STB Releases Final EA for Proposed Suffolk County, N.Y. Rail Line
The STB’s Office of Environmental Analysis issued the Draft EA on Jan. 5; comments were due Feb. 5.
Townline on Nov. 17, 2022, filed a petition with the STB seeking authorization to construct and operate approximately 5,000 feet of new, common carrier rail line and associated switching and sidetrack in the hamlet of Kings Park, town of Smithtown, N.Y., according to the Final EA (download below the Final EA, plus Appendices). CarlsonCorp, Inc. (Carlson) in 2021 established Townline to be a common carrier railroad. The proposed line would connect and run parallel to the existing MTA Long Island Railroad (LIRR) main line (see map, top), and add two daily New York & Atlantic Railway (NYA) trains (one roundtrip) to the LIRR system five days per week. NYA, an Anacostia Rail Holdings Company subsidiary, currently operates freight rail service on the LIRR main line in conjunction with LIRR passenger operations in New York’s Suffolk, Nassau, Kings, and Queens counties.
NYA runs over 270 miles throughout the LIRR network and maintains selected sidings and tracks designated exclusively for freight service. If the proposed rail line is authorized and implemented, Townline would interchange its rail traffic with NYA, which would then move the commodities off Long Island by rail, the Final EA reported.
According to Townline, the new line is needed to provide a rail option for transporting incinerator ash and construction and demolition (C&D) debris off Long Island for customers located on the Carlson property and adjacent properties. Townline stated that “in 2027, the Brookhaven landfill (the largest disposal option for incinerator ash and C&D debris on Long Island) is expected to reach maximum capacity and close,” and noted that “the proposed line would offer an alternative to truck transportation off Long Island by providing efficient, direct rail transportation via the LIRR main line to the interstate network.” In addition to serving Carlson, Townline said it anticipates potentially serving Covanta Energy, a waste-to-energy facility located a half-mile west of the new line that converts Smithtown’s solid waste into incinerator ash, as well as other area shippers.
According to the STB’s Office of Environmental Analysis, the 105 comment letters received during the comment period “did not require altering the conclusions in the Draft EA,” which found that the proposed line would have “negligible impacts to all environmental resource areas, excluding biological resources.” For biological resources, the Office concluded that the proposed line’s impacts “can be appropriately minimized with the mitigation recommended” in the Final EA.
The Final EA addresses minor changes to the Draft EA in response to the comments and sets forth the Office of Environmental Analysis’s final recommendations, including recommended mitigation, to the STB. (The Final EA is a “track change version” of the Draft EA; substantive additions and deletions to the text appear in blue and red.)
The STB, in making its final decision, will consider the entire record, including the information presented on the transportation merits, the Draft EA, Final EA, and all public and agency comments received, according to the Office of Environmental Analysis. If the STB decides to authorize the new line, it may impose conditions on the applicant as part of its decision, including environmental mitigation conditions, the Office of Environmental Analysis noted.
