Interlocking Walkthrough: ENY

For today’s interlocking walkthrough,we’ll be taking a look at the ENY interlocking in the enclave of East New York in Brooklyn. If you didn’t get the exaggerated sarcasm, then, let me tell you that East New York is not an enclave! In fact, it’s known to be one of the worst areas in New York, facing numerous crime and poverty issues. If I were you, unless your trying to explore and don’t have expensive things on you, then I’d avoid the area completely. Nonetheless, the point is if you go there (especially at night!) don’t dress like you want to be mugged.

East New York is a weird-looking station as it looks underground, but it’s actually at ground-level! It’s actually sandwiched between the BMT Canarsie Line and a highway. ENY Interocking is a very simple interlocking,and is also rarely used, only really during service disruptions. But, for the most part, Atlantic Branch operations are pretty simple and straightforward and don’t involve crossover moves at midpoints.

Switches

So ENY interlocking is a very simple interlocking, only consisting of a switch, when going east, from Atlantic 2 to Atlantic 1 (the westbound track), followed by another switch back to Atlantic 2. Just two crossovers, that’s it.

Towers

There used to be an ENY tower, which actually lied right on the station platform, however, that was closed back in the 90s and only reopened whenever there was a service disruption which required the interlocking but this caused trouble because whenever there was some sort of incident that took one of the two tracks out of service without notice, then the affected train would have to wait until someone came to throw the switch. Eventually, in September 2001, the towers operations were moved to the nearby BROOK interlocking.

Neighbors

To the west lies BROOK interlocking, in Atlantic Terminal, Brooklyn, and the eastern neighbor is DUNTON interlocking, the third and least-used of the three Jamaica interlockings.

To my regular readers, You should notice that we should be getting back into the hang of things after the 2 week hiatus and expect slightly more regular posts. However, for the rest of the summer, due expect slightly less as I’m preoccupied with other things and coupled with vacations I don’t have the time to push out as much content.

Platform F, and it’s issues….

One of the worst elements of the modern LIRR has turned out to be the LIRR's revolutnary take on modern Brooklyn service. Platform F. As part of the Jamaica Capacity Improvements project, the LIRR created a new platform, in a way partly isolated from the rest, known as platform F, they then routed pretty much all the Brooklyn trains to use these platforms, running as a shuttle between Atlantic Terminal and Jamaica. The goal with this change was to eliminate crossover moves, and to segregate Brooklyn service in order to free up the Jamaica tracks for both city terminals. While officials called this an "improvement", the thing is, in reality few Brooklyn riders feel they can call it that. Eventually, the LIRR added a couple of thru-trains to Brooklyn, however, I feel very few of them are actually useful. The early trains out of Huntington and Babylon leave literally at the crack of dawn, before 5am, and while the Ronkonkoma train does leave a bit later, closer to 5:30, (and if you saw some of my Ronkonkoma branch posts you'll know there's a mini rush-hour at that time, even the Ronkonkoma Branch train is a bit early and many of the Brooklyn commuters are travelling later in the rush hour so the equipment for this train could be better used later, and at this point, if the LIRR has the logic to make the only thru Brooklyn service run at the least convient times, I think it's better off if they just run those trains to Manhattan. The LIRR has to have the mindset that they can still run thru-trains to Brooklyn, to supplement, and provide more options for Brooklyn and intra-island/city riders alike.

The problem is that platform F is designed in a way that makes it very difficult and beyond cumbersome to run trains beyond Jamaica, therefore, they had all Brooklyn trains end in Jamaica. And while they may try to say they beefed up service, it was actually a 20% reduction, and to make matters worse, before ESA, they were able to match service with capacity, therefore, during busier times, more trains were ran to match the amount of travelers, so capacity was matched. However, when platform F (and the new schedule opened), they ran roughly the same amount of trains during each of the hours, therefore, Brooklyn riders were plagued with overcrowding. Later, the LIRR realized this, and they reworked the schedule to add more trains to match a pre-pandemic headway. Since, in the last year or so, ridership has mostly stabilized and things have been working out. 

