We are now officially less then a week from Christmas Day! However, with Christmas comes the craziness, and it’s difficult to keep track of everything the LIRR & MNR will do for the Holidays, especially with the long break we’re afforded this year!
Friday, December 20, 2024:
Long Island Railroad:
- On Thanksgiving Eve, the LIRR will operate on a normal WEEKDAY schedule. Train #14, the winter version of "The Cannonball" will run. However, no additional extra trains will be provided.
Metro-North Railroad:
- A handful of AM/PM peak trains will be combined (i.e the 7:08 am from Tarrytown and the 7:09 from Croton-Harmon will be combined into a new train departing Croton-Harmon at 6:56am) or annulled (i.e the 7:03am super-express from Poughkeepsie).
Saturday & Sunday, December 21 & 22, 2024:
Long Island Railroad:
- Normal weekend service, possibly expect tad bit of crowding for people travelling.
Metro-North Railroad:
- Normal weekend service, extra shopper’s specials will operate.
Monday, December 23, 2024:
Long Island Railroad:
- Normal weekday service, with normal fares in affect, possibly expect tad a bit of crowding for people travelling.
Metro-North Railroad:
- Normal weekday service, with same changes as on Friday, 12/20.
Christmas Eve - Tuesday, December 24, 2024:
- Normal weekday service, with same changes as on Friday, 12/20.
Christmas Day - Wednesday, December 25, 2024:
Long Island Railroad:
- Holiday schedule, off-peak fares in affect all day.
Metro-North Railroad:
- Holiday schedule, off-peak fares in affect all day. Metro-North has released a Holiday schedule for all of it’s lines, Hudson Line, New Haven Line & Harlem Line
Thursday & Friday, December 26-27, 2024:
- Normal weekday service, normal fares apply.
Saturday & Sunday, December 28-29, 2024:
- Normal weekend service, normal fares apply.
Monday, December 30, 2024:
Long Island Railroad:
- Normal weekday service, normal fares apply.
Metro-North Railroad:
- Normal weekday service, same changes as Friday, 12/20.
New Year’s Eve - Tuesday, December 31, 2024:
Long Island Railroad:
- Normal weekday service, normal fares apply.
- The LIRR has made timetables outlining the additional service that can be found here.
- 13 additional westbound extras have been added to the schedule on New Year’s Eve. On the Port Washington Branch, a new train #441, will depart Port Wash at 7:08pm, make all stops to Great Neck, Bayside, Woodside, and Grand Central at 7:49pm. The other extra Port Washington train, #343, will depart Port Washington at 8:40pm make all stops to Bayside, before Woodside and Penn Station at 9:25pm.
- On the Babylon Branch, the LIRR has interestingly added an additional westbound train, #151, which will depart Babylon at 5:16 pm and will run just a measly 3 minutes before the westbound #263 to Grand Central, which makes all stops along the branch and Lynbrook before Jamaica and Penn Station, with this one making all those stops but Lynbrook. The second additional westbound, #199, departs Babylon at 6:29pm, makes all stops to Rockville Centre, Jamaica, and Penn Station at 7:38pm.
- On the Montauk Branch, the LIRR has added an westbound, titled #51, which departs Speonk at 6:47pm, makes all stops to Babylon, before Jamaica, and Penn Station at 8:53pm.
- On the Port Jefferson Branch, heading westbound, the LIRR has added a relatively impressive 4 additional westbound runs with the first one titled #1597 departing Huntington at 6:00pm and making all stops through New Hyde Park, Elmont-UBS Arena, Jamaica, and Penn Station at 7:01. The second additional westbound, #1697, which will depart at 7:18pm, and will make all those same stops, however will run to Grand Central and arrive there at 8:33. The third additional extra is much more interesting, as #663, will depart Port Jefferson at 8:01pm make all stops to Hicksville, Mineola, Elmont-UBS Arena (most likely for the concert), Jamaica, and Penn Station arriving there at 9:58pm. The final westbound extra will depart Huntington at 8:54pm, make all stops to New Hyde Park, Elmont-UBS Arena, Jamaica, and Penn Station at 10:01pm.
- Finally, on the Ronkonkoma Branch, the first westbound extra, #1995, will depart Ronkonkoma at 5:15pm, make all stops to Hicksville except Pinelawn, Mineola, Jamaica, and Penn Station at 6:36pm. The second extra, #1997, will depart Ronkonkoma just 3 minutes after #2065 to Grand Central does, crazy! This train will make all stops to Hicksville, followed by Mineola, Elmont-UBS Arena, Jamaica, and Penn Station at 8:24pm. The third extra, #2095, will depart Ronkonkoma at 7:41pm, make all stops to Hicksville, Mineola, Elmont-UBS Arena, Jamaica, and Grand Central at 9:09pm.
Metro-North Railroad:
- Holiday schedule, off-peak fares in affect all day. Metro-North has released a Holiday schedule for all of it’s lines, Hudson Line, New Haven Line & Harlem Line
New Year’s Day - Wednesday, January 1, 2025:
Long Island Railroad:
- 5 additional eastbound trains have been added to the schedule early New Year’s Day. On the Port Washington Branch, the first new extra, #6432, will depart Grand Central Terminal at 12:39am, and make all stops to Port Washington getting there at 1:26am. The second extra, #6334, will depart Penn Station at 2:19am, and again, make all local stops to Port Washington getting there at 3:05am.
