LIRR schedule changes start tomorrow morning

The LIRR is making it's normal spring schedule change, and they are adding a couple of stops to trains.

This isn't a big schedule change; and there are only a couple of small changes to be aware of on the timetable, mainly during the late evening:

• The 10:20pm train from Penn Station to Huntington will make an added stop at Floral Park
• The 6:48pm train from Long Beach to Penn Station will make an added stop at Rosedale.
• The 3:17pm train from Penn Station to Babylon will make an added stop at Baldwin.

And while these changes are at best underwhelming, considering all of the changes that could be made, I do appreciate the LIRR looking at the schedule to see what small changes they can make to improve service based off ridership patterns and I definitely feel that these small changes will benefit some. 

The largest subway car replacement order in MTA history: The 262s

R262 proposal (Photo: MTA)

The MTA just announced their ambitious plan to replace pretty much the entire A-division rail fleet (consisting of the numbered lines and 42 St shuttle) with the futuristic-looking R262 cars. The annoucement came at a press conference Thursday as they announced a RFP for proposals from manufacturers, with submissions due in September.

The base order is 1,140 subway cars, just enough to replace the R62 and R62A fleets (which run on the (1, 3, and 6 lines). Bidding will start on April 30th, 2026 and is expected to continue until 2028, when the contract is expected to be awarded.  The order will contain a mixture of regular "closed-end" R262s and open-gangway R262s (known as "R262OG"). There's also an option for an additional 1,250 cars to replace the R142 and R142A cars (which run on the 2, 4, and, 5 lines) as well, which, would in total, add up to 2,390 cars, effectively replacing the entire A-division mainline fleet, except for the (7) and 42 St shuttle, and it's currently unclear what will replace the shuttle's cars. The cars will come in 5 car sets.

The annoucement for the option order probably comes as a shock to many (including myself) what time we thought we had with the R142 and R142a cars (which are some of the most beloved cars in the system) has now become limited. Many have questioned why the R142/A's are being replaced so early, and the reason why is simply due to the cost. It would be ridiculously expensive to convert all the R142s and R142As to CBTC when brand new cars are coming, and when you think about it, at the speed it takes the MTA to do things, by the time the order for the R262s is ready, it'll already be time to begin replacing the R142/As anyway, so it makes much more sense to tag them on as well, as sad as it is for the R142/A fans.

I'd also like to point out that the R142 and R142A cars really aren't going anywhere anytime soon as the first option cars likely won't come until WELL into the late 2030s at the earliest, and full delivery won't finish until the early to mid 2040s, therefore we have very good time left with them. 

R262 proposal (Photo: MTA)

Once the delivery process begins, The MTA is expected to receive an impressive 30 new train cars every month, as part of the giant Capital Program secured by $68 billion in funds.

This order is monumental for New York. To sum up just how large the order is, if the MTA exercises all the options, then there will be enough cars to completely replace a 3rd of the subway's entire fleet, and to put it into perspective like Janno Lieber put it, "it's more cars than all the cars in Chicago Transit Authority and Boston MBTA combined." It's a huge order, one that will define how the subway looks for decades to come. But it's also not a bad thing; standardization makes everything easier, and having one car type is much easier for maintenance related purposes, however, should an issue arise with the cars, it becomes much more cumbersome to deal with that.

Officials said that the new subway cars will feature high quality electric couplers to support improved improved audio, listening devices, hearing aids, and digital signage. The cars are expected to begin rolling out in the early 2030s, with full delivery and deployment not finishing until mid-to-late 2030s. They will also feature modern signage and will be equipped with CBTC, allowing for full CBTC installation on the Seventh Avenue and Lexington Avenue Lines.

In conclusion, this order is the future of NYC transit. This giant proposal will completely change the the NYC subway system forever and will open the door to various improvements most notably being CBTC, something that will greatly improve service and reliability. What we are seeing now are the cars that will head the subway for the next 40 or so years. Once this order is laid to rest, the system won't look at anything like it does today. All remaining SMEEs will be retired, with only a small handful remaining in garbage and work duty, and the R142 and R142A cars will join them on a farm somewhere upstate with the all the other retired trains to frolic and play together for eternity.

LIRR adding service for St.Patrick's Day

In support of the St.Patrick's day parade, the LIRR will be running 4 additional trains into NYC.

These 4 additional trains will operate as it follows:

• 9:08am from Babylon, making all stops through Rockville Centre, Jamaica, and Grand Central (train 239)
• 9:54am from Babylon, making all stops through Rockville Centre, Jamaica, and Grand Central (train 243)
• 9:08am from Ronkonkoma making all stops through Hicksville, Mineola, Jamaica, and Grand Central (train 2039)
• 9:41am from Ronkonkoma making all stops through Hicksville, Mineola, Jamaica, and Grand Central

In an effort to signficantly reduce the number of incidents and keep trains as orderly as possible, the LIRR will be banning all alcoholic beverages on trains, platforms, and waiting areas from 5:00am Monday 3/17 to 5:00am Tuesday 3/18. MTA Police will enforce this! If you try, they will confiscate it.

Montauk St. Patrick's Day Parade Added Service:

The Annual Montauk St. Patrick's Day Parade will take place on Sunday, March 29th this year and will begin at 12:00 p.m. Quite a few people take the train out east for the parade, and since it's not yet summer, the LIRR will provide a additional train to provide for added capacity following the parade.

This train, titled #6003, will depart Montauk at 1:46pm and make all local stops to Babylon, and Jamaica.

