Study: LIRR Babylon Line Racked Up 450,000 Hours Of Delays In One Year
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- For the third year in a row, the Long Island Rail Road's Babylon line took the gold in two categories in the Tri-State Transportation Campaign's "Laggy Awards."
The mass transit advocacy group found Babylon had the most delays and lost the most amount of money out of the LIRR's 11 branches.
Babylon trains were delayed about 450,000 hours over a one-year period from July 2014 through June 2015, with $25.6 million in lost economic productivity, the group said.
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Commuters who ride the Babylon line weren't surprised.
"Long Island Rail Road, also known as the Long Island Snail Road," one commuter said.
"I honestly think that it sucks," another commuter said. "Babylon is bad, they need to fix the connections, they definitely need to be more on time and they need to clean the cars."
Ronkonkoma line came in second with more than 345,000 hours of delays and nearly $20 million in losses, followed by Huntington with over 312,000 hours and nearly $18 million.
The group found overall the railroad lost $106 million in economic productivity.
"For 182 years, the LIRR has been critical to the economies of Long Island and New York City. It's easy to focus on the minutes slipping away while we wait for our trains, but we also need to remember that unreliable transit has a hefty cost—on both our wallets and the regional economy as a whole," said Ryan Hall, staff analyst for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign who conducted the analysis.
The Port Jefferson branch won the gold for the greatest delays per rider at 26.3 hours annually.
The LIRR has previously said it is working on several projects aimed at improving on-time performance.
Earlier this year, Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed building a third track that would run for about 10 miles between Floral Park and Hicksville. Cuomo said the additional track will increase service, reduce congestion and allow the LIRR to provide reverse-peak trains during traditional business hours.
