Suffolk County executive: Amtrak coming to Ronkonkoma LIRR station.

Amtrak is coming to Ronkonkoma in a few years, according to the Suffolk County executive.

“Amtrak is coming to Ronkonkoma. So, you’ll be able to get on an Amtrak train at Ronkonkoma," said Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine.

The Suffolk County executive made this surprise announcement Friday morning at a meeting of business and political leaders.

No officials details were releasedm and his office declined to comment afterwards.

In December 2023, Amtrak announced it received a $500,000 grant from the Federal Railroad Administration to study expanding Amtrak service to Ronkonkoma.

The proposed corridor would extend three existing daily Northeast regional round trips between Washington D.C., and New York, east to Ronkonkoma, with stops in Jamaica and Hicksville.

According to Amtrak, the project would include track, station, and infrastructure upgrades.

News 12 spoke with Amtrak's vice president of network development, who says the project is in its beginning stages, and it will be years before there are Amtrak trains at Ronkonkoma.

"For destinations like Philadelphia, Baltimore, DC," said Nicole Bucich, vice president of Network Development for Amtrak.

Bucich says the Amtrak trains would run on LIRR tracks.

They run using the overhead line to power them, but Bucich says the trains would switch to diesel fuel once they get to Long Island.

"We will have to make upgrades at Ronkonkoma no question. There's probably going to be another platform and track that would be required to accommodate," said Bucich.

"I think that it would be a great idea. For somebody that does go to Baltimore on a regular basis and not having to trek into manhattan every day, yes, wonderful," said LIRR rider Carolyn Gordon, of Shirley.

Some like the idea of not having to transfer at Penn Station, but not everyone agrees.

Sal Napolitano, with the Greater Ronkonkoma Civic Association, says LIRR trains already bring you to Penn Station where you can transfer to Amtrak.

“These are trains in a half hour, there's six trains. Why do you need a separate train?” said Napolitano.

Amtrak says it’s unclear how much this project will cost.

They say the earliest Amtrak trains would come to Ronkonkoma would be 2028.