What The Oyster Bay Branch Timetable Could Look Like

Of the three branches we've taken a look at, there hasn't been too much struggle. Other than the single-tracked portion of the Port Washington Branch, there really hasn’t been that much to worry about that we’ve covered so far. Today’s post will focus on the last off the LIRR’s “simple” branches, the Oyster Bay Branch. After this post, we’ll begin the transition into the thick of the LIRR’s operations, with the crazy Mainline and busy Montauk Branch! This is where things get interesting.

The Oyster Bay Branch serves as a decent bridge between the two. It’s service patterns are very simple, and it receives comparatively little ridership and attention for it’s comparatively low service. However, integrating Oyster Bay Branch trains into the busy Mainline and all of it’s traffic can be relatively challenging.

The Oyster Bay Branch, which begins in Mineola and slithers through some of the more sparsely-populated towns North Shore towns, ending in the beautiful enclave of Oyste Bay. The area it’s traverses isn’t nearly as dense as central & southern Long Island, but it does provide one of the only transportation links.

However, the one achilles heal of the Oyster Bay Branch is that it’s always suffered from being very slow. The MAS (Max Allowed Speed) on most of the branch is 60 mph, and the line is pretty straight as far as Roslyn, but once you travel east of that, it constantly curves this way and that, and with many curves come lots of curve-related speed restrictions. For most of the line past Roslyn, your chasing 30mph speed restrictions littered on the ridiculous curves for the remainder of the branch.

It may not seam that bad, but by adding slowly-accelerating dual-modes into the mix, and things can get pretty ugly as far as travel times go, and pair that with the infrequent service, many people will just drive to electrified stations (i.e Mineola if you live in Williston Park or Manhasset if you live farer up the branch.

There have been numerous talks about changing how this branch is ran. There have been some talks of electrification of the Oyster Bay Branch, other plans call for the railroad to get a bunch of DMUs and run them back and forth to/from Mineola, or introducing a “Transfer at Mineola”, however, I don’t think any of them are at all feasible. First off, I highly doubt the LIRR will electrify the Oyster Bay Branch anytime soon, which is for good reason. Second, while DMUs might allow for some faster acceleration and deceleration between station stops, purchasing DMUs won’t help with the curves, and therefore, there will still be speed restrictions, and when you do the math, chances are running trains with DMUs will only improve travel time by a couple of minutes, and all that saved time will vanish quickly once you make the passengers from the branch stand out on the platform at Mineola, this would be the same for the third.

With that in mind, let’s jump onto the sample timetable for the Oyster Bay Branch. It doesn’t involve DMUs (because, look, if they were interested in using them, they’d need to thick of procuring them now, which is something they obviously don’t have money for, and quite honestly, if that’s what their really interested in doing, it would probably be best to just skip the trouble and just abandon the branch altogether.)

Included in the linked PDF file below is the full sample weekday & weekend Port Washington Branch timetables. Peak, off-peak, reverse-peak, and special-event trains are all included. Note that this is a new and improved timetable design.

The timetables only show revenue trains, not equipment or deadhead moves. I have planned out to include the deadhead moves, equipment rotations, etc., as I was doing this project, and I have most of those moves handwritten down on paper, but I have yet to finalize them and insert them into the actual excel timetables. Nonetheless, I have tried whenever possible to minimize the amount of deadheading, since it’s essentially wasted crew and equipment hours, but in some cases, it was unavoidable to make the most out of the resources available.

Key Assumptions:

• The key infrastructure on the branch will remain similar to what it is today.

Service Guidelines:

• In the morning rush hour, I tried to keep trains spaced 40-50 minutes apart throughout most of the rush hour (very similar to how it is today). The branch has six trains over the course of the rush hour, the same amount as currently. The first train outta Oyster Bay in the morning will run similar today, except it will depart 4 minutes earlier at 4:52am. Service to the western terminals is decently spread-out, with 2 trains to Hunterspoint Av/Long Island City, and 2 trains to Penn Station. The first and third trains terminate in Jamaica in order to be able to quickly turn and represent eastbound runs. Train #509 will continue to run express, but instead of going to Hunterspoint Avenue will now swap terminals with #511, therefore going to Penn Station and providing a truly express run for these commuters.
• In the evening, 7 trains are provided up the branch (5 on Fridays). This provides a valid upgrade from the mere 5 that currently terminate there. The main addition is the brand new train 560, a new 5:09pm dual-mode departure from New York which would hope to relieve crowding on train 562, which is extremely crushloaded coming out of Jamaica, and also matches the two dual-modes that currently arrive into New York. I also managed to squeeze a 6:16pm departure out of Jamaica, reducing the gap between train 562 and the second dual-mode. 
• It’s important to note that East Williston will be utilized as more of an electric-terminal for several trains during rush hours, however, these trains will be included in the Mainline timetable.
• During off-peak and weekend times, service will be provided about every 90 minutes to and from Hunterspoint Av.
• Very little late night service is provided on The Oyster Bay Branch.

Link to Oyster Bay Branch Timetable

Threading Oyster Bay Branch trains onto the crazy Mainline during rush hours has provided to be quite a difficult task. It’s quite difficult to make time for Oyster Bay Branch trains to join the Mainline at Mineola. It was also difficult for me to come up with a reasonable plan for evening service to Oyster Bay, however I think I did a decent job in the end.

In the morning, all but one train operate through to a western terminal. The first train of the morning leaves 4 minutes earlier then it did under the current schedules at 4:52am. Recently, last September, train #511, had been switched from Hunterspoint Avenue to Penn Station, providing a second morning dual-mode on the branch for the first time ever. As you know, the train before is a 7:01am express-train that only makes a handful of stops along the closely packed branch, and I decided it made sense to send that to Penn Station instead, giving a true express run for those commuters as you don’t have to transfer anymore.

