According to the MTA, the project for additional track to help quell idling trains in Patchogue Village is currently underway. Work has already begun at the site, with the installation of poles and cables.

“Crews will be mobilized as the LIRR receives delivery of the materials that have been delayed, due to the global supply chain issues that are affecting many industries,” said an MTA spokesperson.

The MTA is scheduling the required track outages to complete in 2023, contingent on when the materials are delivered.

According to the MTA, the $3 million that was received from the state enabled them to advance the project in time for an expected completion next year.

Back in 2018, former assemblyman Dean Murray, then-assemblyman, now congressman Andrew Garbarino, and Sen. John Flanagan announced a total of $3 million awarded to the Patchogue Village train station through a state capital investment project to quell idling train noise.

For nearly a decade, Academy Street resident Bob Goodhue has been the “squeaky wheel” in an effort to finally see the project through. He claims the issue has been ongoing, dating back to the ‘80s. The trains, he said, idle by his home and others for about 15 minutes up to a half an hour on any given day.

“It’s a quality-of-life issue. I’ve got a front porch I can’t sit on,” he said. “I can’t open my windows because of the fumes, and I have cracks in the ceilings.”

Noise complaints and other quality-of-life issues associated with idling locomotives were to be addressed through the investment, which, according to the MTA, was going to add a new rail siding to the west of the station, farther away from residential areas of the village. The siding is now expected to be located east of the existing siding between Rider and Bay avenues.

Of the approximately   56 trains, 10 remain in the Patchogue area: three turn in the station; five lay up on the north track, which runs from the station to South Ocean Avenue and is adjacent to the station platform; and two lay up on the schoolhouse track, which is situated south of the residences on Academy Street.

On weekends, 10 trains remain in the Patchogue area: six lay up on the north track, one on the schoolhouse track and three in the stations. Basically, due to the lengthy engine shutdown processes, the MTA said, idling is unavoidable.

Most of the 56 diesel trains that operate through Patchogue on a normal weekday schedule proceed east and are held in either Speonk or Montauk. The track, according to the MTA, will reduce but not eliminate trains being stored in Patchogue, with higher volume expected in summer.