Denise Civiletti

All aboard!  Brookhaven Town has joined the effort to establish a new public transit authority to serve eastern Suffolk County.

Brookhaven's endorsement of a new public authority to serve the region — to replace of the MTA — came at a press conference convened Friday in Riverhead by State Senator Ken LaValle (R-Port Jefferson) to call for the repeal of the controversial MTA payroll tax and announce introduction of a bill that will allow a referendum on the creation of the Peconic Bay Transportation Authority.

Brookhaven Supervisor Mark Lesko made the announcement near the end of  the press conference, following Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter's call for the East End towns to renew a push to secede from Suffolk and form Peconic County.  See video.

"I don't know if I'm going to speak about a county," Lesko said, referring to Walter's call for Peconic County, "but I am going to speak about a transportation authority." Lesko said Brookhaven's support of a new local transit authority to replace the MTA would "get their attention."  

"Do they want to lose the 17,000 riders a day that every day use the Ronkonkoma station?" Lesko asked. "So I think it's an interesting idea to think about Brookhaven joining a Peconic Transporation Authority, and let's see if the MTA…what their response would be to losing the almost 20,000 riders a day that go through Ronkonkoma."