Yesterday marked the official start of the LIRR's summer season. It also marked the first journey of the very popular Cannonball Service from Penn Station to Montauk that i've been on about all week. I saw it yesterday, and quite a good engineer did we have!
Only 2 eastbound trains were delayed notably, those being trains #4 (the 8:18am from Jamaica to Montauk), and train #12 (the 1:11pm from Hunterspoint Avenue to Montauk). Train 12 was equipped with 10 cars, and seamed to be delayed due to overcrowding. I'm surprised a train leaving Queens at 1pm would be so popular, but I guess during the Summer, people are able to find the weirdest times to leave for vacation. I was able to see that pass by my station, only because my school had an early dismissial plan test, so I was able to get right off the bus and ride my bike up there just in time.
The Cannnonball only got into it's destination, 5 minutes late, and pretty much ran on time, which I predicted.
Many of the later eastbounds also got into Montauk 5 minutes late, probably also due to overcrowding, which is normal fact of life during the summer season.
Surprisingly, the MTA doesn't seam to have documented the official Cannonball departure (or haven't posted it yet), as they normally do, but they did document the Thursday Cannonball's, which isn't as special by any means, but it is interesting to see the crowds and the president greeting the "Hamptons-goers":
As you can see, President Free seams more excited about the Thursday Cannonball then the real Cannonball. This year, it seams people evened the loads out a bit by not just diving through the first open door they see.
If they do release the photos from the first Cannonball then I look forward to seeing that. But, even though we survived Thursday and Friday, Monday will probably be a different story. The most delays typically occur on those days, and I don’t have high hopes for an exception this year!
Let’s hope for the best!