Came the 90s came the modern-post 2000s era of the LIRR with sleek DE and DM locomotives with futuristic C3s hauling them, and gone were the ratty old MP15ACs which many of which still serve in freight service to this day. While EMD and Kawasaki were building the new equipment, the LIRR had to do some preparations for the arrival of this new equipment.
Much like how the M1s worked, the C3s would only be able to platform at high-level stations, therefore, the railroad would have to go around and convert the few remaining low-level stations to high-level stations.
By the 90s, all of the stations on the Port Jefferson Branch east of Huntington had already been converted as the C1 test cars had already begun service however many of the stations on the Main Line east of Ronkonkoma and on the Montauk Branch hadn't been converted.
Therefore, the LIRR sent out crews to begin building these new platforms.
While high-level platforms have many benefits, one of them isn't being cheap, and building more than 30 of them at once would cost quite a bit, therefore, the LIRR constructed many of these 1990s platforms at shorter lengths then seen on platforms at many stations. Platforms on the Port Jefferson Branch and at Bay Shore were constructed with a full 12-car long platforms however the stations on the Montauk Branch were only 4 to 8 cars and the cars east of Ronkonkoma were a measly one car length! That choice has come back to them as summer loading on the Montauk Branch at stations connecting to the Fire Island Ferries and at many of the stations in the Hamptons is very slow.
And while they didn't go cheap and did construct high-level stations at most of those 30 or so stations, the railroad also did single-out a couple unlucky ones and shortened their platforms to 0 cars long.
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| A sign informing customers of Quogue’s retirement. |
On March 16th, 1998, the LIRR abandoned service at 10 stations with many of those being on the Montauk Branch. Trains on the Montauk, Oyster Bay and Greenport branches made their final stops at Penny Bridge, Fresh Pond, Haberman, Richmond Hill, Glendale, Quogue, Center Moriches, Mill Neck, Southampton Campus, and Holtsville.
The first five of those stations were along the Lower Montauk Branch. The Lower Montauk Branch had long been struggling to keep ridership and it wasn't surprising they cut the cord for these stations.
Penny Bridge was located at Calvary Cemetery near Newtown Creek in Laurel Hill (map), and was a very small station with only a low platform and a shelter. It got it's name from a bridge of same name that linked Laurel Hill, Queens to Brooklyn. The station only had one daily rider when it closed so it's not at all surprising that it did meet it's fate.
Haberman was another small station, this one located in Maspeth, Queens (map) like Penny Bridge, it also had a low-level platform. The station had opened in September 2010, and still had manual crossing gates, a guard shack as recently as 1973. It only had 3 daily riders when it closed in 1973.
The next station was Fresh Pond. Fresh Pond was another small station positioned with a low-level island platform that sat at the point where the Bushwick Branch diverged off the Montauk Branch (map). The station was west of Fresh Pond Yard, a major freight yard even to this day.
Next was Glendale, which easily was the smallest of these stations, only consisting of a stool to discharge passengers. As for ridership it only had two of them per day. No wonder this one got closed!
The next and last of the Lower Montauk stations was Richmond Hill, which unlike the others, had a long, elevated, high-level platform. Despite the station having a long, high-level platform, it was only used by one person and was closed in March of 1998. Even though it could have remained open for no cost, it just wasn't worth it considering it was the odd one out on this branch. As you can see the BMT Jamaica Avenue Line passed right over it (map).
When the remaining Lower Montauk Branch stations were closed, this branch was only served by just two Oyster Bay Branch trains, with one in the morning and one in the evening in the peak direction. Others travelled via the Lower Montauk, but none of them stopped at these stations. Train 507 was the final revenue train to travel via the Lower Montauk Branch on a daily basis before it too stopped doing so in October 2012 after Hurricane Sandy.
Mill Neck was the one Oyster Bay Branch station to be abandoned. The station was located between Locust Valley and Oyster Bay (map). The station had lower-level platform, and some 12 to 20 passengers used it before it was eliminated. The station actually survived through quite a lot, being burned down twice in it's history. The station building is now used as a town hall.
Holtsville was another one of the 10 closed during the 1998 Station Eliminations. This one was located between Ronkonkoma and Greenport on the Scoot. It was located at Waverly Avenue (map). It originally opened in 1843 as Westerly but was then changed to Holtsville in 1897 as did the surrounding area. This station was little-used back in 1998 when it closed, but the area has grown quite a bit since then. I personally think that if they improve service out on the North Fork (not even electrifying), then there could be talks of reopening this one. The Suffolk County Traction Company's trolly line terminated south of Holtsville, after running south from Patchogue. They planned to extend it to Port Jeff, but never finished it as the company went bankrupt.
Center Moriches was located between Mastic-Shirley and Speonk on the Montauk Branch. The station consisted of one low-level side platform on the south side and that was about it. The station had two tracks because of MO siding. Like Bellport which would've been the 11th but faced a lot of local opposition associated with it's closure and ended up being saved, only saw a few riders and even fewer trains.
Some residents in the area have had some interest in seeing Center Moriches station reopened. The Moriches area has grown quite a bit in the past few years, and many believe it could sustain enough ridership to warrant service similar to what is seen at Bellport.
These final two stations were located on the second most remote part of the LIRR- the South Fork east of Speonk.
The first of these two was Quogue which was located between Westhampton and Hampton Bays. Quogue was yet another tiny, roadside shack with almost no ridership. Once they eliminated Quogue, most of the Hamptons stations were pretty evenly spaced from each other. I wouldn't say ridership would warrant this station being reopened as there's little development in the area of the original station (map).
And finally, Southampton Campus. This was another little-used, roadside station that opened in 1974, with the goal of serving LI University's Southampton College (map). As attendance at Southampton College declined, so did the station which closed like the others in 1998 (SUNY Southampton closed in 2005.) SUNY Stony Brook took over and is now called "Stony Brook Southampton", and Stony Brook Southampton has covered slightly but I don't think it would warrant it's own station again. Even if they were to reopen this station, they'd probably cheap it out and have it run like Bellport used to with only a limited number of the already limited number of trains that pass by it actually stop there, and you'd get cheaped out when you could go to Southampton which is only five minutes east and is more then plenty to serve this area and college.
At the end of the day, the main reason the LIRR even closed these stations was due to money issues. You'd be suprised at how much the LIRR actually saved by not having to close these stations. The LIRR told The New York Times in 1998 that rebuilding these stations would cost about $260,000 to $2.25 million per station, and to spend $2.25 million for a station which only serve 30 or so people at maximum daily is just not worth it. I'm sure the money the LIRR saved was much better used elsewhere.
At this point, I think it's mega unlikely the Lower Montauk Branch will ever return, as there's really no good reason to reopen it. Ridership was low in the first place, and there's no good reason to reopen the stations in the first place, and with the IBX, thats even more unlikely. To be honest, if they electrify out to Port Jefferson and Patchogue chances are that Hunterspoint Avenue and Long Island City may close as well as sad as that is. If they ever improve service out on the East End and on the North fork, it may make sense in the future to reopen some of those stations and if the Oyster Bay Branch were ever to be electrified (not that I’m suggesting that), then maybe they could warrant a reopen of Mill Neck but I don’t know.
In conclusion, these stations will always be remembered in LIRR history.
