Intra-city riders to get an extra 10% monthly discount

The LIRR and Metro-North are putting a proposal before the MTA Board this week to offer an additional 10% discount on monthly ticket fares for trips that take place wholly within New York City.  If approved, the lower-priced monthly tickets would go on sale June 25 for the month of July (the day after the MTA is hoping to start its CBD Tolling program).  This discount would be in addition to the 10% discount on monthly ticket rates that was implemented in March 2021 when peak fares were restored offering another promotion on top of a promotional fare.

A LIRR train arriving at Douglaston
(Photo: The LIRR Today)

With the lower monthly ticket rates, travelling between New York/Brooklyn and eastern Queens will cost $198 per month, and monthly tickets for travel on Metro-North between New York and the Bronx will cost $180 per month.  The 10% discount will also apply to Monthly School tickets, which offer a one-third discount to K-12 students who take the train to school (those fares will be $133 to LIRR's zone 3 and $121 to Metro-North's zone 2, respectively).

LIRR Zones	Base	Current	Promo		MNR Zones	Base	Current	Promo
1 - 1	$203.00	$183.00	$165.00		1 - 1	$192.00	$172.75	$155.00
1 - 3	$244.00	$220.00	$198.00		1 - 2	$222.00	$199.75	$180.00
3 - 3	$154.00	$139.00	$125.00		2 - 2	$75.00	$67.50	$61.00
1 - 91	n/a	n/a	n/a		1 - 311	$222.00	$199.75	$180.00
3 - 91	n/a	n/a	n/a

This discount is being paid for with the proceeds of the Outer Borough Transportation Account and will last for at least 12 months (though may be extended until the next permanent fare change, which is expected to be at some point in 2025), as long as funding from that account remains available.  This account is funded by an additional surcharge on taxi/FHV trips within Manhattan below 96th Street that was imposed in 2019.

These monthly discounts are a significantly delayed and scaled back version of the Outer Borough Rail Discount pilot program that was approved in February 2020 but was never implemented by the MTA after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic a few weeks later (even though the surcharge was still being assessed).  That program would have offered a more robust set of discounts for trips within New York City: a 10% price reduction on one-way, round-trip, ten-trip, and weekly tickets and a 20% discount on LIRR monthly tickets.  This program will only offer the smaller 10% discount and only for monthly tickets (the MTA has since expanded CityTicket to weekday peak and off-peak hours on a pilot basis, which offers a better deal).  The outer borough rail discounts were agreed to the MTA as part of the haggling over congestion charging in the state legislature in 2019.

It appears that three New York City stations will be excluded from the 10% monthly discount:

• Mets-Willets Point, which is technically in its own separate zone 91 which doesn't have any monthly or weekly ticket fares.  Even though the LIRR made Mets-Willets Point a full-time stop last April (and, aside from an 8-week hiatus, trains have been stopping there around the clock since February 2021), the railroad has still yet to put two and two together and allow riders to purchase monthly or weekly tickets to/from Mets-Willets Point.  Mets-Willets Point is in its own zone 91 to allow passengers coming from Long Island to pay normal direct zone 1 fares to travel to that station, even though they are doubling back from Woodside and would otherwise be required to pay a higher via fare.  The LIRR honors any monthly ticket valid to/from zone 1 at Mets-Willets Point, so you can just buy a monthly to Woodside and use it at Mets-Willets Point, but it's a silly oversight.
• Far Rockaway, which is in zone 4 because trains pass through Nassau County and make several stops in Valley Stream and along the Five Towns peninsula before hooking back into Queens.  Far Rockaway has historically been left out of intra-city fare discounts because of this reason (which, in my opinion, is justified), but I'm sure it won't be more than a few days until there is a press conference decrying the exclusion.  (the LIRR last summer launched a Far Rockaway Ticket with prices equal to CityTicket but with extra strings attached, to mixed success)
• Belmont Park, which is wholly within New York City, but the MTA lied to sneak the spur station into zone 4 in 2021 in order to charge higher fares to riders using the spur station to travel to and from events at UBS Arena.

