Taylor is fortifying the future of freight on Long Island
Lynbrook’s Marlon Taylor became the new president of the New York and Atlantic Railway, June 19, succeeding James Bonner.
Taylor, 50, lives in Lynbrook with his wife, Leisa, and son, Mason. He began his career in railroading when he joined the Pacific Harbor Line, in 1999. He then joined the NYA in 2016, and was the assistant vice president. Being an integral part of the team for the past eight years, Taylor plans to continue carrying out New York Atlantic’s mission.
“I look forward with enthusiasm to this new opportunity,” he said. “Over the past eight years with NYA, I have enjoyed developing solutions that help our customers thrive while serving our diverse community and workforce and managing our safe, efficient, and green operations. Our success has been achieved with the close cooperation of our host, the Long Island Rail Road. It is the busiest commuter railroad in North America, and we are committed to maintaining our great relationship with this premier agency.”
Taylor said he was fascinated with train dispatching and how the process behind that works. So after he became a conductor, engineer, and train dispatcher for PHL in California, he eventually started filling different roles for managers at the railroad, as relief manager. He covered managser when they were on vacation, which gave him a broad view on how train dispatching works.
“That job provided me with a view that nobody else had,” Taylor said. “It was seen as a punishment to some people because I’m literally covering people when they’re on vacation. I’m working all the holidays, I’m working bad schedules, and working bad hours, but I think that job helped me see just the breadth of all that happened on the railroad.”
By 2008, Taylor advanced to the positions of locomotive engineer, train dispatcher, and trainmaster. In March 2013, Taylor was promoted director of operations at PHL. Three years later, Taylor joined NYA as the assistant vice president, then vice president, and now the director of the rail company.
“I was part of the team that created this mission and plan and so I plan on continuing it,” Taylor said. “Hiring good people, keeping good people, making sure our people are happy, making sure they’re safe, providing our customers with good service, and being a good partner for the Long Island Railroad.”
NYA was formed to operate freight trains on lines owned by the Long Island Rail Road. The freight trains replace more than 120,000 heavy truck trips that would otherwise be on the roads and highways of metro NYC, reducing transportation emissions by 75 percent.
Taylor explained that each rail car is equivalent to about four truckloads. So, when the crew leaves from various stations in NYC, Nassau County, and Suffolk County with about 20 cars, that’s about 80 trucks that won’t be on the highways, causing congestion and pollution. Although the locomotives don’t fully remove emissions, Taylor emphasized that it greatly reduces the amount of pollution in the air.
With 14 locomotives and about 50 cars, NYA serves 80 customers. Taylor said that the freight trains transport bulky, heavy commodities like stone, cement, and flour.
“One of our top 15 customers is ELM Global Logistics and they’re a transload company,” Taylor said. “And basically what they do is they provide WestRock with paper. They also transport beans and flour so we’re giving them about five cars a day.”
The transportation of goods along the 270 miles of railway comes with safety concerns. The nearly 60 employees of NYA work alongside LIRR trains, which speed past them at 80 miles per hour. Taylor mentioned that educating not only the employees, but also the public about these tracks are crucial in keeping them safe.
“If you see tracks, think trains,” Taylor said. “You see fancy pictures of kids or people taking pictures in the middle of the track and they assume it’s abandoned. So we go out and educate the public by telling them this is where we are, this is what we do, and if you see a track, think train.”
In addition to his responsibilities for NYA, Taylor is the president of the Railroads of New York, an advocacy group in the state capital that tries to raise awareness about freight railroads in the state. He noted that NY and other states have pushed for freight laws after the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment in February of 2023.
“That’s my part time job, which is to educate and push for freight friendly laws,” Taylor said.”
NYA also participates in Rail Safety Week where they work with local communities to spread awareness on tragedies that occur on the tracks. The week is dedicated to highlighting the dangers of crossing railroad tracks.
Besides the NYA and Railroads of New York, Taylor is part of the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Long Island. BBSLI’s mission is to create and support one-to-one mentoring relationships that ignite the power and promise of youth.
The main question that Taylor is seeking to answer as president of the NYA is “how do we manage growth?” He noted that there are customers that want more service and because the NYA is a tenant of the LIRR, growth is not always in his hands.
“And so the challenge is how do we manage growth going forward,” Taylor said. “We’ll need some partners from the Long Island Rail Road, from our customers and communities. I think we’ll need to incorporate all these people into the solution.”
As for what freight looks like tomorrow, Taylor explained that this vision is not solely up to him.
He said he will continue to enroll more supporters so he can map out the future of freight in NYC and on Long Island.
