 431-4121, Pamela Burford, Director Special Projects,

Long Island Rail Road, Jamaica Station Mail Code 1145 Jamaica, NY

11435, Phone: (718) 558-7520, Fax: (718) 558-8180.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: FTA, FHWA and the MTA Long Island Rail Road

invite interested individuals, organizations, and federal, state and

local agencies to participate in defining the alternatives to be

evaluated in the MIS/DEIS and identifying any social, economic, or

environmental issues related to the alternatives. An information packet

describing the purpose of the project, the proposed initial set of

alternatives, the impact areas to be evaluated, the citizen involvement

program, and the preliminary project schedule is being mailed to

affected federal, state and local agencies and to interested parties on

record. Others may request the scoping materials by contacting Ms.

Pamela Burford at the address above or by calling her at (718) 558-

7520. Scoping comments may be made verbally at the public scoping

meetings or in writing. See the SCOPING MEETING section above for

locations and times. During scoping, comments should focus on

identifying specific social, economic or environmental concerns to be

evaluated and suggesting alternatives which are less costly or less

environmentally damaging while achieving similar transportation

objectives. Scoping is not the appropriate time to indicate a

preference for a particular alternative. Comments or preferences should

be communicated after the MIS/DEIS has been completed. If you wish to

be placed on the mailing list to review further information as the

projects develops, contact Ms. Pamela Burford as previously described.

[[Page 33028]]

Description of Study and Area Project Need

Within the context of the Long Island Transportation Corridor MIS/

DEIS the study corridor is self-defining to a great extent owing to the

geographic configuration of Long Island. The Long Island Study Corridor

is therefore composed of the two suburban counties, Nassau and Suffolk;

the two New York City counties, Queens and Kings (Brooklyn); and that

portion of the New York County Central Business District generally

referred to as Midtown Manhattan. Excluding the Mid-town Manhattan

(CBD) portion of the study corridor the study area covers approximately

1377 square miles of land area with a population density of 6.8 million

people.

The Long Island Study Corridor's access to the Mid-town Manhattan

CBD is provided by the MTA Long Island Rail Road, an extensive highway

network consisting of Interstate highways, expressways, parkways and

the local street grid, the MTA New York City Transit and a number of

private bus and ferry services as well as private automobiles.

Overall the above transportation facilities are operating at or

above their respective design capacities during peak travel periods and

experience excessive levels of congestion resulting in increased travel

time, lost productivity, customer dissatisfaction and contravention of

National Ambient Air Quality Standards. The region's high utilization

of existing facilities, high population density and the physical

constraints associated with the separation of Manhattan Island and Long

Island by the East River necessitating bridge or tunnel connections all

contribute to creating a problematic environment for addressing the

Long Island Study Corridors mobility issues.

Currently, the LIRR has only one Manhattan terminal at Pennsylvania

Station (Penn Station) on the West Side of Manhattan between 31st and

33rd Streets and 7th and 8th Avenues. However, this facility currently

operates at capacity and is shared by three railroads--LIRR, New Jersey

Transit (NJT), and Amtrak--each of which is seeking additional capacity

for its present and projected patronage. Moreover, surveys indicated

that a significant number of LIRR customers have East Midtown

destinations and are therefore not adequately served by a Penn Station

destination.

The primary goals of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) are to

provide transport capacity, enhance mobility and reduce the number of

vehicles on the region's congested highway, bridges and tunnels;

unfortunately, the LIRR's ability to meet these goals is constrained by

capacity limitations during peak hours, particularly at Pennsylvania

Station. Therefore, the LIRR is impeded in its ability to attract and

serve new riders, in the peak period.

The major highway corridors in Long Island Study Corridor are noted

for their major congestion problems. According to the findings of the

LIRR Network Strategy Study, 52% of the New York State's total vehicle

hours of delay occurs on Long Island roadways. These conditions inhibit

the region's ability to attain compliance under the federally imposed

National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) as required under the

Clean Air Act.