This change will further complicate the LIRR and Metro-North's fare structure, and I continue to believe quite firmly that the LIRR and Metro-North need to completely overhaul their fare structure with an eye towards reducing commuting costs for everyone instead of implementing more bespoke discount programs.  Between fare hikes, promotions, and discount programs, it has become extremely difficult to figure out what is the best ticket to use for your trip.  The pricing of monthly ticket fares on the railroads used to be quite simple—historically, monthlies have been priced at about 22x the one-way peak fare (so if you commute into the city 12 days a month, it is worth it to buy a monthly).  But these days, that formula has gone out the window completely and the cost of a monthly ticket now ranges from as little as 14.74x the one-way fare (for LIRR's zone 14 or Metro-North's zone 8) to nearly double that, 28.29x the one-way fare (for LIRR's zone 3) or 28.56x the one-way fare for the three Metro-North stations on the Pascack Valley Line (West of Hudson monthlies have historically been priced at higher multipliers because they included unlimited NJT 1-zone bus and light rail travel, while East of Hudson and LIRR monthlies do not).

LIRR Zone	OW Peak	Monthly	Multiplier		MNR Zone	OW Peak	Monthly	Multiplier
1	$7.00	$165.00	23.57		1	$7.00	$155.00	22.14
3	$7.00	$198.00	28.29		2 / 11	$7.00	$180.00	25.71
4	$13.00	$253.00	19.46		3 / 12	$12.00	$233.00	19.42
7	$14.50	$287.00	19.79		4 / 13	$13.25	$260.00	19.62
9	$17.50	$341.00	19.49		5	$15.25	$299.75	19.66
10	$20.50	$378.00	18.44		6	$18.25	$359.00	19.67
12	$24.50	$433.00	17.67		7	$20.75	$407.75	19.65
14	$31.75	$468.00	14.74		8	$24.00	$446.50	18.60
					9	$27.00	$489.50	18.13
					10	$28.50	$499.50	17.53
					14	$14.25	$280.00	19.65
					61	$10.75	$307.00	28.56
					71	$14.00	$376.00	26.86
					72	$15.50	$380.00	24.52
					73	$17.00	$391.00	23.00
					74	$18.50	$409.00	22.11
					75	$19.50	$423.00	21.69
					76	$21.00	$447.00	21.29
					77	$23.25	$480.00	20.65

In this specific case, the price of a LIRR zone 3 monthly ticket is calculated by the full one-way peak fare of $11.25 (even though it has been effectively replaced by the new CityTicket Peak), multiplying it by the old multiplier 21.66 ($243.67), rounding that to the nearest dollar ($244.00), then discounting it by 10% ($219.60), rounding that to the nearest dollar ($220.00), then discounting it a further 10% ($198.00), then rounding again to the nearest dollar ($198.00).  The end result is still more expensive than if they followed the original calculation based on the lower CityTicket fare (which would be $153.00).

This also falls short of what some advocates have hoped for, as LIRR and Metro-North monthly tickets are still completely separate fares that are (a) not interchangeable between the railroads and (b) do not offer free or discounted transfers to NYC Subways and Buses.  To commute by the train and then the subway will still cost up to $330 per month, significantly more than what it'd cost if you took slower Subways and Buses alone.  The New York City Transit Riders Council has been campaigning for a weekly version of the CityTicket that has a more attractive price point and offers free transfers to buses/subways to replace the weekly Atlantic Ticket that was arbitrarily eliminated by the MTA last year.

Lower fares are always a good thing for riders, but in order to really drive the ridership growth that lower fares can bring, the MTA must stop beating around the bush and systematically overhaul the fare structure for LIRR and Metro-North.  Results from more recent discount programs have shown that bespoke discounts that are not properly built into the fare structure in a way that riders can clearly understand are beginning to show more lackluster results.

Grand Central North to close evenings, weekends in latest East Side Access rollback

The LIRR and Metro-North announced on Thursday that north end access and the cross-passageways north of 45th Street at NY-Grand Central will be closed from 9:30p on weekdays and all day Saturday, Sunday, and Holidays beginning Monday, April 27.  This change will make it more difficult to access Metro-North tracks during the evenings and on weekends, as well as add a significant detour and inconvenience for riders transferring between the LIRR and Metro-North during these times.

