RONKONKOMA, N.Y. — The state of New York will spend $150 million to connect the Long Island Rail Road’s Ronkonkoma station with a proposed new terminal at Long Island MacArthur Airport, a facility served by four commercial airlines.
The project, announced Wednesday, Feb. 12, by Gov. Kathy Hochul, will include purchase of 48 acres of land, a pedestrian walkway linking the airport and station, redesigned roadways, and other infrastructure upgrades. Hochul has previously committed $40 million for a new north terminal adjacent to the train station. The main terminal is currently on the opposite side of the airport, served by Southwest, JetBlue, Frontier, and Breeze airlines. The airport serves about 5,000 passengers a day.
“Moving MacArthur’s terminal closer to Ronkonkoma station will encourage people to take the train to the airport,” Long Island Rail Road President Rob Free said in a press release. “The LIRR is already the best travel experience to JFK and we are ready to help MacArthur Airport grow by bringing that same great travel experience there too.”
Said Empire State Development CEO Hope Knight, “The direct connection between MacArthur Airport and the LIRR network will create new opportunities for business development, tourism, and job creation that will benefit Long Island for generations to come.”
Suffolk County will also put $50 million into the project, WCBS-TV reports. The county is also involved in the effort to bring Amtrak service to Ronkonkoma, a prospect included in the Federal Railroad Administration’s Corridor Identification and Development Program in 2023 [see “Full list of passenger routes …,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 8, 2023].
Just based on where the present terminal is in relation to the runways, it looks like the new terminal would be about a quarter mile from the station if it’s set up in a similar way; I wouldn’t expect more than half a mile as that puts things very close to the existing runways, and they’ll need new aprons and taxiways. A quarter to half mile isn’t a fun walk with luggage and especially with kids, but I’d bet people probably walk that far or more getting through a larger airport. An enclosed walkway (and especially one with moving walkways) would be easily doable for that distance. Of course, if the terminal is located further away, that changes things.
I did suggest better shuttles in the article about the airport near Hartford, CT, as an alternative to a new rail line. That could be the case here, but you’d want them to be frequent; it takes about 10 minutes for a car to drive airport to station, and a shuttle may take longer because it’s larger. Then factor in time to unload and load passengers and bags, and then return to the terminal, and you’d want multiple shuttles on the route to keep wait times down.
All the questions about walking distances so far will depend on location of the new airport terminal and its entrance(s). On the present forest or maybe the building’s locations will be used? Will the LIRR expand parking?
Unless the walkway is completely enclosed to protect from the elements this is a waist of money. People are not going to want to walk in rain, cold, snow, or hot, humid weather to get from the station to the terminal. Shuttle busses, unless they run on time and consistently meet each train that stops at the station are useless.
Have they tried a shuttle bus from the terminal to the station? A walkway from the new terminal to the station still looks like a bit of a haul with luggage and children. Will it be enclosed for winter weather?
Yes there is a shuttle bus, according to the web sites I looked at earlier today.
The county bus service available from terminal serves the Patchogue and Central Islip LIRR stations not the Ronkonkoma station, about twenty minute rides. To get to the Ronkonkoma station you need to use Uber or Lyft.
ISP MacArthur Airport needs help. I looked it up on Wikipedia. Traffic peaked in 2007 and has since dropped like a stone. You can’t get to places like Chicago without a transfer. Given the huge populations of Nassau and Suffolk Counties, that’s really strange.
With all the recent chatter in aviation circles about secondary airports like BDL Hartford or PVD Rhode Island, it escapes me why ISP is such a downer.
Anyway, it seems this article here on TRAINS is a bit hazy. As I read it, it seems that what is proposed is a new terminal (closer to LIRR), not a new rail line.
There may be a problem limiting service to Islip airport due to complicated arrival and departure procedures and routes. The New York Tracon has to deal with ISP, JFK, LGA, EWR.. As well as flights toward BDL, PVD, & BOS.
Since I have no access to approach & departure procedures it may be flights for ISP may require long distances of low altitude flights to access ISP. More flight time and fuel burn can be costly.
There are inverted pies around all these airports thast have to be separated by altitude separations.