The cumbersome up and over...

Another issue with platform F that has continue to plague Brooklyn riders is the cumbersome up and over. Typically speaking, if your someone who's unlucky enough to make a transfer at Jamaica, all it is is an up and over one, two, or at worst, 3 platforms over, however, if your a Brooklyn rider, the LIRR has spared no expense at making you sprint every morning across the entire concourse over from platforms 1, 2, and 3 to platform F which is as far as you can get on the other side to arrive just in time to see your train leaving. Prior to East Side Access, typically all westbound trains would depart from platforms 1,2, and 3, therefore, you'd only have to climb a platform or two over in the mornings and afternoons to reach your connection, but now that most Brooklyn trains board from a platform on the opposite end of the concourse, people have to walk twice as much as they used to reach their connection. Thats another benefit of direct service that not only people on that branch will benefit from, instead everyone will as that gives a better chance of a cross-platform transfer, or at most a up-and-over.

Unfortunately, because of the platform F location, Westbound Brooklyn commuters are hit harder in the morning as the typical westbound tracks 1,2,3 are on the opposite side of Jamaica, therefore, commuters must walk the entire length of the concourse to get to the other side where the shuttle platform is. This often leads to missed connections.

Missed connections

The final key problem with platform F is the missed connections. With the LIRR's new policy of making zero-attempt at holding trains for transfers, when trains are on time, things work, but when trains run late, the system starts to fall apart, leaving riders fuming as doors shut in their faces. 

@LIRR worst day of commute so far. Train to Jamaica pulled in 3 mins late at 6:44. SPRINTED 12 tracks on the overpass. Employee on the overpass told me to stop running, they’re holding the Atlantic shuttle. Get to the bottom of the stairs, shuttle is pulling away. @News12LI pic.twitter.com/v2SlL3qNqJ

— Jen (@BKcommuter53) March 9, 2023

And while things have gotten somewhat better since the first months after East Side Access, this is still an issue with people having to wait because of it. It does seam however, that on many branches, the LIRR seams to have as many connections as possible for other trains be thru-trains, however, limiting the amount people have to do that up-and-over all the way across the concourse.

Everyday chaos at @LIRR Jamaica station. These sprinters made a valiant effort, but alas their Brooklyn connection left without them and they had to wait 19 minutes for the next one. pic.twitter.com/JaDFSZV9wP

— The LIRR Today (@TheLIRRToday) April 19, 2025

This is especially a problem in the evening rush hour as while in the morning if you miss your train the next one is typically in the next 8 minutes or so, but in the afternoon, you may be waiting 10,20,30, 45, or even 60 minutes for the next scheduled train, depending on the branch. This is a big problem and the LIRR needs to figure out a way to fix this so people aren't winging making their connection every day.

In all, it took all of this nonsense for the LIRR a while to realize how important Brooklyn really was, and to appreciate it enough to make changes by adding more thru-trains (and by no means enough, but hopefully at some point we'll get there!)

What The Belmont Park Branch Timetable Could Look Like

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.

Service Guidelines

• 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.

Link to Belmont Park Branch Timetable 

One of the problems with the Hempstead Branch and those East of Bellerose Main Line stations is that those trains are required to switch over two tracks just in order to reach Elmont-UBS Arena, Queens Village, and Hollis Stations. Doing this results in huge bottlenecks on the Main Line, and coupled with slow-switches, it’s a huge pain to have Hempstead Branch trains stop on the Main Line. And, like I talked about in The Belmont Problem, Elmont-UBS Arena is an insufficient station to serve the UBS Arena and should instead be focused on serving the neighborhood of Elmont- which is right on the border. 

As you look at the timetable, one thing you’ll notice is sometimes relatively unreasonable huge gaps in service, and while this wasn’t done to screw  anybody, Belmont Park just wasn’t my number one priority due to it only really serving three stations. My goal during rush hours was just to provide a fast and frequent ride for these Queens stations, and that’s all I wanted. Also you’ll also notice that the Hempstead Branch trains stopping At Queens Village and Hollis have not been included in the timetable. Right now I’m still making so many little changes and once the project is done I’ll go back and polish the timetable and add those trains in. 

