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MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) plans to pursue $211.5 million worth of mainline infrastructure improvements during the next five years, including $106 million in major renovations to Hicksville Station.

The infrastructure projects will improve one of LIRR’s busiest corridors; about 40 percent of daily ridership travels along the Main Line, where trains from five of the railroad’s branches converge each day, LIRR officials said in a prepared statement.

About $55.1 million will go toward a Hicksville Station “facelift,” including new platforms, platform waiting rooms, canopies, stairways, lighting, elevators, escalators and audio and digital communications systems.

The station also will undergo a $37.7 million project to install more than 3,000 feet of new track, power and signal work. The track will connect Track 1 at Hicksville to an existing siding situated about a half mile west of the station platform. The connection will enable LIRR to add three trains to the morning and afternoon peak service between Hicksville and Manhattan when the railroad accesses Grand Central Terminal after the completion of the East Side Access project at the decade’s end.

Other infrastructure projects on tap include replacing the Ellison Avenue Bridge in Westbury and improvements at Mineola Station to correct a flooding problem and improve pedestrian flow. About $13.8 million will be spent to modernize the signal system at Divide Tower east of Hicksville Station. The tower controls all train movement on the Huntington/Port Jefferson and Ronkonkoma branches east of Hicksville.
 
“Long term, these projects link to East Side Access, America’s biggest public works project and one that promises to shave commuting time and make Long Island more attractive for living and doing business,” said Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Joseph Lhota.