New York and Atlantic Railway Gets $6.5 Million CRISI Grant to Repower Four Long Island Freight Locomotives
The railroad that runs Long Island’s freight trains is getting federal money to fix its oldest engines. The New York and Atlantic Railway (NYA) has been selected for a $6.5 million grant from the Federal Railroad Administration’s Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements program, better known as CRISI. The FRA’s own selection list puts the award at up to $6,540,000.
The grant covers part of a $10.9 million project. New York State adds $2 million and NYA puts in $2.4 million, which squares with the 40 percent non-federal share the FRA list records for the railroad.
What the money fixes
Four locomotives. The FRA describes the project, titled “New York and Atlantic Repowering for Progress”, as swapping out the power on one Tier 0 engine and three legacy engines with no emissions controls at all and fitting Tier 4 power modules, with auxiliary systems upgraded and the units tested and commissioned. Cummins supplies the engines. The project was selected for final design and construction.
Tier 4 is the EPA’s strictest standard for non-road diesel engines. Particulate filters and selective catalytic reduction can cut nitrogen oxides and particulate matter by up to 90 percent compared with earlier tiers, according to the railroad. That matters more here than on most short lines. NYA’s engines work in Brooklyn and Queens, among some of the densest neighborhoods in the country, as well as out in Nassau and Suffolk.
NYA says the four units are part of a five-year plan to bring its whole fleet to Tier 4 by 2030. It has put $60 million into the railroad since 1997, directly and through public grants, including more than $1.6 million on earlier emissions work such as idle-reduction gear. “Upgrading NYA’s locomotives represents a major step toward our goal of a 100% green fleet by 2030,” said Marlon Taylor, NYA’s president.
A short line in a crowded corner
NYA is owned by Anacostia Rail Holdings and has run Long Island Rail Road freight service under a franchise since May 1997. Its main yard is Fresh Pond Junction in Queens. Freight reaches the mainland over the Hell Gate Bridge to CSX, or by car float across the harbor from Jersey City. It hauls the unglamorous stuff that keeps a region built and cleaned up: lumber, building materials, scrap, construction debris, gravel, propane and municipal waste in sealed containers.
Suffolk County Executive Edward Romaine said rail takes more than 120,000 truck trips a year off the region’s roads.
This isn’t the railroad’s first CRISI money. In 2019 the FRA picked NYA for up to $368,679 from the fiscal 2018 round to realign and rebuild track at Fresh Pond, a stretch the agency noted carries all Long Island freight rail traffic.
Inside a $2.3 billion round
The NYA award is a small slice of the fiscal 2025 and 2026 CRISI selections the FRA announced in the week of October 19. The agency’s list totals about $2.34 billion across 105 freight and passenger projects in 45 states and the District of Columbia, with partners adding more than $1.9 billion of their own. FRA Administrator David Fink pitched the round as help for short line railroads, and locomotive work featured in other awards too: Patriot Rail’s share includes up to $15.2 million for locomotives.
Repowering keeps the locomotive and replaces what’s under the hood. The question for NYA is pace. Four engines are funded now, and the 2030 target will need the rest of the fleet to find money in the next rounds.