In the PM peak, I was able to squeeze a total of 7 trains up the branch, a great improvement over the current 5. I was able to fit an additional DM in from New York, departing at 5:09pm right before the aligning with the start of the bu rush hour. The second evening dual-mode leaves New York at 6:20pm and follows the same schedule as the current DM. I was able to 

During off-peak times, service is improved from bi-hourly to every 90 minutes. On weekends, the current schedule requires two sets to provide the two-hourly headways, so it wouldn’t require any additional equipment or crews to improve. In addition, most off-peak trains now run to/from

The first train up the branch in the early morning now departs at 12:14am, therefore giving one final train before the long overnight gap. Reverse-peak service is now maintained at much more consistent headways. By a quirk of scheduling and in order to squeeze the new dual mode in, train 569 will originate in Locust Valley (running from Oyster Bay following 558’s arrival).

I think I’ve covered pretty much everything to say about the Oyster Bay Branch. Going on from here, things will get much less simple as we say goodbye to solid blocks of time with local service and consistent stopping patterns, but we’ll see if we can shove a minimum of 50 trains down the Mainline and Babylon Branch in a period of just a couple hours soon! In the meantime, feel free to leave any comments, thoughts, corrections, suggestions, etc.

Extending the Flushing Line to Bayside

Vanshnookenraggen

The 7 train, a core subway line that connects Flushing-Main St, the true Chinatown of New York to 34 St-Hudson Yards in Midtown Manhattan has always been considered a superior line. It cuts through Queens like a steel blade and checks all the boxes as it runs frequently, has solid express service (for the most part, except for when the structure ages to be over 110 years old and needs to be replaced hindering full express service for 5 years!), and has relatively good transit connections in Manhattan. However, the line has always felt short. Clocking in at only 16 miles long, many feel as though the 7 train has more to offer.

There have been various proposals over the years to extend the 7 to various different places, with some suggesting they should extend it to New Jersey, more specifically to Secaucus, to provide a direct subway link to New Jersey for the first time, others feel the line should be extended deeper into Manhattan to better serve the Chelsea neighborhood, however, one of the most captivating proposals for this line in the last decade has been rather to to extend the 7 past it’s eastern terminal of Flushing east to somewhere in Northeast Queens.

Northeast Queens has always been considered a transit desert; having very limited options for transportation. People who live there rely on infrequent and inefficient bus service, and for those that live close enough to the Port Washington Branch, expensive and infrequent train service.

Therefore, with that said, the proposal to extend the 7 eastward in it’s home borough should feel fitting. While currently crowded and constrainted in that respect, parituclary during the rush hour, with the proper set of investments, the  

And Although the MTA has more important priorities right now, this is definitely a project they could pursue more maybe 10-15 years down the line as its a project that, while likely very expensive, would benefit a TON of riders.

The Proposal

There have been a couple of proposals related to the extension of the (7) further into Northeast Queens with the less frequented proposal being to have a branch off the (7) train, most likely elevated, branching of somewhere near 111 St, turning south for a little bit before turning east, running along the Long Island Expressway and Kissena Blvd before terminating in Springfield Gardens. The other one is for a new line to be constructed, heading northeast out of Flushing-Main St, heading north towards College Point stopping at Northern Blvd before turning East towards Whitestone. Possible extensions could be made to one day extend the (7) to Bayside, which is what many people would like to see, and was originally planned to happen almost 100 years ago.

Planned 7 extension in 1935

I personally believe that this is the more likely of the two, as it would serve an area that is in desperate need of further transit development, and while both are in areas that can be considered “transit deserts” In theory, we could possibly get both extensions, possibly having an 11 train make the run northeast towards College Point and have the 7 train run along the LIE to Springfield Blvd. This is one of those projects that we will just have to see. 

Capacity Gains

Before I wrap up this post, I'd like to mention that another benefit of having the 7 terminate somewhere besides Main St would be the likely capacity gains. If you’ve ridden the 7 train during the rush hour then you’d know that Flushing is not a great terminal. Unlike many other good subway terminals, such as 34 St-Hudson Yards, it does not feature tail tracks, rather bumper blocks on the end of all 3 station tracks (further adding insult to the injury by slowing trains down). Therefore, Flushing struggles to keep up with the demand, which is quite a bit (running trains out of there roughly every 2 minutes for a good part of the rush hour). To prevent a complete meltdown of the line, the MTA has some 7 trains end in Mets-Willets Pt, allowing for some trains to avoid the congestion, however, that doesn’t prevent Flushing from being severely capacity limited. Extending the 7 eastward would hopefully allow for a proper terminal to be built, one that can handle the level of service needed on this very crowded line. This will also account for the growth that Queens will continue to see.

In conclusion, this is one of those subway extensions that I feel strongly about. Being a big proponent of the Flushing Line myself, I’ve seen how much an extension of the (7) further east could help NYC. It could bring much needed service to some of the largest transit deserts while also helping to improve capacity along one of the most conjested lines. I personally even know someone who lives in Bayside and would love to be able to take the subway in from there. but instead gets the bus to Flushing. 

Blizzard to bring LIRR service to complete standstill

The LIRR just announced a couple hours ago that due to the ongoing blizzard, one that will probably end up being pretty historic for Long Island, that they will completely suspend LIRR service by 1am tomorrow morning, when things are projected to reach a point where it is unsafe to continue running service into the overnight, which is forecasted to be the heaviest part of the storm.