On weekends, this will mainly serve as the anchor for Atlantic Terminal service, however, during the hide weekend periods, additional trains will be added from eastern terminals all across the island to Atlantic Terminal, therefore, they can add the West of Jamaica shuttles whenever needed to provide whatever headway desired. 

I have also put the responsibility of serving Hillside and Boland’s Landing employee stops on these trains, with the times indicated at the bottom of the timetable. 

As of the moment, I’d like some input on Atlantic Terminal service, as I’m interested in sending service from one additional eastern terminal to Brooklyn, but I need more information on which branch would be best for it, and in addition, I'd love any suggestions on race service as I don't feel I've nailed it yet, therefore, in addition to any input welcomed on this Brooklyn topic and on race service, any other comments, suggestions, corrections, etc on this timetable or service plan are also very welcome and very much appreciated. You can leave a comment by using the Disqus comment form below, or you can e-mail me at gavin.s.wilcox@gmail.com. 

View an index of all the other sample timetables, the post about those timetables, and revision history, right here.

The LIRR’s Big Bet on Midtown

The LIRR’s service plan that was put into place on February 27, 2023 obviously placed much of its emphasis on Midtown Manhattan. The service plan essentially had all trains that had ran to either Atlantic Terminal or Hunterspoint Av to be reverted to Grand Central, and while the new terminal in the Lower East Side is huge for many, it was detrimental to those that relied on those alternate terminals- those which were growing rapidly. 

Under the new service plan, the railroad has essentially sent 90% of its capacity to either Penn Station or Grand Central, with only the small 10 percent of trains for riders looking for a one-seat ride to somewhere else. The worse part is, of those trains, most of them run during very inconvenient times- the only one seat rides on the Port Jefferson and Ronkonkoma Branches leave at 4:54am and 5:30am respectively. Trains on some of the smaller branches run during better times, and, it’s great to see one-seat rides to Brooklyn during the earlier part of the rush hour, however, the most room for growth is during the center of the rush hour, and I don’t think it could hurt if the LIRR added a train or two to Atlantic Terminal or Hunterspoint Avenue on the larger branches during the center of the rush hour. It would also be great to see the LIRR extend some of the shuttle sets during the reverse-peak periods further out to Long Island. I’m not fully aware, but I’m sure many people would you use a reverse-peak from Atlantic Terminal to/from let’s say Long Beach.  

By putting all the emphasis on the two Manhattan terminals, your actually limiting growth to the entire city, since, the most growth right now is to trips other then from Manhattan to Long Island. Hunterspoint Avenue continues to be treated as pretty much a complete afterthought, as it’s used only when the LIRR has absolutely no other choice in order to not clog up Jamaica. While some people actually didn’t expect Hunterspoint Avenue to survive into the new service plan, it did and the LIRR still hasn’t done anything to improve it. Service to Hunterspoint Avenue had been cut by 9%, and they didn’t even go as far as converting the empty equipment runs over to revenue trains, something that could be easily done for zero cost, and would be a huge step in improving service out there. 

Then, there’s of course, Brooklyn. Brooklyn is personal to me, as many of my first train trips had me taking the train there opposed to Penn Station to see family there. When East Side Access opened, virtually all thru-service to Brooklyn was cut and riders ended up with a clumsy, very sloppily scheduled, and aggravating shuttle service which required customers to go up and over to a completely separate shuttle platform. Initially, as crazy as this is, the railroad actually slashed peak service between Jamaica and Atlantic Terminal by 20% over pre-pandemic service levels, but soon completely reversed that decision soon afterwards after they were proven wrong. 

The origins of East Side Access

The Long Island Rail Road first began its journey down the East Side Access route in the mid to late 1990s when both the MTA and New York State set their sights on reviving proposals to build a brand new LIRR terminal in Manhattan’s East Side. Proposals to build a new rail link had been proposed since decades before, however, those efforts had been abandoned due to the city’s financial problems. In 1995, when it was originally proposed, the city was a completely different place. New York had still been recovering from people moving out to the suburbs, and crime was still a huge problem, and it was still coming off of the worst decade in New York history. 