Grand Central North was opened in 1999, has very 1990's decor,
and hasn't gotten all that much maintenance/attention since then
(Photo: The LIRR Today)

The quartet of passageways is commonly referred to as "Grand Central North" and provides a second access point to Metro-North tracks on both the upper and lower levels.  Two of the passages run north-south: the Northeast Passage on the former track 22 and the Northwest Passage on the former track 31, and the 45th Street passage.  These connect you to several street entrances at 230 Park Avenue, 383 Madison Avenue, 47th Street and Madison Avenue, and 48th Street and Park Avenue as well as two cross-passages that run below 47th Street (just below the main level tracks, serving the main level platforms) and 45th Street (just below the lower level tracks, serving the lower level platforms).  Grand Central North was opened in 1999 at a cost of $112 million, and shaves several minutes off travel times for people headed to destinations north of 45th Street.

Grand Central North was originally open from 6:30a to 9:30p on weekdays and 9:00a to 9:30p on Saturdays and Sundays.  In 2005, Metro-North began closing Grand Central North on weekends to save $650k per year in maintenance costs (page 43).

A short staircase and escalator connect the Madison Concourse
directly to the 47th Street Cross Passage (Photo: The LIRR Today)

One of the long-overdue improvements that came about as part of the opening of East Side Access was the expansion of hours at Grand Central North.  Both the 47th Street and 45th Street Cross-passages provide very easy connections to the LIRR's Madison Concourse (which runs north-south at the west side of the terminal).  The Madison Concourse even utilizes existing Grand Central North entrances at 47th Street and Madison Avenue.  As a result, as part of East Side Access, the MTA expanded hours at Grand Central North so that it would now be open any time that the LIRR was operating (about 5:45a to 1:45a daily).

But starting Monday, Grand Central North will be reverting to its pervious hours and will only be open during daytime hours on weekdays.  Grand Central North will close between 9:30p and 6:30a on weekdays and be shut all weekend.

Starting Monday, April 29, the LIRR / Metro-North cross-passageways north of 45 St in Grand Central will be open on weekdays from 6:30AM to 9:30PM and closed on weekends and holidays. The entrance/exit at 47 St/Madison Ave for LIRR street level access is not affected. pic.twitter.com/kaK8CUtxNa

— LIRR (@LIRR) April 25, 2024

This is a major downgrade for both LIRR and Metro-North riders.  Not only do Metro-North passengers lose north end access during evening hours and on weekends, but closing Grand Central North also reduces the number of access points into the GCT complex for LIRR riders.  Currently, it's possible and pretty convenient to enter Grand Central North at either 48th and Park or the 230 Park Avenue entrances, go down to the 47th Street Cross Passage, and then down to the Madison Concourse to access LIRR trains (instead of having to navigate to 47th and Madison at street level).  

Now the building entrance at 47th Street and Madison Avenue will be the only street entrance that provides direct stair access down to the Madison Concourse (this entrance will remain open and available to LIRR riders, but there will be no access to the Metro-North tracks when Grand Central North is closed).

This reduction will also make transferring between the LIRR and Metro-North much longer and more complicated—instead of being able to take the staircases directly from the Madison Concourse to the 45th or 47th Street cross-passages, riders connecting between the two railroads will need to detour all the way south to the main GCT headhouse between 42nd and 43rd Streets.  This adds roughly 4 minutes of walking time to these connections and pushes the total walking time between the furthest LIRR and Metro-North tracks to over 10 minutes (for comparison, it only takes about 13 minutes to walk from NY-Penn Station over to the GCT Headhouse...)

Several riders have already noted that this reduction will make it much more difficult to make tight connections between LIRR and Metro-North trains, which are especially common on weekends.  Not being able to make these tight connections means that not only do you have to deal with the 4 extra minutes of walking time, but your door-to-door travel time can increase by 30 minutes to an hour as you have to wait for the next headway.