I personally think that 1am is a bit late, and that they are taking a chance by running some trains that late, I'd rather see the LIRR fully finish curtailing operations slightly earlier, as the later we go, the risk that a train could get stuck increases, however, we will have to see how things play out. 

They will gradually suspend service with each branch having one last train to run, allowing for the LIRR to stash away equipment in strategic places allowing for quicker cleanup pending the end of the storm

Here are the final trains to run on each branch:

Babylon

• The 11:44pm from Babylon to Penn Station
• the 11:43pm from Penn Station to Babylon

Long Beach

• The 12:12am from Long Beach to Penn Station
• The 11:58pm from Penn Station to Long Beach

Far Rockaway

• The 11:07pm from Far Rockaway to Grand Central
• The 11:20pm from Grand Central to Far Rockaway

Hempstead

• Hempstead Branch trains weren't running due to signal upgrades.

Port Jefferson

• The 9:39pm from Port Jefferson to Huntington, with connection available to New York.
• The 11:27pm from Port Jefferson to Huntington, without any New York connection.
• The 11:52pm from Huntington to Penn Station
• The 11:46pm from Penn Station to Huntington, with connection available to Port Jefferson

Port Washington

• The 11:26pm from Port Washington to Penn Station
• The 11:28pm from Penn Station to Port Washington

Ronkonkoma

• The 11:07pm from Ronkonkoma to Penn Station
• The 11:17pm from Penn Station to Ronkonkoma

West Hempstead

• The 11:02pm from West Hempstead to Grand Central
• The 10:57pm from Grand Central to West Hempstead

Montauk

• The 11:25pm from Speonk to Jamaica
• The 11:30pm from Jamaica to Speonk
• The 9:42pm from Jamaica to Montauk will terminate in Speonk

Greenport

• The 2:21pm from Ronkonkoma to Greenport
• The 4:37pm from Greenport to Ronkonkoma

Metro-North has said they will run a weekend schedule for the entirety of Monday. While Long Island is actually supposed to receive the worst of the snow, I have my doubts on whether or not Metro-North will be able to hold their promise. The NYC subway is currently running both underground and above ground, running all local, however, with the worst of the storm coming overnight, I doubt they will continue providing above ground service throughout the night.

As far as service restoration goes, depending on how much Long Island actually ends up getting, and when it actually stops (this determines how much time they have to clean up), my best guess is that they'll be able to get limited service up and going Tuesday morning, primarily on the busier branches (Babylon, Ronkonkoma, Port Washington, and Port Jefferson) for the Tuesday morning commute, however, this would likely come with delays and cancellations, and I doubt we will see service back up and running on the East End until Tuesday evening at the earliest.

I will be closely following the news and I will update you guys later or tomorrow morning if they give any updates on what's going on. As for now we will just have to wait for more information.

The Rejected LaGuardia AirTrain Proposal

AirTrain LGA Rendering

One of the more interesting transit concepts proposed in the last decade was the LaGuardia AirTrain. In January 2015, as part of a $400 million mega project to provide better transportation options to the historically underserved LaGuardia Airport former Governor Cuomo announced the plan unexpectedly as part of one of his many state addresses. It was to be opened alongside the major renovations that were being constructed at LGA.

This idea was definitely not the first to improve transportation options to the airport, as they have actually floated various ideas over the years with the first of nearly a dozen big ones being to extend the N and W subway lines up there, which was actually back in 1943, and since then they’ve floated numerous proposals including subway, rail, an automated people mover, and even ferries. Then came AirTrain LGA.

At first this idea felt like a solution to an age old issue of getting to LaGuardia, however, people soon realized it wasn’t as efficient as it had initially seemed to be. This is because of one major design flaw that eventually killed the project. Unlike other proposals, which aimed to bring people to Manhattan, the main crowd for the airports, this one actually did the opposite going east instead to Mets-Willets Point, where connection would be available to the IRT Flushing Line and LIRR for service to points west through doubling back. 

Proposed route of the AirTrain

While people were in support of some sort of rail link, “the backwards airtrain” as it was commonly called did not gain much support from experts given that it would be doing the opposite of what it should be doing which is getting you to alternative transportation closer to Manhattan. This backwards rail route would essentially offer little to no time savings given the fact that you have to double back which is time consuming. And, to add, Mets-Willets Point isn't the most well-equipped to handle all the additional ridership that would be heading to the airport. The only options are the LIRR, which really doesn't run all that frequently, and, the 7 train, which runs frequently but is often at capacity, especially during the peak times when the most people need to get to the airport. It's also important to factor in the fact that this doesn't help people who live to the east on Long Island or in Brooklyn as there's no easy way to get the AirTrain without having a minimum of 3-way transfers. This doesn't really help people like me, who live on Long Island unless you live west of Port Washington. 

So as you can probably figure, the project was eventually scrapped by Kathy Hochul in 2023. For the better or for the worse, NYC will once again lay silent without dedicated rail transportation to the airport.

For me, as someone who generally flies out of LaGuardia, I agree that there should be better transportation there. While with my experience a cab normally isn't terrible, traffic to NYC airports (specifically LGA) is known to be some of the worst, and during peak times and around holidays traffic can be even worse. 

I personally though would still really like to see another dedicated transportation option, as coming from Long Island the only other option besides the cab is the bus, which many for one (including myself) will avoid and also doesn’t really do anything about the traffic. And while I personally would still like to see another AirTrain built, considering the fact that LGA will only grow and traffic will only get worse. It should be built from a location that is both conveniently accessible by both Long Island and NYC, something that really can’t be said for the old concept. 

