Tuesday, August 26, 2025

September schedule changes merely add more schedule padding and extended season on select Montauk Branch trains

So the LIRR unveiled it's September to November timetable change, one that's doing extremely little to fix 

All the tweaks seen here are very minor and it's actually been many months since the LIRR actually made a large change to the schedule other than tweaking when the trains run or padding the schedule.

  • Train 7, the 5:44am from Montauk to Long Island City will depart Montauk at 5:39am, and most stations 4 minutes early. This is done to pad the running time which continues the trend from #2703 of an extremely short running time between Sayville and Babylon. However, I've noticed that this train generally sticks to the schedule and that this isn't needed. 
  • All the morning rush hour Ronkonkoma Branch trains will depart Ronkonkoma 2 minutes early. This is one of the most aggravating of the changes since there's no point for it. The trains will for the most part have to just sit at CI for 2 minutes which is obnoxious. And they already had padded for one extra minute, which also, wasn't necessary. It's only gonna screw people that will now need to leave 2 minutes earlier, which will screw people's morning routines.
  • All westbound Babylon Branch trains will depart Babylon 1 minute earlier. Equally aggravating to Ronkonkoma, there's zero need for this!
  • All westbound Huntington trains will depart Huntington 1 minute earlier. 
In the end, the LIRR continues to pad their trains. That's it. No thought into the actual service plan, just adding time for the only reason of improving OTP numbers, but instead, ticking off commuters. This is the second "sloppy" GO in a row where this is all they've done. I hope they do better next time.

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