@LIRR Why, I use that connection all the time! It's the fastest way to transfer between the MNRR tracks and LIRR and the weekend schedule really has a lot of tight connections.

Thought about it some more - my entire use of the LIRR is to visit my friends and family on LI from where I live upstate. Forcing me to go through the terminal adds 5-10 minutes to this transfer.
I may as well go back to parking in NJ and going through Penn Station.

— CaprisArdent🔸 (@CaprisArdent) April 25, 2024

Riders can access the LIRR concourses from a staircase directly next
to the gates to Metro-North's tracks (Photo: The LIRR Today)

Easy connections between the LIRR and Metro-North was a big selling point of East Side Access, and one the MTA has hyped up frequently—but this reduction will make it much harder to easily travel between the two parts of the region during the evenings and on weekends.  There is already virtually no circumstance where it's faster or cheaper to take the LIRR + Metro-North between points in Westchester and Nassau Counties vs. driving—and extending the walk between the two railroads to over 10 minutes makes it even more difficult to justify paying more to take the train.

An MTA spokesperson did not respond to questions about why Grand Central North opening hours were being rolled back.  Dozens of riders have also asked the railroads for a further explanation on social media, but none have gotten a response.  The railroads made the announcements quietly through their service alerts on Thursday.

The partial closure of Grand Central North is the MTA's latest rollback of the relatively short list of benefits that were actually brought about by the completion of East Side Access.  The MTA has been steadily chipping away at these marginal improvements over the last year, cutting weekday off-peak Brooklyn service from 20-minute headways to half-hourly service, dropping semi-express service at several stations on the South Shore to further pad the OTP numbers, and eliminating more than half of the new trains that were added to boost service in the 7:00p hour during the PM Peak.

It is ironic/emblematic/sad that the MTA spent more than $12 billion building East Side Access, but now can't cobble together a few thousand dollars to make the place easy to use for riders.

LIRR turns 190

The LIRR celebrated its 190th anniversary on Wednesday, marking the continued run of the longest running railroad continuously operating under its original name in the country.  The LIRR was granted its charter on April 24, 1834 for its original mission to bypass the Connecticut shoreline and connect Brooklyn with Greenport, where continuing ferry service was available towards Boston—but its has grown and evolved a great deal from that original concept 190 years ago.

The MTA and LIRR celebrated the anniversary at an event at NY-Grand Central Wednesday afternoon that featured remarks by LIRR President Rob Free, author and LIRR historian David Morrison, and president of the Sunrise Trail chapter of the National Railway Historical Society Stephen Quigley.  At the event, the gentlemen unveiled an exhibit of historic LIRR artifacts that will be on display across from the ticketing area on the Madison Concourse at NY-Grand Central and presented a commemorative ticket to Phyllis Klecka of East Islip, who the MTA says is the longest-tenured Mail & Ride monthly ticket holder, commuting on the LIRR for the last 60 years.

Former LIRR Branch Manager, author, and historian David Morrison delivers remarks at the LIRR's 190th anniversary celebration on Wednesday (Photo: MTA/Marc Hermann)

A collection of LIRR artifacts on display on the Madison Concourse
at NY-Grand Central (Photo: MTA/Marc A Hermann)

The festivities were overall rather subdue, as the LIRR continues to grapple with significantly lower customer satisfaction following the completion of East Side Access and the significant (and problem-ridden) overhaul of schedules that came with it.  But LIRR President Rob Free suggested that there would be more events to come to celebrate the anniversary over the course of this year.  The LIRR has also started to roll out blue, white, and gold 190th Anniversary decals that have been added to some electric trains over the last few weeks.

190 years of service is definitely a tremendous accomplishment and milestone, and a strong testament to the efforts of everyone who works hard day in and day out to keep the railroad running.  The LIRR has played an extremely critical part of Long Island's history and how it has developed over the last 190 years, and it can help position our region's economy to grow and excel further in the years to come—if it puts the effort in.