My personal choice would be Woodside- for one it’s a convenient 10 min trip to Manhattan, two it’s already configured to handle quite a bit traffic going to LGA thru the bus connections, and three, it’s well equipped to handle the boost in ridership that would go along with it with combiner access to both the LIRR and IRT Flushing Line with both provide fast and frequent service. However, the issue lies in where to put it- Woodside is already a very busy complex and is double stacked with the 7 train running above the LIRR, and it’s also important to note that it would be running above dense urban neighborhoods as well for the final stretch.  

So, in conclusion, while an AirTrain to LGA is a solid idea, one that would be a big piece of the puzzle to provide adequate transportation to New York’s airports. It’s a concept that while a strong idea, has been noted to be too costly and difficult to build for the moment. Hopefully someday we will see some sort of rail link there, whether it be another automated peoplemover, a rail/subway extension/or some other new idea. We will just have to see what happens. Perhaps an idea might be right under our noses as we speak.

What The Port Washington Branch Timetable Could Look Like

Our first post will begin with a look at the Port Washington Branch. The Port Washington Branch is a unique branch because unlike virtually ever other branch it doesn’t pass through Jamaica, instead, merging into the Mainline at Woodside. The Port Washington Branch definitely isn’t the easiest as far as scheduling and service patterns go given it being a busy branch and the severe capacity constraints east of Great Neck, but it is easier in the sense that you don’t need to worry about coordinating transfers through Jamaica. However, it is imperative that you make an extra effort to evenly distribute trains between the two terminals and to try to allow for easy transfers whenever possible at Woodside. 

Included in the linked PDF file below is the fill sample weekday and weekend Port Washington Branch timetables. Peak, off-peak, reverse-peak and special-event trains have all been included. Note that this is a new and improved timetable design. 

The timetables only show revenue trains, not equipment or deadhead moves. I have planned out the deadhead moves, equipment rotations, etc as I was doing this project and I have most of these moves written down on paper and I have yet to insert them into the actual excel timetables. Nonetheless, I have tried whenever possible to minimize the amount of deadheading, since it’s essentially just wasted crew and equipment hours but in some cases it was unavoidable to make the most out of the resources available.

Key Assumptions:

• One of the first things you'll notice about these fresh new timetables is the reintroduction of the Corona and Elmhurst stations onto the timetable. There's been talks for years about reopening the Elmhurst station which was closed many moons ago due to low ridership, which has came back to this area. It was even featured on the MTA's 2025-2044 20-year needs assessment to relieve crowding and congestion on the IRT Flushing Line. I feel that if they were to reopen Elmhurst, there's a decent chance they may also open the nearby Corona station to go along with it. I feel strongly that this would go along way in providing better access to transit for these Queens communities and help to relieve crowding on one of the subway's busiest lines.
• While this could probably be worked-around should the need present itself, I feel very strongly that the LIRR should invest in going through the trouble of constructing a second track between Great Neck and Port Washington. While this would be extremely difficult given not only is there a viaduct, but that it's also a very fierce NIMBY area, with currently only one track, capacity is severely-limited east of Great Neck,  which is actually the busiest segment o the branch, and this would allow for service levels to be increased to match current demands and would improve reliability too. I designed these timetables in a way to reflect the second track, which sooner or later will have to be built

Service Guidelines:

• At a minimum, service will be provided half-hourly to all stations along the branch during the off-peak periods (except overnight). During off-peak hours, trains will generally alternate between New York Penn and New York Grand Central, allowing for hourly direct rides to both termini.
• During the weekday peak period, service, on average, consists of roughly 20 minute headways branchwide (there are a couple of exceptions). As a standard, the branch is split into two main halves: trains that operate East of Great Neck, and trains that begin their runs at Great Neck, turning via the Great Neck pocket track. To increase capacity, during the peak of the peak, additional trains have been ran from Little Neck, Bayside, and even one from Auburndale to increase capacity.
• During the reverse-peak period, many equipment trains that operate against-the-flow to/from Great Neck to/from western terminals will accept passengers for all or part of their runs whenever possible to allow for robust reverse-peak service opportunties all the while reducing deadheading.
• On weekends, service is increased during the busiest travel times (specifically 9am to 12pm WB, 4pm to 8pm EB) with half-hourly express service provided east of Great Neck, and half-hourly local service west of Great Neck.
• Additional scheduled service to support events at Mets-Willets Point and Flushing Meadows has been included, however, this does not include unscheduled extra trains that run following the event as these cannot be planned, in normal cases, however, these trains will come fresh off the Great Neck Pocket track.

Link to Port Washington Branch Timetable

I specifically designed service on the Port Washington Branch to cater specifically to to those who live past the IRT Flushing Line's namesake terminal of Flushing-Main St, while still providing acceptable service levels in Queens to promote growth. Providing acceptable East of Great Neck wasn't by any means an easy task, considering the enormous capacity constraints, but I was able to work through it to the best of my ability. 

As of now, the best I could really guarantee for the most part is 20-minute headways in the peak direction, and whatever "scraps" were left went to reverse-peak, however, frequencies regularly exceed that especially in the portion west of Great Neck.

During off-peak periods, half-hourly service is provided with trains alternating terminal. While I believe that providing service along the branch every 20 minutes would be a good improvement that would promote growth, especially in the Queens communities, I don't feel like the Port Washington Branch is ridership-ready for that yet, and I think it won't be ready for a long while.

