Click here for Greater Long Island newsletters. Click here to download the iPhone app.
It’s actually happening.
Years after calling on the MTA to move the little-used Yaphank train station, work is set to start.
“The Long Island Rail Road is moving forward on the long anticipated relocation of the very sparsely used Yaphank Train Station, from its current location under Country Road 21, to inside of the industrial park off of William Floyd Parkway,” Brookhaven Supervisor Dan Panico announced today on his Facebook page.
“The work is slated to begin in a couple of months and will give area residents an easier method of utilizing the Ronkonkoma line. While it will not be electrified, it is their hope that it will be someday.”
The move was something former Supervisor Ed Romaine, now the county executive, had championed for years, which Panico acknowledged in his announcement.
Back in 2021, Romaine and then-Suffolk County Executive Steven Bellone made a joint push on the project, sending a letter to LIRR president Philip Eng to state their preferred site for a new Yaphank station, which is on the Ronkonoma line. (Eng has since retired.)
This occurred after some disagreement between the two as to where was the best place for the move.
While Romaine had favored a site adjacent to the Suffolk County Police Department’s Seventh Precinct, he said Bellone preferred the station relocate to within Brookhaven National Lab.
The industrial park spot came as a compromise.
“Ed liked the idea and championed it over the years, which will augment our bustling industrial park,” Panico said.
Panico also released these renderings for the new station:
The parkway is key
Even before the compromise with Bellone, Romaine had told Greater Long Island he was adamant the Yaphank Station be relocated closer to William Floyd Parkway, a more convenient access point compared to Ronkonkoma, especially for East End residents traveling west.
Typically, eastern county residents will drive to Ronkonkoma to cut out local, East End stops.
The proposed site is about four miles south of Brookhaven National Laboratory. The lab employs more than 2,500 people and sees approximately 5,075 visiting facility users and guest researchers annually, according to a 2019 document from the laboratory.
It is also within a few miles of the new and massive residential and mixed-use complex, The Boulevard.
The hope is for a huge increase in ridership from the current Yaphank station.
“The station (pictured below) gets two or three cars every day, and I pass it every single day on Yaphank Avenue on my way to work,” Romaine had said. “No one even knows how to get there.”
Now, a name
According to Panico, the LIRR is seeking suggestions for the new station’s name. Officials are mulling East Yaphank, Upton, “and a couple more,” he said, adding “Please feel free to suggest a name that I may pass on, but know that this will going forward.