But like any 190-year-old, the LIRR is facing some serious problems that need to be addressed forthwith.  East Side Access, Third Track, and the $17.7 billion in capacity upgrades that have been poured into the LIRR over the last decade or so have yielded so little for riders.  Customer satisfaction has plunged significantly over the last year as LIRR has badly bungled the rollout of its first major schedule overhaul since the 1970's.  The railroad continues to have significant, fundamental, and structural cost problems, outspending every other railroad in the country on just about everything—and it has made little progress on reigning in costs despite significantly lower ridership.  Despite constant, misleading claims about how much the service has improved, none of this has yet to yield any sort of substantive increase in ridership or revenue, as the LIRR continues to just narrowly outpace ridership recovery on Metro-North.

My favorite aspect of LIRR history is how the railroad has been able to evolve, change, and adapt as the times change and business and economic circumstances change with them.  The LIRR was chartered to be a gateway to Boston, shuffling people down the middle of the Island to get them to ferries waiting for them in Greenport.  When the Hartford and New Haven Railroad completed what is today the New Haven Line and the first all-rail route to Boston in 1848, the LIRR didn't simply abandon shop and pull up the rails.  Instead, it totally transformed its business and its operation to focus on local growth here on Long Island, building branches out along the North and South Shores.  The LIRR then pivoted again to focus on consolidation and growing through acquisition, which led to the unified and cohesive system we have today (and avoided the costly duplication of rail infrastructure common in other parts of the region and the country).  At the turn of the 20th Century, the LIRR was acquired by the mighty Pennsylvania Railroad and shortly thereafter riders got direct access to Manhattan for the first time.  LIRR invested significantly in electrification and bolstering its existing network during this time.  During its lean years when rail travel across the country declined significantly, the LIRR was able to evolve, change, and adapt to stay relevant as car-oriented suburban development began to blanket Long Island—it invested in new safety systems, invested in its fleet, and undertook the massive Babylon Branch grade crossing elimination project.  When the LIRR came under state ownership in 1966, there was again a period of great investment and modernization, with the MTA investing in new trains, the upgrade of stations to high-level platforms, and expanding electrification.

The LIRR is presently at a point where it must again evolve, change, and adapt to new times—though this time it has been approaching the challenge with little enthusiasm or vigor.  The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly and likely permanently changed the way we commute to work.  Gone for many are the days of trudging into Manhattan office buildings Monday-Friday, 9-to-5.  The traditional "commuter rail" model that LIRR has clung to since the 1960's is now unviable.  The completion of East Side Access and $17+ billion worth of capacity upgrades presents significant opportunities to effectuate necessary changes, but 60% of LIRR stations have seen no increase in peak service compared to pre-pandemic, and riders are greatly unsatisfied with the changes that have been made thus far.

The LIRR must modernize and evolve, change, and adapt to provide service that is much more frequent (especially during off-peak hours) and much more affordable.  To do this, LIRR must reign in overspending and drive down operating costs, overhaul its fare structure, and transform the way it thinks about how it delivers service, pivoting from the outdated Manhattan-bound commuter model to one that provides frequent and fast service all day long for all types of journeys, especially those during off-peak hours, intra-Island and reverse-peak trips, and those to places other than Manhattan like Brooklyn or Long Island City (which have seen the lion's share of the region's growth over the last 10-20 years).  LIRR needs to operate service that will lure businesses back to transit-oriented downtowns and support further development and growth in downtowns across Long Island.

At the 190th anniversary event on Wednesday, Newsday's Nicholas Spangler posed a total softball question along the lines of '190 years of history is impressive, so what's the next big thing?'.  And the response from LIRR President Rob Free was extremely disappointing: "we're still in the middle of developing [the next Capital Program]" and then a jumble of words about state of good repair.  Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the MTA has exhibited a great obsession to find new revenue sources so it doesn't have to be forced to curb spending—first it was campaigning for billions in bailouts from the Federal government, then a major increase in the MTA Payroll Tax on New York City businesses to plug its operating budget deficits, and shortly the implementation of CBD Tolling to continue fueling rampant overspending on construction projects.  But it has presented little in terms of a grand new vision for the region's mass transportation network (certainly little new compared to the prior administration's efforts).  The MTA's $50+ billion 2020-2024 Capital Program will deliver little in terms of system expansion—3 rail stations on an existing rail line in the Bronx for Metro-North, 3 new subway stations in partly existing tunnels in Harlem, and maybe some faster and slightly more frequent subway service after years of disruptions to install CBTC and upgrade signals.  