By this time, the city finally began turning around and employment was growing substantially. Attention to housing, urban decay, and crime (something Detroit really needs!) really helped the city improve and expand. Business began to return to the city, and this brought in new commuters and fueled population growth. At that time, much of New York’s major commercial office activity was centered in Lower Manhattan, which was in tough shape after decades of decline and the stock market crash. While proposals were being floated for a huge megaproject, other projects were also being worked on (such as the Second Avenue Subway). Commercial activity in other parts of Manhattan (along with the outer boroughs) was limited, and while, Midtown (the area between 42nd and 59th Streets offered the most growth, little was done about it. When the MTA decided it wanted to spend billions of dollars on the Second Avenue Subway, obviously they had to give the Suburbs something in return, and the idea of building a rail link to one of the fastest growing commercial neighborhoods in the city seamed like a good idea.

Both the MTA and the LIRR doubled down on their efforts for Midtown Direct in the months following the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks. In the wake of all the catastrophic and tremendous damage done to the World Trade Center site, which was the largest concentration of jobs in the entire Financial District), many people thought that Lower Manhattan was done for good. When the MTA reconcentrated its efforts for East Side Access, everyone thought that the Lower East Side was the next big thing, and as we know that ended up being the case. Grand Central Madison was specifically designed to make it easy to get from the platforms to all the office buildings along Madison and Park Avenues.  

Hunterspoint Avenue and LIC

Since the completion of East Side Access, Hunterspoint Avenue and Long Island City have continued the infamous tradition of being a complete afterthought. Service to both of those stations continues to be atrocious, with large gaps even during peak hours. With the introduction of direct service to the East Side, many people who used to take the train there and catch a 7 train to Midtown now just go via Grand Central Madison, therefore, ridership decreased. However, there’s still a significant amount of potential ridership growth for people with origins and destinations in Queens itself, and I believe many more people would it use it if they gave it improved service.

And, the truth is as a Long Islander, I was just driving through the area right at the yards and the development in the area is very good, it’s definitely changed since before. Development in both Hunterspoint Avenue and Long Island City have both improved, and the skyline has actually changed considerably. 

Photo: Tri-State Rail NOW

According to the United States Census Bureau’s data, the total number of jobs in the Long Island City-Hunters Pt Neighborhood has increased by nearly 68% since 2010, and this area added over 15,000 new jobs over the last decade- while the LIRR still acts like nobody uses the station or could.

Approximately 40% of those who work in this area commute from the city itself, suggesting there’s significant potential for ridership to/from the greater LIC area. For years, the LIRR has ignored requests and proposals to improve service from these stations, especially from branches in electric territory. HPA and LIC have now become diesel-only stations, served by only the diesel branches which bring the most riders from Suffolk County (who account for less then 5% of commuter demand to this area!), and do not adequately serve people coming from places further into Queens and Nassau, which account for 35% of ridership demand to/from Hunterspoint Avenue and LIC. 

Additionally,  the population of the Long Island City - Hunters Pt area has actually tripled over the last 10 years, adding 20,000 more residents who could probably take a job on Long Island if they had reasonable reverse-peak service there.

Requiring riders to either one take the subway to either Grand Central (requiring you to double back) or Woodside is definitely not an acceptable alternative. Not only are you charged for the railroad, but you also must pay a subway fare in addition to having to spend 12 additional minutes on your trip. 

