Wantagh’s LIRR station next up for renovations

Wantagh’s Long Island railroad station is slated for a makeover beginning in 2015 at a projected cost of $20.7 million. The project will replace the station platform, canopy and waiting room as well as the escalator. Additionally, Wantagh will have a new elevator that will “make the station wheelchair accessible for the first time,” said LIRR spokesman Salvatore Arena.

The LIRR is finishing up its renovation of the Massapequa train station and will begin the demolition of the Wantagh station in September of 2015. “The project should take two years to complete — between October and December of 2017,” said Arena. Wantagh’s station is the last one on the Babylon line in Nassau County to be renovated. The station was last refurbished in 1968.

On weekdays, 5,700 passengers use the Wantagh train station. The project will address structural deterioration by undertaking repairs to the platform substructure. The rehabilitation effort will also replace signage and lighting.

Arena said Wantagh’s renovation is part of the current four-year capital plan. “These projects typically have a schedule,” he said. “It begins as a proposal, and then we look to see where this project fits in and what are the [system’s] priorities. It’s a long process that includes many steps. But Wantagh’s renovation is coming soon.”

Riders react

“It’s good news,” said Tom Adler, of Wantagh, who has been commuting to Manhattan from Wantagh for 40 years. “The station is seedy and it doesn’t represent our community. Wantagh is a nice place to live and we deserve a clean, and attractive train station.”

Linda Messeller agreed. She has only been commuting for a few months but noticed “how run down the station is. I never go into the waiting room. It smells of urine. “

“It certainly needs a renovation,” said Jeffrey Landesmann, of Bellmore, who was taking the train into Manhattan after dropping his daughter off at nursery school in Wantagh. “Bellmore is a lot nicer.”

But the renovations can disrupt commuters’ routines and residents said it could make parking more difficult at other stations. “People from Massapequa have been parking at other stations, which means fewer spots for people in town,” said Landesmann. “I’m a big supporter of the Town of Hempstead issuing parking permits,” he said referring to Massapequa residents in the Town of Oyster Bay who have been parking in Seaford, Wantagh and Bellmore during their station renovation.

Linda Messeller said she solves the parking issue with “a ride from my mom. But I do hear other commuters complain about the parking situation in Wantagh.”