The following is the official statement sent to the Long Island Rail Rroad from the officials of the Village of New Hyde Park regarding the proposed Long Island Truck-Rail

Intermodal Facility Project:

The proposed Long Island Truck-Rail Intermodal Facility Project (LITRIM), although proposed to have an environmental effect on a limited and localized geographic area in Suffolk County, will actually affect the quality of life of all residents along the Main Line of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), the transportation corridor for freight movement to the proposed facility.

The DEIS should be expanded and extended to analyze the mitigate impacts to the Main Line communities, especially the Incorporated Village of New Hyde Park. One of the state goals of the DEIS is to minimize impacts to the communities surrounding the project. New Hyde Park proposes an additional goal: to minimize impacts to those communities through which rail freight will be transported.

The DEIS identifies certain time slots within the current LIRR commuter train schedules which will accommodate the additional freight service to be generated by the LITRIM. The effects of utilizing those time slots must be analyzed with respect to traffic, noise, vibration, air quality and property values as same may affect New Hyde Park.

Additionally, the DEIS must analyze these impacts in conjunction with the proposed impacts of the LIRR Main Line Improvement Project. Although it is suggested that the current Main Line track configuration will accommodate the proposed increase in freight, the addition of a third track along the Main Line in New Hyde Park in conjunction with the LIRR East Side Access Project will actually create greater freight capacity which could be utilized in the future both with respect to volume and scheduling. The failure of the DEIS to analyze the combined impacts of the LITRIM, Main Line Improvement and East Side Access projects, especially with reference to the effects upon New Hyde Park, constitutes an improper segmentation of the environmental review requirements of both New York and Federal Law.

Demand is hereby made that the DEIS be modified to include a study of the cumulative impacts of the LITRIM project upon New Hyde Park.