At stations like Great Neck,  I tried to create situations whenever possible . Take in the AM peak for example, in which train 413 (the 6:47am from Port Washington to Grand Central) stops at Great Neck at 6:57am, and a couple short minutes later, train #1315 (the 7:02am local from Great Neck to Penn) rolls in fresh from the Great Neck pocket track. So, technically, you could transfer between the two for service to the opposite terminal or for service to the latter zone. So, while connections aren't 100% guaranteed, it allows a traveller from Plandome, for example, to transfer trains at Great Neck to a local to Penn Station that follows behind the express, promoting quick and seamless intra-island travel without having to go all the way to Woodside. 

Like I emphasized above, the fact that the Port Washington branch doesn't pass through Jamaica makes traveling on the branch more difficult and cumbersome in that you don't have all the transfer options everyone else has at Jamaica, and by, coordinating these mini-transfers at Great Neck, it makes it difficult to provide I tried to keep most trains stopping at Woodside, besides a handful of key express trains along with a couple busy locals, as this is the closest thing this branch would have to Jamaica, and it allows for someone who may want to do the trek from the Port Washington Branch to somewhere else on the island to go via Jamaica and avoid the headache of going all the way to Manhattan.

Reverse-peak weekday service includes a number of newly added "revenue deadheads" that exist mainly to transport equipment for trains that turn at Great Neck, but now stop on the line with the sole purpose of providing supplemental service. During the evening peak, there's actually a nice assortment of reverse-peak trains up the branch out of Great Neck to the point where I subconsciously said evening peak!

I think I've now given you a good understanding of what service along the Port Washington Branch could look like in my new timetables. Feel free to comment if you have any questions about the scheduling or if you notice anything. I don't have the time to write a full in-depth analysis of every train and my reasoning behind it and time probably doesn't permit you to read it either, so, if anything is unclear and you'd like to know my reasoning behind it, just ask, I'd be more then happy to clarify. Additionally, I've made like millions of tiny little edits to the spreadsheet over the 18 months or so that I've been working on this project so it's very likely it’s very likely that some tiny or even major typos may arise, and if you catch any, please let me know of that, too. And finally, if you have any suggestions, and want to see something change, please let me know by leaving a comment at the bottom of these posts or leave me an email.

New LIRR work locomotives in RFEI process

As you probably know by now, the LIRR is currently in the process of waiting for the first batch of Siemens Charger locomotives to be delivered to replace it's aging DE/DM fleet, along with in the process of ordering new M9A's to not only finally replace the Budd M3s which are long after their useful service life, but also provide additional capacity in electric territory, and perhaps you knew about the possible upcoming procurement of new bilevel coaches to provide supplemental capacity in diesel territory?

But did you know that there is also another order in the works, that is much lesser-known? Can you guess it? I have my doubts but if you guessed work locomotives then 

The LIRR is currently in the process of requesting an RFEI to gauge manufacturers interest in possibly completely overhauling the railroad's current work engine fleet from the ground up. This would include a thorough inspection of the locomotive's chassis, engine, and electrical systems, a complete disassembly of the locomotive, removing components like the prime-mover, traction motors, and cab, and rebuilding or replacing parts to meet current standards, such as EPA emission regulations.

There is also a rumor going around (circulating from a video that probably wasn't supposed to be released in the first place but was) that included information for the possibility that the LIRR might order a couple GP38's to replace the E10s. So essentially the E10s would be replaced with the GP38's and the MP15AC's would receive a complete overhaul which would extend their lifetime for a good while. 

CTRail ordering new European-style rail cars for the Hartford Line

I meant to write and get this post out in November but I’ve been extremely busy and finally got around to writing it.

Back in November, the Connecticut Department of Transportation showed off prototypes for 60 new cars which rollout in 2027. These trains are the first of their kind in the Tri-State Area given that they’re seen as “European-style”. 

Bought for $315 million, the goal is to modernize the Hartford Line with these.

Built by Alstom, these European style cars are currently being brought to the US.

The key amenties listed with these cars include Wi-Fi, USB/power outlets at seats, foldable work tables, dedicated bicycle storage, and oversized, ADA-compliant restrooms. These cars are listed with a max design speed of 125 mph and 40 year design life. 

They will be used primarily on the Hartford Line but could also possibly be used on Waterbury and Danbury branches as well in the future.

While I'm personally not the hugest fan of their design, or many modern European coach designs for that matter I have to admit they are  very futuristic-looking. 

LIRR & MNR running on weekend schedule on Monday, 1/26

Unlike what I expected, the MTA announced yesterday afternoon that they would be operating on a weekend schedule today. Metro-North will operate on a holiday schedule with baseline weekend service but a couple of extra trains for those unfortunate enough to make the trek into work. They are doing this because they still have quite a bit of cleanup to do after last night’s snowstorm. 

As a quick heads up, there will be no service east of Ronkonkoma today as that branch is buried deep in foot of snow.

**Edit: As of 10:15am EST, it seams they have either resumed service east of Ronkonkoma or never stopped it in the first place**

The LIRR and MNR will both likely transition back to regular weekday service for the Tuesday morning rush hour tomorrow, after snowfighting operations pretty much conclude.

If you do must travel today, take caution out there. Not only is it very cold but it's also very slippery so go extra slow and don't run for your train. 

Stay safe and warm everybody!

Snow, Snow, Snow: Winter Storm Fern

Since we are now in the midst of a relatively large snowstorm, at least the largest in years, I decided why not take a look at something very important during a snowstorm. When to curtail transit service?

Over the last couple decades, transit agencies like the LIRR and even MNR have the adopted the practice of halting train service if snowfall exceeds a certain amount. Typically, once snow reaches above 10-13 inches, they will suspend service systemwide. In the old days, snow would never halt the trains, and if need be, they'd put a snow plow on the head end.

