As many of you know, Jamaica Station is the convergence of all but one of the LIRR’s branches (specifically the 3 major “trunklines”). At this point, the Atlantic Branch, Montauk Branch, and Main Line all converge into one giant station. Trains on all but one of the LIRR’s branches (The Port Washington) pass through this station at one point of the day.
The LIRR goes to four western terminals; Penn Station in Midtown, Grand Central on the East Side, Hunterspoint Av in Queens, and Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn. Let’s pretend you wanted to go to Atlantic Terminal. You could stand on the platform at Ronkonkoma and wait all day for a train to Atlantic Terminal but unless you’re there at 5:30am on a weekday, you’re going to be waiting a long, long, long time. Changing trains at Jamaica allows you to cut that wait time in half in many instances, and makes it an easy way to get to those terminals and anywhere on the island.
This means that a weekend Ronkonkoma Branch traveller who wants to go to Brooklyn won’t have to wait until 5:30am monday morning.
The LIRR used to have “timed transfers”, which essentially meant that a Far Rockaway-Brooklyn train had a particular connection to a particular train going to Penn Station as shown on TrainTime and the schedules. Essentially, if the Far Rockaway-Brooklyn train was late, the Huntington-Penn Station train that was it’s connection would wait until that train arrived in order to pick up those passengers. However, with the opening of East Side Access, the LIRR abolished timed-transfers, meaning that the Huntington-Penn Station train would no longer wait. Therefore, if the wait time for Penn Station was 20 minutes, so be it, you’d be stuck for 20 minutes.
Changing trains at Jamaica is a concept only really found on the Long Island Rail Road. The LIRR’s sister, Metro-North, doesn’t really have that situation as all trains end or begin in Grand Central Terminal. Therefore, there’s no need to change. You may think of transferring at Harlem - 125 St, but since all trains begin in Grand Central, there’s no need. The LIRR’s other neighbor, NJTransit, specifically constructed a transfer station in Secaucus for seamless transfer between NJTransit’s former Erie lines (the Main, Bergen, and Pascack Valley lines) to trains to/from New York. NJTransit, however, doesn’t have timed connections at Secaucus, nor anywhere else. Therefore, if your train from New York is late, you can probably forget about catching your connection at Secaucus. They’re actually better about connections at their Newark stations.
Jamaica station, and it’s HALL and JAY interlockings, have been designed specifically to make transfers as easy as possible for passengers. The interlockings were designed so well that trains going in opposite directions never have to cross paths. This involves the use of “flyover tracks” where the tracks “flyover” the ones there and then come down into the interlocking.
Essentially, it’s possible for a train from Long Beach-Grand Central, a train from Speonk-Long Island City, and a train from Huntington-Penn Station to all approach the station, stop at Jamaica, and then leave on their merry way without ever having cross in front of each other. This can also be seen in the other direction. This is thanks to the builders at Jamaica which specifically designed it for this purpose. During peak and sometimes off-peak periods, it’s not uncommon to see bunches of trains run “neck-to-neck” through the interlockings and onto the platform.
Jamaica station can effectively be split in half as there’s mainly two sets of platforms with the first being the westbound set and the second being the eastbound set. The westbound platforms.
The two westbound platforms house tracks 1, 2, and 3, while the three eastbound platforms house the tracks 6, 7, and 8. During rush hours, trains from three different terminals can arrive on tracks 1,2 and 3, and those passengers can transfer between trains by walking across the platform. If passengers would like to access track 3 from track 1, or vice versa, the position of track 2 allows them to open the doors on both platforms allowing people to walk through the open doors of a train on track 2.
Therefore, during a rush hour, a westbound train to Hunterspoint Av can pull in on track 1, a Penn Station train on track 2, all the while an Atlantic Terminal train pulls in on track 3. This is great, especially during rush hours as passengers can easily switch trains. At other stations such as Secaucus and Newark Penn for instance, it’s much more difficult as you have to go over flights of stairs. Therefore, less complaining about a single transfer at Jamaica!
Anyways, track assignments at Jamaica are pretty consistent. Generally, from what I’ve seen, terminating trains/Hunterspoint Av trains generally arrive on track 1 while New York trains arrive on track 2 and Brooklyn trains on track 3. Coming eastbound, trains bound for the Atlantic Branch (Far Rockaway and Long Beach) generally arrive on track 6 while trains bound for the Montauk Branch (Babylon and West Hempstead) generally arrive on track 7 and trains for the Mainline and diesel trains originating at Jamaica typically depart from track 8.
Meanwhile, tracks 4 and 5 are like the “multi-purpose rooms” of the railroad. They are in the middle of everything and can be used in either direction. Generally speaking, the railroad typically sends flyers down these tracks. I’ve believe I remeber off-peak Long Beach trains arriving on that track, but it’s generally only used a bit during peak periods.
