Although it may take much more to convince residents otherwise, newly installed Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) President Helena Williams ardently stated earlier this month that the highly controversial "third track" project is not moving forward to accommodate increased freight on the Main Line but rather to improve overall service.

"The Long Island Rail Road doesn't need a track for freight," she told editors at Anton Newspapers during a meeting in Mineola Jan. 3. "Freight is a very expensive proposition. We have the capacity to move more freight on the current tracks if New York & Atlantic [Railway] needs more. We don't need another track to do that."

Since taking the helm in June 2007 as the first woman ever to take on this leadership role, Williams' priorities include first and foremost customer safety, service liability and economic viability. "My goal is for us to be the best," she said.

In accomplishing that, Williams believes a "passing lane" is key to improving service performance. "We have lots of stuck trains," she admitted. The passing lane theory is intended to improve capacity, President Williams continued.

This "third" track, however, is not intended to act as just a passing lane. President Williams explained that the additional track would help the railroad improve capacity and increase reliable on-time service for its customers.

A report released just last week stated that the MTA/LIRR capped off 2007 with an on-time performance of 94.7 percent, the best since modern record keeping started in 1979. President Williams, although proud of the hard-won accomplishment, said the MTA/LIRR is committed to achieving even better performance in the future, which is why "we are moving ahead with plans for a third track."

"It's residential delays that hurt our reliability," she continued. "If we have a Main Line third track expansion, we would have the passing lane capacity to keep train traffic moving. We need a passing lane in order to keep trains moving."

Originally, local officials were told that the third track - really a fifth in Floral Park - was necessary to accommodate a reverse commute. It appears, however, that MTA/LIRR officials have now abandoned that theory.

Improved service reliability would only better the East Side Access project, the highly anticipated connection to Grand Central Station that would, for the first time in history, create two Manhattan gateways. "This is a tremendously exciting project that's been in the works for well over ten years," President Williams said, adding that the project would add 24 trains per hour to Grand Central Station while maintaining 37 trains per hour to Penn Station.

The expected service date for the new terminal station at Grand Central is June 2014. This project, Williams said, relies heavily on three key investments essential to its success: (1) eliminating what she described as the "Jamaica crawl" - the "spaghetti" of tracks at Jamaica station where all trains converge with the exception of the Port Washington branch; (2) adding 264 additional cars of which the railroad is in the process of locating yards in Suffolk County to store the cars in; and (3) Main Line corridor improvements. The third investment is what has residents living along the 10-mile Main Line stretch worried.

President Williams assures though that railroad officials have heard the voice of the people. "The railroad is well aware of the issues. No one wants the railroad on their back steps. We're very aware of that," she said.

Two alternatives came to light as a result of residential concern. The early proposal was first introduced when the idea of a fifth track in Floral Park was still in the picture. This alternative included 17 potential residential takings and 251 total property impacts.

Now, the current proposal carries two potential residential takings, which are located near the Ellison Avenue bridge in the Village of Westbury, and would impact 31 residential properties, 21 of which would be impacted by less than five feet and 8 of which would be impacted between five and 13 feet. President Williams did not, however, reveal the specific locations of the properties she mentioned.

The infrastructure improvements include grade crossing eliminations, necessary repair of Westbury Village's Ellison Avenue Bridge, which was built in 1896, work continuing at the Roslyn Road grade crossing (which is making way for a third track) and attempts to eliminate major flooding issues along the Mineola tracks. The bridge could be done early, President Williams said, adding that taking care of the Mineola flooding issue should be done as quickly as possible. Signal replacement could be one of the last aspects of the project.

President Williams said the railroad has no intention at this time to lay additional track for the Hub proposal now under the Town of Hempstead's review. She did however state that she intends on repairing track near Belmont Racetrack and make needed improvements in that area.

Funding for the East Side Access project is already in place; officials however are still waiting for monies to fund the alignment project. Officials intend to submit the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) and hold public meetings between the second and third quarter of 2008.

The Federal Transportation Authority (FTA) could grant a record of decision in the first quarter of 2009 and construction could start in early 2010. President Williams assured the MTA/LIRR would keep residents abreast of a timetable and ensure them a chance to speak sometime between now and May.