It would have been much better to hear that the LIRR is committing to cutting operating costs by $1 billion annually and that it will reinvest that savings into lower fares and improved service, which would help to aggressively grow ridership and support increased development in Long Island's downtowns.  But alas, the MTA and LIRR seem content to keep copying and pasting misleading talking points about 40% service increases and to put the further expansion and modernization of the LIRR on cruise control now that East Side Access, Third Track, and other major megaprojects are done—and its coffers flush with new subsidies, tolls, and higher fares from riders.

190 years of service is a tremendous accomplishment and cause for great celebration.  But to stay relevant for the next 190 years, the LIRR will need to continue to evolve, change, and adapt to meet the needs of Long Islanders in this 21st Century, post-pandemic world.

East Side Access signalling

The completion of East Side Access marked the first time in decades that the LIRR began service over an entirely new route.  Integrating a new project and new facilities into a very old railroad often requires mixing old and new things to deliver something that takes advantage of new technology to enhance the capability and reliability of the new systems or infrastructure, while not losing too much backwards compatibility with the existing systems and equipment that are used elsewhere on the railroad.  This mix of the old and the new is evident throughout the East Side Access facilities.

A signal at the west end of the GCT platforms
(Photo: The LIRR Today)

One good example of this is the signaling infrastructure used in the tunnels and caverns built as part of the East Side Access project, which is a new type of equipment for the railroad and unique to the Grand Central Branch.

Similar to almost the entire rest of the railroad, the Grand Central Branch uses cab signaling to protect train movements through the area.  The LIRR was one of the first railroads to rollout a robust cab signaling system after a string of catastrophic incidents saw roughly 115 people killed and about 500 injured in three major incidents in 1950, all caused by human factors.  Today, the LIRR's Automated Speed Control (ASC) cab signaling system is in place and protects train movements across most of the railroad, including, now, the Grand Central Branch.

Cab signaling supplements, and between interlockings typically takes the place of, traditional wayside signaling where equipment along the side of the right-of-way visually provides instructions to crews of approaching trains, similar to how traffic lights guide motorists approaching an intersection.  Cab signaling brings that information into the train cab and shows it on a display unit visible to the engineer (and, in some cases, there is equipment that will automatically enforce signal indications and force the train to slow or stop if the signal indications are not being followed, as is the case with the LIRR's ASC system).  While the LIRR for some years operated the ASC cab signal systems in tandem with wayside signals, it removed most wayside signals between interlockings several decades ago (along with most other railroads who implemented similar systems).  The cab signal systems provide the same information with a greater level of safety, and removing intermediate wayside signals cuts down on maintenance costs and points of failure that can cause delays.

The old (position light) and new (tri-color) light
signals during the cutover at Patchogue
(Photo: TrainsAreFun.com)

Unlike Metro-North (which replaced all of its old signals with simplified go-no go signals at interlockings), the LIRR left the full size versions of wayside signals in place at interlockings, as it offered more information to train crews about what was up ahead.  Thus, the LIRR's characteristic position light signals remained visible across the railroad and dominated up through the mid-2000's.

The tradition of using position light signals began to break in the mid-2000's when the Patchogue to Speonk signalization project brought tri-color light signals to the Montauk Branch.  Since then, LIRR has strayed from the path even further, installing G-head signals around HAROLD Interlocking and the adjacent interlockings as part of the East Side Access project.

In the mid-2010's, the LIRR made its first foray into Reduced Aspect Signaling with the Ronkonkoma Branch Double Track project.  Similar to Metro-North's approach, these signals show only limited information (6 indications).

As part of the East Side Access project, the MTA and LIRR also went with reduced aspect signals in the tunnel portions of the project—but continuing the trend of devolving signal hardware into a confusing mess, the signal equipment used and the indications they display in the East Side Access tunnels are different from the reduced aspect signals used elsewhere on the railroad.