The Misconceptions
When many people hear the the phrase, “Change at Jamaica”, people normally associate it as something that is annoying and painful, and don’t think about the fact that all they have to walk either across the platform or up and over.
Changing trains at Jamaica isn’t all that difficult. The transfer experience is slightly better at Babylon as all you have to do is walk across the platform and the train’s already there, but it’s also much better then the transfer experience at Huntington. Also, before you complain about safety issues or getting mugged and what not, Jamaica station itself is a very safe station.
However, with that being said, there’s one thing you can get out of this article: people absolutely despise transfers. Some people despise it so much that they’ll go out of their way for a train to New York (even on the diesel branches), even if there’s an earlier train that can get them their either much closer to when they need to be or much faster. For many, their destination is New York Penn, therefore, people will cram onto trains to New York Penn leaving the perfectly fine trains to Grand Central and Atlantic Terminal unused. If they cannot get a train to their destination on their branch, they’ll drive to a station that does. Even those who go to Grand Central will still go out of their way for a direct train, even when they could just get on an Atlantic Terminal train and get to their destination faster.
Since the majority of people want to go to the New York terminals, the LIRR schedules most of the trains to go there. However, there’s a lot of people that go to the NY terminals since it’s easiest to get to. There’s many people who would likely get to their destinations faster by utlizing Atlantic Terminal or Hunterspoint Av instead, but they choose to just go via New York because that’s where most of the trains on their branch are going. For example, a Inwood-Hunterspoint Av commuter may want to take a train to Hunterspoint Av, but may choose to go to Penn Station instead due to the necessity for a transfer since no trains on their branch go there.
Therefore, this increases loads on the New York trains, and as a result, those who actually want to get to New York Penn essentially can’t. By adding trains to Hunterspoint Av and Atlantic Terminal, not only will it free up seats on those New York trains for those who actually want to go to NY-Penn Station and NY-Grand Central, but it’ll also provide additional service that anyone can use, no matter their terminal. A way to encourage those who might get to their destinations faster by utilizing Atlantic Terminal and/or Hunterspoint Av is reminding them about the time difference. They could even attempt to create a map showing which areas can be served fastest by one particular terminal. You could likely convince some to switch over if you explain the benefits.
I believe the LIRR should also bring back timed-transfers. With the completion of East Side Access and all the scheduling drama came one of the biggest scheduling mistakes the LIRR has made: abolishing timed-transfers.
In conclusion, the phrase “Change at Jamaica” has been a tradition that has aged quite well. In the future, I believe the LIRR needs to be more flexible as a railroad, but I also believe the transferring system at Jamaica makes so many of the LIRR’s trips possible!
The LIRR used to have “timed transfers”, which essentially meant that a Far Rockaway-Brooklyn train had a particular connection to a particular train going to Penn Station as shown on TrainTime and the schedules. Essentially, if the Far Rockaway-Brooklyn train was late, the Huntington-Penn Station train that was it’s connection would wait until that train arrived in order to pick up those passengers. However, with the opening of East Side Access, the LIRR abolished timed-transfers, meaning that the Huntington-Penn Station train would no longer wait. Therefore, if the wait time for Penn Station was 20 minutes, so be it, you’d be stuck for 20 minutes.
Changing trains at Jamaica is a concept only really found on the Long Island Rail Road. The LIRR’s sister, Metro-North, doesn’t really have that situation as all trains end or begin in Grand Central Terminal. Therefore, there’s no need to change. You may think of transferring at Harlem - 125 St, but since all trains begin in Grand Central, there’s no need. The LIRR’s other neighbor, NJTransit, specifically constructed a transfer station in Secaucus for seamless transfer between NJTransit’s former Erie lines (the Main, Bergen, and Pascack Valley lines) to trains to/from New York. NJTransit, however, doesn’t have timed connections at Secaucus, nor anywhere else. Therefore, if your train from New York is late, you can probably forget about catching your connection at Secaucus. They’re actually better about connections at their Newark stations.
Jamaica station, and it’s HALL and JAY interlockings, have been designed specifically to make transfers as easy as possible for passengers. The interlockings were designed so well that trains going in opposite directions never have to cross paths. This involves the use of “flyover tracks” where the tracks “flyover” the ones there and then come down into the interlocking.
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| HALL Interlocking (Photo: Trains Are Fun) |
Jamaica Station is designed so well that the LIRR can operate 6 trains through the complex at one time without ever having to cross-paths with another train. Despite the slow speeds as these trains navigate the never-ending mindfield of switches, signals, and flyovers, the movement of trains through Jamaica is actually very fluid. The system, however, isn’t perfect, and neither are the signals, since a signal malfunction or switch problems can cripple the rest of the rush hour if not attended to quickly.
