Though the Long Island Rail Road “Montauk Branch” between Long Island City and Jamaica has not played host to regular passenger service for about a decade, and several stations along the line closed in 1998, it still has a busy freight business. Here a LIRR MP-15 diesel unit pulls several freight cars along the elevated portion of the line above Park Lane South at Bessemer Street,
“I have a dream” that someday, all disused or freight-only trackways will be reconverted for passenger service, Queens is rife with quite a few, the Montauk as shown here, the New York Connecting Railroad across the Hell Gate Bridge, the LIRR Bay Ridge Branch, and the former LIRR Rockaway Branch. I’ve walked several of them, and gotten rides on others. For me, there can never be enough public transit, especially in the outer boroughs. It’s been pointed out elsewhere that for travel between boroughs–even adjoining ones such as Brooklyn and Queens–options are limited and difficult, as commuter lines are built to funnel people into Manhattan, where many of the jobs have been. The situation is no longer cut and dried in that manner as much in 2018, though, and officials may find it necessary to design interborough routes.
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9/21/18