About Connect Long Island

Connect Long Island is Suffolk County’s regional transportation and development plan to promote to support transit-oriented development, build a modern transportation system and support sustainable growth.

Connect Long Island has seen many successes to date, with nearly 2000 new units of housing built or under construction in our revitalizing downtowns, significant progress on first-of-its-kind north-south rapid transit connecting Suffolk’s major colleges, research institutions, and employment centers, major investments in the Long Island Rail Road promising quicker and easier access to and from New York City than ever before, and new work investigating and implementing the next generation of transit and mobility technology to improve transportation options for residents, commuters and visitors.

Connect Long Island also addresses the decades-old issue of young people leaving Long Island due to a combination of factors:

• A lack of quality affordable rental housing.
• A lack of that type of housing in environments in which young people want to live, i.e., walkable downtowns.
• High costs of living.
• Auto-centric transportation system with limited north-south mobility.
• A scarcity of high paying jobs.

The components of Connect Long Island include:

• Transit Oriented Developments (TODs) – Align land-use planning and transportation planning to promote easy access to public transportation, and create walkable downtowns for people to work, live and play.
• Expand mass transit through three major initiatives of the Long Island Rail Road to connect existing and proposed developments, including the Double Track, Third Track, and Electrification projects also support East Side Access.
• Develop north-south mass transit connections to increase mobility via Bus Rapid Transit on Route 110.
• Connect new and existing recreational assets and downtown hubs.

Investments for a thriving economy, I-Zone, Transit Oriented Developments, Bus Rapid Transit and other components of Connect Long Island will help to attract and retain businesses and young people, grow existing companies and industries, and create an innovative ecosystem making Suffolk County a highly desirable place to live, work and play.