Jamaica station consists of 8 station tracks (not including the two without platforms), and 5 different platforms. The tracks aren’t exactly configured in a way that consists of a platform and 2 tracks next to it, and then another. Instead, it’s a slightly different configuration is that much easier to understand when shown graphically. I was planning on making my own diagram, but I'm short on time so I'm going to borrow the one made by The LIRR Today:
Jamaica station consists of 8 station tracks (not including the two without platforms), and 5 different platforms. The tracks aren’t exactly configured in a way that consists of a platform and 2 tracks next to it, and then another. Instead, it’s a slightly different configuration is that much easier to understand when shown graphically. I was planning on making my own diagram, but I'm short on time so I'm going to borrow the one made by The LIRR Today:
 |
| Credit to Patrick from The LIRR Today for this image! |
Jamaica station can effectively be split in half as there’s mainly two sets of platforms with the first being the westbound set and the second being the eastbound set. The westbound platforms.
The two westbound platforms house tracks 1, 2, and 3, while the three eastbound platforms house the tracks 6, 7, and 8. During rush hours, trains from three different terminals can arrive on tracks 1,2 and 3, and those passengers can transfer between trains by walking across the platform. If passengers would like to access track 3 from track 1, or vice versa, the position of track 2 allows them to open the doors on both platforms allowing people to walk through the open doors of a train on track 2.
Therefore, during a rush hour, a westbound train to Hunterspoint Av can pull in on track 1, a Penn Station train on track 2, all the while an Atlantic Terminal train pulls in on track 3. This is great, especially during rush hours as passengers can easily switch trains. At other stations such as Secaucus and Newark Penn for instance, it’s much more difficult as you have to go over flights of stairs. Therefore, less complaining about a single transfer at Jamaica!
Anyways, track assignments at Jamaica are pretty consistent. Generally, from what I’ve seen, terminating trains/Hunterspoint Av trains generally arrive on track 1 while New York trains arrive on track 2 and Brooklyn trains on track 3. Coming eastbound, trains bound for the Atlantic Branch (Far Rockaway and Long Beach) generally arrive on track 6 while trains bound for the Montauk Branch (Babylon and West Hempstead) generally arrive on track 7 and trains for the Mainline and diesel trains originating at Jamaica typically depart from track 8.
Meanwhile, tracks 4 and 5 are like the “multi-purpose rooms” of the railroad. They are in the middle of everything and can be used in either direction. Generally speaking, the railroad typically sends flyers down these tracks. I’ve believe I remeber off-peak Long Beach trains arriving on that track, but it’s generally only used a bit during peak periods.
The Misconceptions
When many people hear the the phrase, “Change at Jamaica”, people normally associate it as something that is annoying and painful, and don’t think about the fact that all they have to walk either across the platform or up and over.
Changing trains at Jamaica isn’t all that difficult. The transfer experience is slightly better at Babylon as all you have to do is walk across the platform and the train’s already there, but it’s also much better then the transfer experience at Huntington. Also, before you complain about safety issues or getting mugged and what not, Jamaica station itself is a very safe station.
However, with that being said, there’s one thing you can get out of this article: people absolutely despise transfers. Some people despise it so much that they’ll go out of their way for a train to New York (even on the diesel branches), even if there’s an earlier train that can get them their either much closer to when they need to be or much faster. For many, their destination is New York Penn, therefore, people will cram onto trains to New York Penn leaving the perfectly fine trains to Grand Central and Atlantic Terminal unused. If they cannot get a train to their destination on their branch, they’ll drive to a station that does. Even those who go to Grand Central will still go out of their way for a direct train, even when they could just get on an Atlantic Terminal train and get to their destination faster.
Since the majority of people want to go to the New York terminals, the LIRR schedules most of the trains to go there. However, there’s a lot of people that go to the NY terminals since it’s easiest to get to. There’s many people who would likely get to their destinations faster by utlizing Atlantic Terminal or Hunterspoint Av instead, but they choose to just go via New York because that’s where most of the trains on their branch are going. For example, a Inwood-Hunterspoint Av commuter may want to take a train to Hunterspoint Av, but may choose to go to Penn Station instead due to the necessity for a transfer since no trains on their branch go there.
Therefore, this increases loads on the New York trains, and as a result, those who actually want to get to New York Penn essentially can’t. By adding trains to Hunterspoint Av and Atlantic Terminal, not only will it free up seats on those New York trains for those who actually want to go to NY-Penn Station and NY-Grand Central, but it’ll also provide additional service that anyone can use, no matter their terminal. A way to encourage those who might get to their destinations faster by utilizing Atlantic Terminal and/or Hunterspoint Av is reminding them about the time difference. They could even attempt to create a map showing which areas can be served fastest by one particular terminal. You could likely convince some to switch over if you explain the benefits.
.jpg) |
| (Photo: The LIRR Today) |
In conclusion, the phrase “Change at Jamaica” has been a tradition that has aged quite well. In the future, I believe the LIRR needs to be more flexible as a railroad, but I also believe the transferring system at Jamaica makes so many of the LIRR’s trips possible!