At public hearings for a new storage yard for the LIRR Port Jefferson Branch late last year, local officials and residents protested that the rail yard will lower property values and increase pollution (MTR #437). Various studies from across the country indicate that in fact the opposite may be true.

A new electric rail storage yard is needed to increase LIRR service on the Port Jefferson line and allow more Long Island residents to reap the benefits of the pending East Side Access project. The project would also extend electric train service by several stations east of Huntington and is a precondition for eventually offering one-seat service between Port Jefferson and Manhattan.

Objections by communities and politicians have also held up the project to build a third track along the LIRR’s Main Line, which would also improve service and accessibility to a wide swath of Long Island residential and commercial areas.

Despite local protests, residents near new or improved rapid rail service from San Francisco to Atlanta to Boston have found that the upgrades have pushed up the property values on their homes and generated new commercial investment in their neighborhoods.

Experience in New Jersey after establishment of one-seat rides on the NJ Transit Morris & Essex line during the 90s and the Boonton line last year is that property values increased sharply along with improved rail access to Manhattan. Real estate agents in these locations have said that proximately to the train is the driving factor of where people chose to locate. In Maplewood and South Orange, median property values increased by 99% between 1992 and 2002. While some of this is due to other factors, there is no question that the start of Midtown Direct service in 1996 contributed greatly to this increase.

New Jersey is not alone in this regard. The Metrolink light rail system in St Louis has contributed to a $100,000 increase in property values around certain stations since service began there a few years ago.

A 1999 American Public Transportation Association paper found a positive relationship between twelve rail projects and property values. Even in cases, such as the MAX light rail transit line in Portland Oregon or the MARTA east line in Atlanta, where noise and increased traffic associated with new rail service created a "nuisance factor," the positive effect of the service on property values overshadowed the negative effect.

An earlier study cited in the same APTA report found that in Toronto savings in commute time were the most important factor in determining home value premiums.

Better rail service can also attract business and commercial development and spur redevelopment projects. In Bloomfield, NJ, new one seat ride service on the Montclair-Boonton line attracted developer Forest City Daly to begin a plan to bring new residential and commercial development to the neighborhood’s struggling downtown area. Nearby, in Morristown, NJ, direct rail service to midtown has spurred $200 million in private development over the last couple of years.

Similar increases in property values and business investment are likely along the Port Jefferson line even though Manhattan commuters do not make up the majority of Long Island’s workforce. With the LIRR East Side Access project coming in the future, such gains may be further magnified. 

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