Baldwinites hope East Side Access will ease overcrowding

John Eismen lives in Oceanside, but chooses to catch a Penn Station-bound Long Island Rail Road train from nearby Baldwin every day. “The trains are usually a little more on time and more frequent,” Eismen said as he waited for an 8:29 a.m. train on Aug. 17. Still, he said he usually finds that there are days when service is not as advertised or it’s hard for him to find a seat. “It can be in the morning, afternoon or evening,” he said. “I’ve gotten on at 4 p.m. going into Penn on a weekday and the train is packed.”

He said he believes the East Side Access project (see story on Page 12) can help to reduce some of the overcrowding. “I think if it’s done the right way, it can definitely help,” Eismen said. “I think the big thing though is they need to work on communication.”

The project seeks to increase rider capacity from 300,000 to 435,000 daily commuters per day. Baldwin is on the Babylon branch, which according to an LIRR spokeswoman sees about 7,000 daily riders. As its name suggests, it will also allow commuters to get to the east side of Manhattan by routing trains to Grand Central station.

A Baldwin commuter who only identified himself as Tim said he’s heard of the ESA, and is also hopeful it can make his morning commute easier. “I don’t see how it couldn’t help,” said Tim, who added that overcrowding is also one of the biggest problems he faces on the LIRR.

Jim Deleteris, of Baldwin, was not familiar with the ESA but when told of it said he like the idea. “If that’s something they can do, I think it would be great,” he said. But he said he didn’t trust the MTA’s word that it would be completed by 2022. “I guess we’ll have to see about that,” he said.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Marc Molinaro, the Dutchess County executive, said during a campaign stop in Baldwin Aug. 17 that he does not oppose the project or its intended purpose, but criticized the MTA’s handling of the ESA.

“It’s over budget,” Molinaro said. “Where’s the accountability?”

The original cost was between $3.5 billion and $4.5 billion in the early 2000s. The Herald toured the site in 2011 and was told then it would cost $7.3 billion and be completed by 2016.