[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 122 (Monday, June 26, 1995)]
[Notices]
[Pages 33027-33029]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-15393]



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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]
BILLING CODE 4910-57-P