It was not too long ago that we saw how the Hempstead Branch fit into my “master plan”. We’ll now take a look at the next branch in this project which is the Belmont Park Branch. As you may know, one of my main goals of this project is to improve railroad service in Eastern Queens, and, one of those ways is to introduce a new Belmont Park Branch. The Belmont Park Branch, a small spur off the Mainline east of QUEENS down to the Belmont Park terminal, is only used during sporting events, and has been abused over the last couple of years as the Belmont Stakes hasn’t occurred due to construction at the arena and due to the new Elmont-UBS Arena station. Belmont Park is also located near the bustling Cross-Island Expressway along with the busy Route 24, therefore, we can bring in possible Park&Ride opportunities, similar to what it is seen at NJ-Jersey Avenue.
Not only does Belmont Park serve as an anchor in my project for Eastern Queens, it could also be the answer to the intra-island (city) travel equation; as it has good potential to serve as the final terminal for trains specifically designed for intra-island and intra-city travel.
Belmont Park could also serve as an excellent place to turn trains, as there’s lots of places to store them (similar layout to Long Beach and Hempstead stations), and turning them is fairly straightforward. The one problem with the station is that the platform itself is not designed for speedy boarding, as it is the one and only low-level platform in the system, however, while I’d expect the MTA to perform at a minimum basic station rehabilitation, (building a new platform to replace that single-level one) before introducing this new branch line, they could go without that.
Included in the linked PDF file below is full Sample Weekday and Weekend Belmont Park Branch Timetable. Peak, off-peak, extra, and special event trains are all included. Note that this is a new and improved timetable design.
The timetables have yet to include deadhead/non-revenue moves, which will be planned out using AI to align with crew and equipment moves and will be written down on paper. They’ll be included on a separate page in the attached PDF. I tried to mostly minimize deadheading as it’s essentially wasted time, crew, and equipment hours but in some cases it’s unavoidable to make the most out of the resources available.
Just like all of the other timetable posts, let’s take a look at the “Key Assumptions” and “Service Guidelines” that I built these timetables on:
Key Assumptions
- The current infrastructure on the branch will remain the same or similar to what it is now.
- While not urgent, basic rehabilitation of the station to include all high-level platforms, along with improving the station itself would be welcomed.
- During peak hours, service is provided relatively frequently, with an average of 15-minute headways provided.
- The Belmont Park trains will bear the load of intra-city travelers, making all stops West of Jamaica, even on the busiest of peak trains.
- During peak and reverse-peak times, many Hempstead Branch trains will drop stops at Hollis and Queens Village in favor of Belmont trains making those stops.
- During off-peak hours, service is provided once per hour between Belmont Park and Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn.
- During the weekday reverse-peak period, additional trains are ran in the reverse-peak direction to provide service on 30-minute headways.
- On days where racing events will be held at Belmont Park, multiple additional round-trips will run between Penn Station and Belmont Park, along with one additional round-trip to/from Grand Central.
- Belmont Park service will run with 6-car M7’s during peak and reverse-peak times, running with 8-car equipment during all other times.