Why? One would think a 65-ton M7 or a 140-ton DM would easily be able to power through a couple inches of fluffy snow, and that very well is the case. The only problem could occur if snowfall exceeds the height of the third-rail, but even in that case preventive methods could occur before, and worst case they could just use the DMs.

But, that's not the issue here. The real problem isn't found in the LIRR's operating department, but instead in the public affairs department. In late December 2009, a huge snowstorm hit Long Island to close out the year, and a early morning Main Line train running with diesel equipment destined for Ronkonkoma became stranded just east of Wyandanch. Because the conditions were so bad, it wasn't safe to unload the passengers and were told to just sit tight. The passengers were then stuck on the train for hours, waiting for some train to come along and rescue them. 

The Standard Operating Procedure suggests that a rescue train should be brought up just along side the disabled one and the passengers should be transferred over to the new train so they could be on their merry way. However, at that point, it was single-tracked around Wyandanch and a spare DE/DM set wasn't possible. Therefore, the passengers had to sit there until they could either get a DE/DM going or send a rescue engine. Eventually, a MP15 got out there, dragged the passengers to Farmingdale where the passengers were set on a spare set. The protect set stationed in Hicksville was unable to reach the train due to frozen switches east of Hicksville, so they used an engine that was supposed to run on a snow extra to Greenport.

While it may not seam like a reason to halt snowstorm service, the news coverage on the incident was huge. Numerous news agencies covered the ordeal, and it wasn't good press for the railroad. The know-it-all Monday morning quarter-backing politicians were up in arms over the alleged "mishandling" of the situation. Ever since, the LIRR has been very skittish about operations in snow storms.

Nowadays, if snow totals exceed a certain amount they'll suspend service, therefore, if conditions do become bad, there won't be anyone on the trains to get stranded. Luckily, (well, for them), we don't get that much snow anymore, therefore, it's increasingly rare that this would be an issue. And, even if, they have lot's of snow fighting equipment.

Well, if we do actually get a decent amount of snow, which I hope, I'll definitely be shoveling tomorrow, and maybe even railfanning too, but I do have a nice post coming out tomorrow morning. 

Please Swipe Again: The Problems with OMNY

OMNY, which if your not familiar with the subway system is the fare card that is used to gain access to the system has had a troubled rollout and since the full switch from Metrocard has faced numerous scrunity from riders

A troubled rollout

The start of the rollout to OMNY was rigged with issues and inconsistencies, with many riders complaining of various issues including issues with the readers not accepting taps from an OMNY card, requring riders to tap repeatby until it worked, delayed or extra charges, and fare cap confusion. This had lead to heavy mixed opinions by riders, with some favoring the fresh rollout of MTA's fare system while others plea and morn the loss of Metrocard.

Never-ending problems 

One issue that has been worryingly common with the OMNY, and is likely common complaint, is that the fare gate failed to read their OMNY payments. This has actually happened to me multiple times in the city and I can tell you firsthand that it is obnoxious and almost made me miss a train home. A whopping 42 percent of survey respondents said this was an issue for them. This is something that needs 

Another reoccuring problem is delayed charges; and apparently this is due to backend processing and it leads to multiple fares showing up in batches later on. While it's not the end all be all as there's rarely extra charges, it's a quite annoying problem that should look to be fixed.

In conclusion, the fact that in the 21st century the MTA cannot rollout a fare system that isn't rigged with issues shows the incompetence going on there. While the MTA calls it "growing pains", and I feel it's understandable that there will be glitches here and there when transitioning to a entirely new system, something that hasn't been done in many years, I think it should be made crystal clear that the MTA wasn't ready for this.

LIRR to operate on weekday schedule for Martin Luther King Day, rest of MTA not following suit

As many of you know, tomorrow is Martin Luther King Day and the MTA has a very complicated way of running service.

The LIRR will operate on a full weekday schedule, something that while unnecessary, has become a yearly practice for a at least a decade now. Meanwhile Metro-North will operate on a modified weekend schedule (with some added trains aligning during peak hours. If your wondering why the LIRR would run on a weekday schedule and Metro-North would not, I have no clue. The subway is also running on a weekend schedule. 

I personally feel it's very unnecessary for the LIRR to run a full weekday schedule. Much fewer people travel during traditional peak hours on this day and it will probably lead to some very low crowding levels, and coupled while charging off-peak fares it just seams very overkill. While I don't feel They could follow Metro-North's route and 

The LIRR seams to be very hesitant about running "modified" schedules and instead opts to either run a full weekday schedule or a full weekend schedule. Metro-North on the other hand chooses to run a base weekend schedule then add some extras here and there to provide additional capacity. A good example of this issue can be seen on Christmas Eve when the LIRR chooses to run a full weekday schedule. Not only is this ridiculously overkill but its simply a waste of equipment and crew hours. There is absolutely no reason why a full weekday schedule could be warranted on the day before the biggest holiday of the year.

I personally feel the LIRR could be fine by just running a regular weekend schedule without any extras on Christmas Day, but on days like Martin Luther King Day for those who are unlucky enough to go into the office, they should really just go back to their old method of running a weekend schedule with a couple of extras heading westbound during the traditional peak hours and then heading back out in the evening. This would better align with the travel patterns on this holiday.

Before I go, I'd like to emphasize that off-peak fares will be accepted for all of Monday on both the LIRR and Metro-North.

