For four years the LIRR, managed by the MTA, together with local and state officials planned the ambitious South Fork Commuter Connection. Beginning in March, a single train car heads to and from eight towns in the Hamptons, staffed with up to three employees. State-financed shuttle buses await at each stop at the posh Hampton towns, as part of the endeavor geared towards attracting commuters out of their cars, thereby easing traffic on the congested East End.
As reported by the NY Post, residents are saying the trains are a striking example of waste, with only several riders per train, at $4.25 per ride. “It’s not working,” said Jay Fitzpatrick, an architect and longtime resident of Southampton. “Nobody’s taking it.” Last Thursday, he said he counted a total of six passengers get off an early-morning train in Southampton. Four of them then boarded one of two shuttle buses.
The Hampton Hopper buses are provided by the state Department of Transportation to the towns at a cost of $1 million a year. The routes are designed to transport passengers to local hospitals and schools. Thomas Neely, the transportation and traffic director for Southampton Town, confirmed that “very few people are taking the shuttle buses”. He said local Hamptons officials have already reduced the buses at each station down from four to two.
As though to ratify the low usage of the trains, the LIRR has decided to cut the five-day-a-week shuttle-train service, to four days, eliminating service on Fridays. The LIRR said it will make better use of the train, adding the trains to Penn Station to accommodate summer crowds arriving from the city. The few commuters who rely on the South Fork Connection will be forced back onto the congested roads on Fridays. Ironically, the Hamptons train, if needed at all, would be most necessary on Fridays, when merchants, and employees usually commute in time to serve the weekend crowds during the summer.
“This just wasn’t thought through well enough,” said Lin Restivo, a Hampton Bays resident who in March began commuting with the train, but will now go back to driving on the jammed County Road 39.
Neely expressed sympathy for the commuters of the South Fork Connection , but said there is little that can be done, as the LIRR lacks the infrastructure to run both the shuttle service and add summer trains at Penn Station. A Spokeswoman for the LIRR said, “We’re open to amending the schedules depending on customer demand, whenever and wherever we have the cars and track capacity to do so.”