AmtrakPhill629 wrote:why do track work on the Greenport Branch its just a waste of time and effort.
I am attempting to keep this civil, and as a 24/7 resident of the North Fork I take personal issue with a ignorant statement like this.
First, as with any resident of a county served by commuter rail, I pay the same extra mortgage recording tax, and other surcharges that people pay everywhere else in the region. Further the East End as a collective region is one of the few growth areas on Long Island, it is not my fault that the LIRR has so far, refused to provide schedules on either fork
that would generate strong, daily, year round ridership.
As I will always repeat, if there was no real demand for services on the North Fork, Hampton Jitney would not have spent $15 million to buy out the line route and charter business of Sunrise Express. Even in the time period, the supposed "dead time" here on the North Fork HJ is running twice the daily service that Sunrise was providing just one year ago.
YET, we do not need more busses on our local roads, we need more LIRR service. LIRR service has a number of inherant benefits over HJ, including not needing reservations, unlimited cell phone use, cheaper fares, yet the LIRR has done NOTHING to promote it's service nor make ANY attempt to compete with HJ.
As for the track work on the Greenport Branch, perhaps, and I stress perhaps, the LIRR is realizing the potential ridership that exists here (year round, 2nd home owner, day tripper, and vacationer). After all last summer when the Friday extra train had to be "bustituted" for a couple of weeks owing to equipment shortgages, the LIRR claimed to be shocked that a single bus could not handle the crowds waiting at KO.
and finally, as for a remark made about people complaining about the service, HELLO, we are New Yorkers, we complain about everything.
Ken