The signals used in the East Side Access tunnels bear closer resemblance to transit signals you might see on the Subway or other light rail lines.  They have three colors, green over yellow over red, which are used to show a more limited set of four indications (the red flashes to mean stop and proceed):

Similar to the reduced aspect signals used elsewhere on the railroad, the default indication is just "proceed", meaning the train can move forward at the speed shown by the cab signaling system.  Unlike the full size signals, which can show many more indications that offer the train crew better guidance about how fast they should go now, how fast they can go when they clear the interlocking, and what is coming up ahead, these require the train crews to rely on the cab signal indications.

Within the East Side Access facilities, the LIRR is using dual band cab signaling for the first time, using the relatively newer 250 Hz cab signaling technology in addition to the 100 Hz codes that are used elsewhere on the LIRR, Metro-North, SEPTA, and the NEC.  The 250 Hz band was first introduced by Amtrak in the 1990's as part of the upgrades to support the Acela Express rollout, to allow for the cab signal systems to support train speeds of up to 150 mi/hr.  Codes on the two bands combine to show additional aspects that allow for those higher speeds.  Why this was built out for East Side Access, where the highest MAS is 60 mi/hr, is beyond my reckoning (perhaps they were futureproofing or wanted to test it out when it could be paid for out of the project budget).

Notably, the dual bad ASC in place in the East Side Access tunnels is the primary reason why the M-3 fleet is restricted from operating to/from NY-Grand Central, as the older equipment was not equipped with the technology that can receive the 250 Hz codes (though the 250 Hz system was designed as an overlay to ensure backwards compatibility, if the train reads only the 100 Hz but not the 250 Hz code, then it is still valid, just a slower speed).

Within the GCT caverns/terminal and through the east interlocking limits of GCT 3 and GCT 4 Interlockings (the crossover caverns located immediately east of each station platform), there are no cab signal codes in the rails.  This results in the LIRR's ASC system enforcing a 15 mi/hr limit.

More variation in wayside signal equipment

Diversity is a great thing and very important—but not when it comes to railway signaling hardware.  Having a consistent set of signal hardware across a railroad means that train crews only have to learn one set of signal indications.  But the LIRR has gone from one nearly ubiquitous format (traditional position light signals) to now more than six different types of signal equipment (position lights, tri-color, G-head, Atlantic tunnel, reduced aspect signals, ESA signals), plus an additional type in the East River Tunnels and around NY-Penn Station.

On a trip from Babylon to NY-Grand Central, a train crew will encounter position light signals at Babylon; tri-color light signals at Amityville, Massapequa, and Wantagh; position light signals again at Freeport, Rockville Centre, and Valley Stream; a mix of tri-color light and position light signals around Jamaica; position light signals on the Main Line between Jamaica and Woodside, then G-head signals around WOOD Interlocking, through Woodside and HAROLD Interlocking, and then these new reduced-aspect signals for ESA in the tunnels and interlockings to NY-Grand Central.

This degree of back-and-forth just opens the door to human error and the risk that someone might not quickly and properly recognize a signal indication.  There is further complication now that the new ESA signals have indications that overlap with already existing indications with these other signal types—a single yellow light means "proceed, governed by cab signal indications" (which could be any speed given by the ASC system) in the East Side Access tunnels, but in other places it means "proceed at restricted speed".  A steady green light also means "proceed, governed by cab signal indications" in the ESA territory, but elsewhere it means "proceed at slow speed until clear of interlocking, then at normal", which is extra risky, since someone who mistakes the type of signal could travel too fast within an interlocking if the ASC system is showing a speed more favorable than 15 mi/hr.

The map below shows which type of signal equipment is used where—and, as you can tell, it has become quite a hodgepodge.  LIRR appears to be moving towards standardizing Reduced Aspect Signaling on the Main Line, its branches, and the North Shore, while sticking with the tri-color lights elsewhere on the South Shore and in busier interlockings.  But there's still a mess of differing equipment in the meantime: