The Main Line track between Farmingdale and Ronkonkoma has seen ridership double over the last 25 years since it was electrified in 1988, but the service has always been vulnerable to disruptions because two-thirds of the 18-mile span consists of only a single pair of tracks. When a train breaks down, there’s no way around it.

“Two tracks are better than one,” said Williams, repeating her mantra for this ambitious project that marks a major investment in the railroad.

The MTA has committed $138 million to the planning and construction of phase one of the Double Track Project, which is slated to commence along a a 4-mile stretch between Ronkonkoma and Central Islip come November. The preliminary design and environmental assessment has just been done, and the LIRR is hoping to complete its review by next month and begin putting contracts out to bid soon thereafter. If they stick to their schedule, it should be done in two years.

The Main Line should see “shovels in the ground” this fall, she said. “We’re going forward.”

Unlike the more controversial—and three times more expensive (at $1.5 billion)—Third Track proposal between Floral Park and Hicksville, no homes or businesses will be significantly affected by double-tracking the Ronkonkoma line, she said, because the LIRR can do the job within its existing right of way. In other words, there are “fewer backyards” to contend with.

Phase Two, which would extend the double track corridor to Farmingdale, requires another $300 million from the MTA’s next five-year capital funding program. If that money is forthcoming in a timely fashion, then Williams predicts the next stretch can be finished by 2018. With the money they already have, they expect to complete the design, at least, for the entire 18-mile segment.

In other news, the LIRR is slated to get nearly $21 million in Superstorm Sandy recovery aid from the Federal Transit Administration, which will help the railroad repair bridges, signals and other infrastructure.

As for the gap at the top of the MTA after Joseph Lhota left his job as chairman to run as a Republican mayoral candidate in New York City, Williams said she’s optimistic that her railroad wouldn’t get overlooked because the interim MTA Executive Director Thomas Prendergast is a former LIRR president.

If he’ll have the clout to guarantee that the LIRR gets adequate funding for Phase II of the double track remains to be seen. The riders on the Ronkonkoma line will just have to keep their fingers crossed.

The eastbound non-passenger train was heading to the Ronkonkoma yard while traveling at the maximum allowable speed of 80 mph when it hit the 2010 Nissan at the Second Street crossing just west of the station at 10 a.m. Tuesday, officials said.

“At the point of impact, apparently the car burst into flames,” said Sal Arena, an LIRR spokesman, noting that the engineer honked the horn and hit the emergency brakes but couldn’t stop in time. “When it came to a halt, the burning continued.”

MTA police are waiting for Suffolk County medical examiners to complete the victims’ autopsies to confirm the identities of the victims, whose bodies were burned beyond recognition.

The engineer, conductor and assistant conductor aboard the train were not injured. The front of the train was badly burned and the vehicle was partly lodged under the first car.

Brentwood Fire Department firefighters extinguished the flames. MTA police then pulled the victims from the wreckage.

Witnesses told MTA police that they saw the car drive around the gates, which were down with lights flashing at the time, Arena said. He added that computer data has confirmed the accounts of witnesses and LIRR workers that the gates were down at the time.

Service was suspended and buses replaced trains for about five hours between Farmingdale and Ronkonkoma while crews repaired a third rail that was damaged in the crash. Service was restored in time for the evening eastbound rush hour commute.

The incident is similar to a May 17, 2011 incident in which a bread delivery truck driver was killed when he tried to beat the train by going around the gate just east of the Deer Park station—the next stop west of the Brentwood station.

The westbound equipment train collided with the car just east of the Brentwood station shortly after 10 a.m., a LIRR spokesman said.

Based on information from previous incidents the railroad said train service will remain suspended for several hours.

The railroad has yet to release the condition of anyone involved in the crash.

Authorities said the victim, whose identity was not immediately available, was running northbound across the tracks at the Willis Avenue and Hinck Way foot crossing when he was hit at 10:25 p.m.

He was pronounced dead at the scene. The 9:40 p.m. train from Ronkonkoma due in Penn Station at 10:59 p.m. was held at the scene.

Service was partially suspended on the Main Line while investigators were on the scene.

MTA police are continuing the investigation.

Long Island Rail Road

Taking the Long Island Rail Road further along into the 21^st century could transform Long Island and revitalize the region, says Nancy Rauch Douzinas, president of the Rauch Foundation, a civic-minded non-profit group which just released its latest Long Island Index report at an event held at Molloy College in Rockville Centre on Tuesday.

“The Long Island Rail Road is one of Long Island’s top assets,” Rauch told the audience, with “potential to be transformative.”

“Our goal is to look at the railroad differently,” she said.

For 10 years her foundation’s annual Long Island Indexes have been providing the Island’s “civic, academic, labor and business leaders” with “useful, unbiased information that will lead to greater community awareness of Long Island issues and to serve as a catalyst for action,” as the organization says on its website. Or as Rauch said from the stage of the college’s Madison Theatre: “Using the facts to think smart.”

This year the Index is called “The Long Island Rail Road: From Moving Commuters to Shaping the Next Economy.” During her presentation, Ann Golob, director of the Index, called the railroad “one of the great underutilized assets of Long Island.” As it is, she noted, the LIRR’s commuters to the city add an estimated $26 billion to Long Island’s economy, while taking more than 100,000 drivers off our major already congested arteries into Manhattan—which became a huge factor after Superstorm Sunday knocked the LIRR out of service for a week.

Making her case, Golob cited how Metro-North has helped transform White Plains from a blighted city in decline into a vital urban center, drawing almost as many reverse commuters from New York City each day as it sends to Manhattan. The railroad did that by building double-track capacity some 15 years ago. Long Island should follow their lead, she advised.

Among the conclusions raised by the Index is that upgrading the LIRR would not only spur improvements for commuters but help spark local economic development for all Long Islanders. With the East Side Access completed to Grand Central, now slated for 2019, the report found that Nassau and Suffolk residents would have better access to 560,000 high-paying jobs in Manhattan, and they’d reduce their commute by almost three quarters of an hour. More importantly, 400,000 homeowners in Nassau and Suffolk counties would see the value of their homes rise by an average of $7,300.

By expanding the Ronkonkoma line to two tracks east of Farmingdale and adding a third track to a 10-mile stretch of the main line from Floral Park to Hicksville—now a major choke point on the second largest commuter railroad in the United States—the region’s employers would have increased access to half a million potential workers in Nassau and Suffolk, unreliable service would vastly improve on the Ronkonkoma line, home values would rise near the stations, property tax pressure on individual residents might ease up and the overall economy would boom. Plus, young people who’ve fled Long Island for Brooklyn and points west might be tempted to move back if developers provided affordable housing within walking distance of the trains.

“We prefer to think of it as Long Island’s ‘fast track,’” said Golob, referring to the line upgrades. “This way we can catch up to our neighbors…. We have the potential to outpace them, but we’ve got to get moving fast.”

LIRR president Helena Williams, who spoke at a panel discussion after the Index presentation, said that restoring service in 2012 to the Port Washington line following drastic cuts previously imposed by the MTA’s budget problems “paid for itself” with increased ridership because those commuters could resume catching a train every half hour instead of once an hour. With the upgrades to the railroad, frequency up and down the line would increase, and the economy would benefit.

Left unanswered—for now—is where the money to finance the upgrades would come from. The East Side Access project alone costs some $8.2 billion, and New York State is rolling in debt. But the people behind the Index hope they can start moving the conversation in the right direction.