The 1963 Better Rail Service for Nassau County Plan

I'm not sure if this plan has ever been discussed on railroad.net or trainsarefun, so I'd like to mention it here. This modernization plan of 1963 planned on building a 5 track transportation hub at Roosevekt Field with connections to the Main Line and Mitchell Secondary. This hub was going to have transfers to bus and helicopter services, and would even hist long distance services to DC and Florida. I suppose this hub was never built due to the sheer cost of building a new railroad ROW in the 1960s?

Here is the pdf link to the full plan: http://www.lirrhistory.com/1963betterra ... railss.pdf

That plan was wildly optimistic, even for it's time. Great job posting that btw, I've never seen it in it's entirety. There's a lot more to why this couldn't happen, in addition to huge cost.

The LIRR at the time was struggling, as the PRR was doing everything it can to get rid of it, and the state was about to take it over with the soon to be created MTA. They were doing everything they can to shed little used branches or lines, either by abandonment or pushing people to buses ("Road 'n' Rail") after losing the mail contracts. This caused them to reduce service (and maintenance) dramatically out to Greenport and Montauk. Also in the background was Robert Moses strangling the RR when he could if it interfered with his road building. You have also local towns looking to block expansion (like Garden City to this day), early NIMBY-ism, etc. I was surprised to see them propose to rebuild the tracks from Meadowbrook out to Bethpage Jct., Abraham Levitt saw to it those rails were removed as soon as he was done with them building Levittown. There's more to it than that, of course and I defer to folks on here to give a better explanation.

Another thing that caught my eye was the inclusion of heliports, etc. How times have changed! Garden City/Westbury did have a small heliport tucked away west of the Raceway up until the '90s, but now any existing one is seriously threatened by neighbors, like the few surviving ones in Manhattan and East Hampton airport. Interesting to see how transportation priorities have changed, since what they had displayed in the '64 World's Fair.

Some politicians did revive their versions of this in the past, and it was a political straw-man often used to funnel $ to more consultants or appease folks mad at the traffic in the Hub, but there's no way you're going to get Long Islanders out of their cars to get around the Hub. There were times in my youth I tried the public transportation when I tried to enter the job market, but you bet I jumped into the first rusted out Pinto I could get instead of enduring Suffolk Transit and MSBA. I'd rather die in a flaming wreck while impaired on carbon monoxide then endure another bus ride.

PF and Krispy: Interesting timing for this fascinating early 1960s study...We have a copy on file in the RMLI
Archives that I recently read - and made copies of important information from this study. First -

There is a cover letter to County Executive Eugene H. Nickerson from the Nassau County Planning Commission
that reads - Mr. Nickerson: The Nassau County Planning Commission and the Nassau County Department of
Transportation and Franchises take pleasure in submitting to you a report entitled "Better Rail Service for
Nassau County" - the date was June 25, 1963.

This is a first of a projected series of studies and recommendations concerning possible solutions to to the
growing transportation problems on Long Island. These studies are being conducted in response to the
interest and inquiries generated by many business and government agencies concerned with transportation
and its importance relative to the total welfare of Nassau County. We are hopeful, therefore that information
provided will assist in resolving some of the serious transportation issues which face us.

Very Truly Yours: William N. Leonard, Chairman - Nassau County Planning Commission
Charles E. Stonier, Executive Secretary - Nassau County Planning Commission
Edward J. Morris, Director - Nassau County Department of Transportation and Franchises

Transportation to Work (Source: US Census Data) in Nassau County: Auto 61.1%; Rail 17.0% and all other 21.9%
By Town: Hempstead 59.4% Auto; Rail 17.4% and all others 23.2%
North Hempstead 56.0% Auto; Rail 17.0% and all others 27.0%
Oyster Bay 69.4% Auto; Rail 16.0% and all others 14.6%
All Others are Bus, Walking, Work at Home or Not Reported

ESTIMATED Average Weekday Passenger Traffic - 1962 and 1970 To, From and Through Nassau County
For All Forms of Transportation:
New York City-Nassau 1962 420,000; 1970 505,000
Nassau-Suffolk 1962 115,000; 1970 160,000
New York City-Suffolk 1962 105,000; 1970 140,000
Total Nassau-Queens Cordon 1962-525,000; 1970-645,000 Passengers
Total Nassau-Suffolk Cordon 1962-220,000; 1970-300,000 Passengers

There is LIRR ridership in number of daily commuters for all Nassau County stations listed for the years
1951 and 1962 along with the percentage increase or decrease for each. The highest-ridership station
was (and remains today) Hicksville with 2698 up to 3841 (42.4%). Other stations that had increases in
ridership include Port Washington, Glen Cove, Carle Place, Westbury, Syosset, Bethpage, Farmingdale,
Oceanside and all Babylon Branch stops between Merrick and Massapequa Park.

There is a proposed track alignment and map for a future Roosevelt Field Transportation Center which would
have been constructed in the southeast corner of the mall area near the Meadowbrook Parkway/Zeckendorf
Boulevard cloverleaf interchange. A connecting track was to run SE from just west of Glen Cove Road from
the Main Line - which notes one or two additional tracks to Floral Park. There is an artist's rendering of the
new RTC facility by John Harold Barry, A.I.A. Architects that looks NW with the Mall in the background.

A Nassau Loop LIRR proposal map to extend rail service to the East Meadow-Levittown Area is shown.
New stations would be constructed at East Meadow and Levittown on the line towards Farmingdale.
Between Hicksville and Farmingdale Grumman Station was to have been rehabilitated and Bethpage
Station moved to the vicinity of B Tower (near the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway and Bethpage Pkwy.)
and renamed "Bethpage-Plainview". These new lines would have been constructed as electrified routes.

There are two Manhattan East Side route map plans to Grand Central Terminal mentioned.
Alternative A would be a two-track tunnel to East 52nd Street - Transfer sta. to East Side IRT and 53rd St. IND
than to a LIRR platform at 145 47th Street on the west side of GCT. Alternate B would have been a single track
tunnel to E 52nd Street on a "loop" track to GCT and a proposed 35th Street/Madison Avenue Station and than
connecting with the existing tunnels around 32/33 between Madison and Park Avenues eastbound.
Another proposed change would have been transferring FBA Brooklyn-Jamaica service to the NYCTA.

This was a very ambitious plan for its time in the early 1960s if it was all implemented. Back then the auto
was king of all transportation especially with Robert Moses then in charge of NY area transportation. Even
at that time Roosevelt Field was - and still is - the #1 shopping mall on all of Long Island. Bringing in LIRR
service to the Nassau Hub area would have been a major innovation then. Krispy is right concerning the
proposed restoration of the LIRR route through East Meadow and Levittown which was abandoned before
the post-World War Two suburban expansion creating the Levittown community - which possibly even
then would have faced strong NIMBY opposition of the route - which goes through almost all residential
areas east of the Mitchel Field area towards Farmingdale. 58 years later we now realize how progressive
this rail plan actually was...MACTRAXX