- On the Babylon Branch, the first eastbound extra, #6232, will depart Grand Central at 12:46am, then it’ll make Jamaica, Rockville Centre, and all stops getting to Babylon at 2:00am. The second eastbound extra, #6136, will depart Penn Station at 1:19am, make Jamaica, Rockville, and all stops to Babylon arriving there at 2:35am.
- On the Montauk Branch, the eastbound extra, #6030, will depart Penn Station at 1:42am, make Jamaica, Rockville Centre, and all stops to Speonk, getting there at 3:54am.
- On the Port Jefferson Branch, first of all, #6602 (the 1:10am from Jamaica to Port Jeff) will get an added stop in Elmont-UBS Arena at 1:22. The first fully-additional eastbound extra, #7632, is scheduled to depart Grand Central at 12:59am, make Jamaica, Elmont-UBS Arena, New Hyde Park, and all stops to Huntington. The second fully-additional extra, #7502, will depart Penn Station at 1:34am, make Forest Hills, Kew Gardens, Jamaica, Elmont-UBS Arena, New Hyde Park, and all stops to Huntington, arriving there at 2:27pm. The fourth fully-additional extra, #7534, will depart Penn Station at 2:04am, make Jamaica, Elmont-UBS Arena, New Hyde Park and all stops to Huntington, getting there at 3:12am. The fifth and final extra, #6692, will depart Penn Station at 2:29am, make Jamaica, New Hyde Park, and all stops to Port Jefferson, getting there at 4:29am.
- And finally, on the Ronkonkoma Branch, the first extra, #7936, will depart Penn Station at 12:31am, make Jamaica, Mineola, Hicksville, and all eastbound stops to Ronkonkoma besides Pinelawn. The second eastbound, #8090, will depart Grand Central Terminal at 12:33am, make Jamaica, Elmont, Mineola, Hicksville, and all stops to Ronkonkoma besides Pinelawn. The third, fourth, and fifth eastbound extras, #7938, #7902, and #7940 all depart Penn Station, make Jamaica, Elmont, Mineola, Hicksville, and all stops to Ronkonkoma besides Pinelawn at 12:55am, 1:09am, and 2:00am.
Metro-North Railroad:
- Holiday schedule, off-peak fares in affect all day. Metro-North has released a Holiday schedule for all of it’s lines, Hudson Line, New Haven Line & Harlem Line
Thursday & Friday, January 2-3, 2025:
- Normal weekday service, normal fares apply.
Saturday & Sunday, January 4-5, 2025:
- Normal weekend service, normal fares apply.
The timetables can easily get very confusing this time of year, with remarks all over the place and so many holidays to choose from, however, I attempted to summarise it as accurately and efficiently as possible. However, I strongly urge you to check the real schedules as well, because I could’ve made some mistakes!
Friday, December 20th and Monday, December 23rd could be a bit hairy loading-wise in the early afternoon as many people will choose to go home early, however, especially for the latter, I don’t expect loads to be too bad.Luckily, Christmas is on a Wednesday this year, which brakes things up a bit. Some people will call it quits early Friday afternoon, however others, might leave early and go in for a while on Monday, some more on Tuesday, others might work later on Friday in hopes of getting out earlier on Monday, et cetera, so there will be some heavier loads earlier in the day, however, I expect not too many people will even go in on Friday because people work from home so much these days.
There is a chance of snow this Friday, which me personally I’d love to leave school for the long break with snow falling, that would be a great start to my week off.
It’s not uncommon, especially this time of year, to see some extra trains hitting the rails and picking up the people that cannot squish into the normal trains.
On New Years Eve, the LIRR will normally put up a show of extras, same for Metro-North. The LIRR will normally operate a hodgepodge of extra trains, including dual-modes from Speonk and Port Jefferson for those folks willing to freeze their rear-ends off in Times Square to watch the ball drop, or to go to other concerts that night. Last year, the WB run from Port Jefferson actually made an added stop at Elmont-UBS Arena, the first ever time for a diesel train to stop there! These extras will almost all hang out in West Side Yard during the festivities, before turning around and heading back out to Long Island. Of these trains, train #6092 is easily the most notable of these, this train, departs Penn Station, then stops at Jamaica, Rockville Centre, then makes all local stops to Speonk. That’s 23 stops! The most any LIRR train makes any year and most likely it’ll run again this year however it’s too soon to tell. I feel bad for the crew of that train as they must have absolute fatigue by the time they get to Speonk, and they don’t fiddle with the running times between the closely-packed Babylon-branch stations so the slowly-accelerating DMs have a tough-time and oftenly have been reported to run late. Now, I haven’t been up at 1am, so, I can’t speak for it, but I’ve heard that the loads on this train isn’t too bad, unlike you’d think, as people will hop on earlier trains.
I will be flying out on December 23rd to go to Michigan to visit family, and I’m hoping to work on a huge upcoming project i’ve been working on for many months now while I’m travelling. However, because of this, I won’t be looking at holiday loads as much until I return home.
In conclusion, while I think the LIRR is going a little bit crazy on New Year’s Eve, as I’ve noticed that not as many people go into the city on New Years as previous years, I definitely think that this is more like how all of their holidays should look like. In the meantime, I have quite a few amazing posts coming up in the next following days, and I also hope to get a lot of stuff typed up during my vacation.
May the rest of your year be merry, warm, and safe, no matter where you stay. All the best from Tri-State Rail NOW.