The Long Island Rail Road Today
What real good passenger rail should look like for the Northeastern US
Today, Amtrak is the owner or contracted operator of the entire 450-mile Northeast Corridor, save the roughly 50 miles from New Rochelle, NY, to New Haven, CT, known to most as the New Haven Line. The states of New York and Connecticut happened to purchase their respective portions of that line before Amtrak was authorized to acquire rail right-of-way in the mid-1970s. Today, the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) contracts with Metro-North Railroad to dispatch and maintain the New Haven Line.
There would be an argument for continuing this arrangement if the New Haven Line were the tightest-run portion of the Northeast Corridor, but the evidence decisively paints the opposite picture. It’s time to turn over the last state-controlled Northeast Corridor segments to America’s national rail operator. Amtrak is certainly plagued by internal dysfunction causing inefficient operations and high construction costs. Still, it is very hard to see even them failing to improve upon CTDOT and Metro-North, whos
The Long Island Rail Road Today