Will LIRR go to New Jersey and back again?

Anyone who has anxiously waited on the Long Island Rail Road concourse in Penn Station for the magical train track number to appear, or who has assumed the track of their reliable commuter train would remain the same, only to scramble to a different set of stairs at the last minute, might embrace any solution to the departure dance of rush hour.

The latest pitch to end the chaos is not new. Advocates are renewing the notion of through-running — the idea that trains wouldn’t terminate at Penn, but would instead travel from Long Island to New Jersey and back again, which could lower the time a train spends at Penn, and make it easier to schedule times and tracks for departures.

Through-running, championed by a nonprofit called ReThinkNYC, could have larger implications too, providing a one-seat ride from Nassau and Suffolk counties to New Jersey, benefiting sports fans heading to football or hockey games, or Long Islanders with jobs, family or friends in the Garden State.

It is a big idea worth consideration and study by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Amtrak, the national passenger rail
system that owns Penn Station. The Federal Railroad Administration already has included the possibility in its ongoing service optimization study. Importantly, Amtrak continues to plan an expansion that could, eventually, bring its trains to Ronkonkoma, potentially putting the through-running theory into practice. The LIRR also does a form of through-running with some trains — albeit not with passengers — as they go past Penn into the West Side Yard for storage, maintenance and more.

But a significant through-running operation is complicated and expensive, with hurdles that won’t be easy to overcome. The need for expanded capacity could require new tracks south of Penn, a plan previously discussed and abandoned after area businesses and residents objected. There’s the question of the trains and their power sources, as LIRR trains use the electrified third rail, while NJ Transit uses an overhead catenary wire system. And any through-running plan would require negotiations with and approvals from multiple unions on both sides of the East and Hudson rivers.

What’s more, there are potential unintended consequences that could upend the LIRR’s reliability and on-time performance.

Amid all that, there’s also a simple question that hasn’t been fully answered: Do riders — on both sides of Manhattan — want a two-state, one-seat ride?

So, as study and debate continue, it’s worth considering more short-term solutions to the Penn Station track stampede. The key is to reduce a train’s “dwell time” by getting people off and on a platform faster and more smoothly. Widening platforms or adding staircases and escalators could help.

Big ideas have brought great new realities to the LIRR before — in double track, Third Track and Grand Central Madison, just to name a few. Amtrak and the MTA, along with advocates and regulators, should work together to assess through-running with both a recognition of the legitimate barriers, and an openness to what’s possible.