Resident’s against Rail Expansion (R.A.R.E.) was created to inform the residents of Garden City and its neighbors about the MTA/LIRR’s plan to build an additional track on the main line. It is the opinion of many citizens that the LIRR appears to have a poor record for openness and customer service.  Nonetheless, the LIRR plans to spend over $1 billion of taxpayer’s money to build another track that they haven’t been able to justify. This project conjures up a myriad of safety, health, traffic, financial and environmental issues that will adversely affect all our lives as well as all the communities from Hicksville to Floral Park. We plan to work with the other impacted communities to prevent the LIRR from lessening the quality of our lives. 

It's "rare" that you get a chance to really make a difference.  It's "rare" that politicians have to worry about what is important to a seemingly small group of individuals. However, it’s "RARE" (Residents Against Rail Expansion) that will make a difference and will make our political representatives aware of what we need them to do. We need them to stop ignoring the issue, and we need them to stop saying that we have nothing to worry about; we need them to start looking into the issues, and we need them to start connecting the dots by asking the LIRR why there couldn't possibly be another solution to what the LIRR claims to need.  The LIRR should be required to re-examine and present alternative solutions and related impact before selecting this one that is too expensive and which will be so devastating to so many home values, as well as the quality of life for so many, including Garden City and our neighbors. 

It is rare that many of us take time to stand up and do the right thing; well this is the time! Stop whatever else you are doing, read through this website and make your RARE presence known to every politician who will be forced to listen. We need to act now.  We need the politicians to act now.  There is no time to wait any longer.  By sending them letters en-masse and by continually pushing them to get involved, they will know this is really an issue we need them to address. Don't let anyone, or any organization, say that it is not "their issue" or that "someone else may be able to help"; tell the politicians up front that we are calling on them to make it their issue. Tell them to contact the person that they claim can do something. Let them start working on this issue, before the additional freight trains are here. They will be here unless you take this RARE moment to stop the Third Track Expansion. 

Act Now!

·         Please go to the section of this website called Letters to Politicians

·         Print and sign each letter to each and every politician (while, we suggest that you send a letter to each and every name listed, certainly you may send only to those you choose)

·         Using the attached form letters may make it convenient for you, but if you chose to write your own letter(s), addresses have been provided for you to do so

·         Please act now, there is no more time to wait and see who else will do something.

·         Each of us must strongly encourage our elected officials at all levels to get involved and help solve this problem.

The MTA/LIRR has proposed to build an additional track along the 10-mile corridor of the Main Line between Floral Park and Hicksville as part of the Main Line Corridor Improvements Project (Third Track Expansion). The added track will be installed 14 feet closer to properties located on the south side of the LIRR Main Line.  The track expansion will directly impact the following areas of our Village and within immediate proximity to our Village roads: Merillon Ave station & overpass, Nassau Boulevard, Tanners Pond Rd & overpass, Clinch Ave., New Hyde Park Rd, New Hyde Park station & the three railroad crossings in New Hyde Park, 12^th Street and Covert Ave.

-Under the Third Track Expansion, seven Garden City parcels will be taken, six Village owned and one commercial (Cellucraft). All are located east and west of the intersection of Clinch Ave. and New Hyde Park Road immediately south of the LIRR Main Line tracks.

-This track expansion is all about freight and freight revenues, not about improving commuter service.

-Increased freight traffic raises serious health, safety and environmental concerns for all residents in the Village.

-Residents should be concerned about increased, unmonitored, traffic (dangerous cargo, hazardous waste, chemicals, garbage and fuels, especially liquid propane gas) that is perilously close to homes, schools, schoolyards, playgrounds and our wildlife sanctuary. Added freight traffic will magnify noise levels, vibrations, water/air pollution and raise the probability of additional derailments and track fires.

-Funding this project is a wasteful misuse of our tax dollars. This unnecessary project means rail construction for 7 to 13 years.

 -We believe that the third track plan has the potential to turn Garden City’s suburban life into a nightmare. Our quality of life would be extremely compromised. If any residents think that they won’t be impacted - think again. We need the support of every resident to fight this brazen intrusion into our lives.

-In June 2005, the Village of Garden City officially went on record in opposition to the third track proposal when it submitted a letter to the MTA/LIRR. The Board of Trustees unanimously approved this letter. This project along with the Nassau Hub initiative has the potential to destroy Garden City, as we know it.

-This website (gcrare.net) contains editorial and a compilation of various opinions submitted by citizens in the attempt to provide informational materials, periodic updates, calendar of events and links to letters to send to Politicians, Government Agencies, and other neighboring villages, who have united with us to fight rail expansion.

In mid 2005 The MTA/LIRR justified the Third Track Project based upon an estimated 30 % increase in passenger ridership by the year 2020 and to provide service to the fast growing legions of reverse commuters and midday riders on Long Island. These projections came from a LIRR commissioned study known as the Origin and Destination Study, which provided information about ridership patterns. In short order this study was revealed to be more self-serving than valid in its conclusions.

It appeared that after realizing that Long Island residents knew that the LIRR’s original justification for the third track was unsubstantiated, LIRR President, Helena Williams, in September 2007, began justifying the project‘s importance in order to improve service and reliability stating that an additional track can improve on-time performance by offering a “passing lane” around disabled trains. Long Island residents are not naïve enough to accept this reason as justification to waste over $1 billion of tax payers hard earned dollars to build a third track.

Although the MTA/LIRR refuses to admit to it, citizens believe that the real reason for the third track initiative is all about freight and freight revenues. If increasing freight is not the “reason”, it will certainly be the result! Taxpaying residents are entitled to know how our tax dollars are being spent and how much additional freight will be hauled on the main line in the future.

Long Island residents are tired of being treated as second-class citizens by the MTA/LIRR. It’s time for the MTA/LIRR to be forthright and tell the residents what this project is really all about and the impact it will have on freight.

(Reference- Mayor’s Message 5/16/07 by Phil Guarnieri, Mayor of Floral Park, - exposes the continuous lies the LIRR has been espousing to Long Island residents regarding passenger ridership and the reverse commuter “fantasy”)

The LIRR would be better served to focus time and energy on its dilapidated infrastructure before attempting to build an additional track. The funds could be put to far better use if they were directed to a real need rather than some hypothetical, self-serving, contrived rationale.

It’s time for the Department of Transportation (DOT) & the MTA/LIRR to begin thinking about what is best for residents of Long Island.

By their own admission the MTA has “admitted their working with a transit system that is more than 100 years old. We’re dealing with retrofitting a 19^th century transportation system with a 21^st century technology to respond to security threats that were never contemplated before”.

It’s time for the DOT & MTA/LIRR to take a look outside the USA for better systems. They’ll see European and Asian countries, which are considerably less affluent than we, embarking on transportation systems based upon Maglev Technology, whereby trains run on magnets. Since the trains run over the tracks there is no danger of pollution or fires, and vibrations are kept to a minimum. Some of these countries have rail systems that run at much faster speeds. If the MTA/LIRR really wants to improve service and build its passenger ridership, this could be a viable alternative venture.

It’s time for the taxpaying residents of Long Island to have a real say and join in the government decision-making process. Frankly we are tired of footing the bill and having a tired, old, ineffective rail system to show for it. And if the third track system goes through, it will be more of the same. If the MTA/LIRR would demonstrate that they really care about the safety, health, and well being of Long Island residents and their commuters, and would listen to our input, great progress could be made! Then, and only then, will the MTA/LIRR be entitled to receive the support of Long Island taxpaying residents for future growth and expansion projects!