All of the MTA New York City Transit's (NYCT) 25 subway routes

serve portions of the Long Island Study Corridor including the busiest

trunk lines in the city--the number 4, 5 and 6 services on the

Lexington Avenue Line, the number 7 service on the Flushing Line, and

the E, F and R services on the Queens Boulevard Line. Portions of the

subway system parallel portions of the LIRR in Queens and Brooklyn.

However, while these subway and LIRR routes parallel one another they

do not necessarily compete with one another--the LIRR principally

carries customers from Nassau and Suffolk Counties and the far eastern

portion of Queens while the subways principally serve inner city

passengers of Queens and Brooklyn.

The Queens Boulevard Line, which offers connecting express subway

services at LIRR's Jamaica Station, is currently one of the top two

most heavily used subway lines in the NYCT system. During the morning

peak hour, approximately 30 trains per peak hour carry in excess of

66,000 passengers per hour, at a volume/capacity ration of 1.296 or 30%

over capacity.

The Flushing Line, which offers connecting service at LIRR stations

at Hunterspoint Avenue, Long Island City and Woodside Queens, is

currently operating above capacity, carrying approximately 36,700

passengers into Manhattan at a volume/capacity ration of 1.083 or 8.3%

over capacity.

Based upon U.S. Bureau of the Census data and New York Metropolitan

Transportation Council (NYMTC) projections, population, labor force and

employment in the five county Long Island Study Corridor have all

experienced a net growth from 1980 to the present, and all are

projected to continue to grow in the future. The increases indicated by

these trends will increase the number of trips made, including

commutation travel between the residential communities on Long Island

and the commercial hub of Manhattan.

Alternatives

The alternatives proposed for evaluation include: No-action which

involves no change to transportation services or facilities in the

corridor beyond already committed projects of the 1992-1996 MTA Capital

Program; the TSM alternative, which consists of low-to-medium cost

improvements to the facilities and operations of the LIRR, NYCT and the

highway network in addition to the currently planned highway and

transit improvements in the corridor. All other reasonable alternatives

proposed through the study scoping process will be considered.

Probable Effects

FTA, FHWA and the LIRR plan to evaluate in the MIS/DEIS all social,

economic, and environmental impacts of the alternatives. Among the

possible issues to be investigated are the potential increase in

transit ridership, impacts on highway use, the capital outlays needed

to implement an alternative, the cost of operating and maintaining the

facilities created by an alternative, and the financial impacts on the

funding agencies. Environmental and social impacts, both positive and

negative, proposed for analysis include environmental justice, land use

and neighborhood impacts, traffic, parking, and pedestrian impacts near

stations, visual impacts, impacts on cultural resources, and noise and

vibration impacts. Impacts on natural areas, rare and endangered

species, air and water quality, ground water, hazardous waste and

geologic forms will also be covered. The impacts will be evaluated both

for the construction period and for the long-term period of operation.

Measures to mitigate significant adverse impacts will be considered.

FTA and FHWA Procedures

In accordance with the Federal Transit Laws, the Federal Aid

Highway Act and FTA/FHWA policy, the DEIS/MIS will be prepared in

conjunction with an analysis of alternatives and Conceptual

Engineering. After its publication, the MIS/DEIS will be available for

public and agency review and comment, and a public hearing will be

held. On the basis of the MIS/DEIS and the comments received, and with

input from the Project Steering Committee, the Technical Advisory

Committee, the Citizens Advisory Committee and the Metropolitan

[[Page 33029]] Transportation Authority Board, the MTA Long Island Rail

Road will select a locally preferred alternative for its major

investment strategy and seek approval from FTA and FHWA to continue

with Preliminary Engineering and preparation of the Final EIS.

Issued on: June 20, 1995.

Thomas J. Ryan,

Regional Administrator, Federal Transit Administration.

[FR Doc. 95-15393 Filed 6-23-95; 8:45 am]

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