New subway gate rollout rigged with issues

Photo: AMNY

The NYC Subway's new fare gates- a pilot program which started being unveiled in December 2025 at a select couple of subway stations have recently been getting bad press after a 5 year old girls head got stuck in the fare gate at the Broadway-Lafeyette station. 

That wasn't the first time either that a situation similar to that happened with these new fare gates, as various kids had the gates closed on them, separating them from their caregivers and putting them in a potentially very scary situation for both the parent and child. 

Janno Lieber, in an interview conducted by PIX11 news, said that "the gates are being tested at select locations and that the officials are learning about them". He also said "the one thing I'm concerned about is making sure the parents know how to proceed safely through with a child", you got to have a child in front or close by to you; the system is designed to child, small person. What it’s not designed to do is if the child wanders behind, five feet behind you, then the doors close and that’s not great.”

The thing that bothers me about this whole situation is that it's 2026 and we are still having issues designing a fare gate, something that should be, in terms of the MTA's scale, relatively straightforward. While I understand it's not easy to test every little situation, like where a kid is a couple feet behind their parents, but in a world of modern technology, I can't imagine there isn't some sort of sensor they could implement that would be able to determine whether it's a young child behind their parents or person trying to get a free ride. 

I feel like this situation should represent a larger issue at the MTA- failing to perform adequate tests. The real problem lies in the timing for the gates; either you close them to early and it creates the potential for a situation where the gates would close on a child's face, but, if you keep them open for too long after the fare is paid, then it creates the potential for people to follow others behind and get a free ride. Similarly, I prefer the model of gates that isn't the tall one, as this will prevent the unlucky scenario where the gate would slam close right in your face-quite a good way to start your morning. However, this creates the potential for the more athletic crowd to simply turn into a hurdle and hop over it.

Photo: ABC7

 The fare gates are aimed to replace the current turnstyles at over 200 subway stations by 2029, in an attempt to crackdown on the cities fare evasion problem. Whether or not these new "fare gates" are going to make a difference is another question, one that can be debated given the fact that many say the MTA is making it "easier" for fare evasion by allowing people to potentially follow behind others through the gate. 

Interlocking Walkthrough: LOCUST

It's actually been quite a while since I've done an interlocking walkthrough, so today, I decided to come back and finish 

Photo: Edward Hand

LOCUST interlocking is one of those very straightforward interlockings, as it's simply where the Oyster Bay Branch becomes single track for the culminating stretch to Oyster Bay.

LOCUST interlocking was originally put into service in 1912 as OY, but later got changed to it's current name. There was formally an in service control tower that controlled the interlocking, but on November 17, 1975, control of the interlocking got moved over to NASSAU tower. However, LOCUST tower still stands to this day and is actually used as a police booth for the NCPD. 

LOCUST interlocking consists of the old "pensy-style" position-light signals. Eventually, these will be replaced with the more modern signals as the LIRR looks to move control of everything to Jamaica.

The speed limit through the eastern end of the interlocking onto the final curvy stretch to Oyster Bay is 40 m.p.h.

And that shall conclude the simple but important LOCUST interlocking.

LIRR vs MNR schedule padding

The LIRR and MNR, as both separate railroads, have relatively different ways of doing things. While they both share similar equipment to one another, as separate companies if you will, they both have different ways of doing things. One of those many ways involves a practice adopted by railroads known as "schedule padding."

The term "schedule padding " refers to the addition of additional travel time added to railroad schedules beyond what's needed to complete the run with the goal of accounting for potential delays such as congestion, this is done to beef up OTP numbers

While adding a little schedule padding is always a good measure as it allows for trains to recover from minor delays for things such as minor congestion, slow loading, etc, too much schedule padding is exactly the opposite. It

I personally favor endpoint schedule padding. This is because this will allow the train to operate normally and arrive early to it's final destination without waiting around at stations unnecessarily ,

This is what Metro-North does, and while I feel they take it a step too far as for example New Haven Line that terminate at Harrison an average running time of 13 minutes between Mamaroneck and Harrison, while only giving through trains 3 minutes. I definitely feel this is a bit excessive and just looks bad on the schedules, but, at least it won't require the engineer to either one hold in every station, or, 

And while endpoint schedule padding isn't great, as it's usually very excessive and leads to unrealistic OTP numbers, it's better than excessive intermediate schedule padding.

The LIRR, on the other hand, generally prefers intermediate schedule padding. This is when they pad the actual running times between each station, and I feel this is generally more intrusive to the actual run. Let's take for example the running time between Westbury and Carle Place. It can easily be done in 2 minutes, however, most of the trains are allotted 3 minutes, and this is done purposely to While I will admit it's not the worst idea to give that extra minute on the Main Line. While that extra minute isn't a terrible thing on the busy Main Line where delays can build up easily, it means that if the train is running on time that chances are the engineer will go at a lower speed between Westbury and Carle Place so they won't have to wait around, and this builds up travel time. 

I want to clarify that my point isn't that they should eliminate all intermediate schedule padding rather just look to see whether or not it's really worth it or not. There are definitely examples where intermediate schedule padding is a good thing, and a good example is between Jamaica and Kew Gardens. While in technically the run could be done in 4 minutes,  like the LIRR schedules for, rarely can trains actually get there in four minutes, 

As far as running times themselves go, thew LIRR definitely tends to be more aggressive and ambitious at times, while Metro-North tends to be more realistic, however the LIRR also tends to throw in little bits of schedule padding here and there into intermediate run times.

I plan to talk further about schedule padding more in the future, and I plan to go in-depth on exactly how the LIRR and MNR calculate there schedule padding in an attempt to look at ways to reduce the fat in both railroads' schedules.