I strongly suggest the LIRR should considering service to both Hunterspoint Avenue and Ling Island City, by at the minimum providing faster, and more frequent service then what is currently provided. The good thing is, the LIRR can actually do this pretty easily, and there are several ways to accomplish this, in which many of these can largely be accomplished without utilizing existing train and crew downtime outside of rush hours:

• Converting all equipment trains and hard trains that currently run empty between LIC and Jamaica during reverse-peak and midday periods, including several revenue trains that run empty to Jamaica before starting revenue service there. 
• Extending all diesel trains (at least on the Oyster Bay Branch) to operate to/from Hunterspoint Av and LIC. In addition to providing service to HPA/LIC while not sacrificing Manhattan service, this would also benefit diesel branch riders as they wouldn’t have to deal with annoying transfers at Huntington and double-transfers at Babylon (while I’d say the Huntington up-and-over is much worse then Babylon). 
• Adding additional trains from the smaller electric branches to and from HPA and LIC. The LIRR’s current service plan currently has the small electric branches (West Hempstead, Hempstead, Long Beach, and Far Rockaway) continuing to see frequencies way below their capacity. The LIRR’s could easily add trains from those branches there to accomplish several things: better serve the Nassau-Queens commuter market, provide additional service opportunities to everyone on the smaller branches (no matter their destination)c, and allowing the LIRR to load these grains with the more local stops in lieu of adding stops on busier Manhattan-bound trains from busier branches, reducing travel-time for those riders all the while providing more service to HPA/LIC.
• Reducing travel-time between Hunterspoint Avenue and Long Island City. It’s rare that you can “reduce travel time” on the LIRR, however, currently, all trains from LIC must park at Hunterspoint Avenue for several minutes, while they “load up” passengers. There’s absolutely no need for that, and given the very small distance between the stations, many trains can make the distance in only 5-7 minutes. 
• Adding additional shuttles between Jamaica and HPA/LIC. While I can understand why the LIRR is hesitant about sending electric trains there, especially considering not all the tracks at LIC are electrified, these could help address the most acute gaps in service and can work very similar to the Brooklyn shuttles. These sets can be fed from Hillside or Jamaica-Johnson Avenue during rush hours, and can run back and forth before heading back to the yard following rush hours. 

Overall, the LIRR still serves Long Island City as if it’s only home to half-abandoned warehouses and is all industrial, yet it’s instead a thriving and rapidly growing neighborhood. There are many opportunities for the LIRR to grow service at both HPA and LIC in a way that can’t be done via a subway transfer. Even if they only convert a couple of equipment trains, it’s still something. 

Brooklyn 

Brooklyn is perhaps the worst of the problems of the new service plan. The LIRR's elimination of through-service from Brooklyn to eastern points on Long Island meant a big blow to these commuters, especially considering 85% to 90% of those riders needed to get somewhere further east then Jamaica, where the shuttles end.

The thing is ridership is growing to Brooklyn at a much faster rate then what is seen to Manhattan, and according to ticket sales data, ridership grew a whopping 23% to Brooklyn between 2016 and 2019, thats nearly half of all the new riders wanting to go to Brooklyn.

In my opinion, if anything, the LIRR should be looking to increase service to Brooklyn, not reduce it! It's even worth nothing that the considerable growth Brooklyn has gotten has taken place even after the LIRR has pretty much ignored it over the last 40 years. You can only imagine the growth that would occur if the LIRR actually improved service substantially there.

Brooklyn is more personal to me because I used to take it before the service changes much more to go see family, but as time has gone on, I've unfortunately gone there less, however, when I do take the train there, the up-and-over normally doesn't bother me to much, but for someone who has to do it everyday I can understand why people hate it so much. 

One of the biggest downsides to reduced service to Brooklyn is to the many people who went to Atlantic Terminal as a shortcut to get to Lower Manhattan. When the LIRR reduced service to Brooklyn, these riders were basically forced to crowd onto Manhattan-bound trains, in which many of them will either go to Penn Station and the crowd the already crowded Seventh and Eighth Avenue Lines, or will go to Grand Central, and will be forced to walk all the way back to 48th St to reach the already severely crowded Lexington Avenue Line. Not a great choice, huh. Instead of being able to spread out across the 5 subway lines that serve Atlantic Terminal, have considerable capacity, and can get you anywhere in Lower Manhattan, there forced to overcrowd the packed subway trains in Manhattan.

Further, by scaling-down service to Brooklyn, the LIRR is actually hindering their operational flexibility. By sending pretty much all their traffic via the Main Line to Manhattan, they are basically placing all their eggs in one basket. If a service disruption or incident was to occur, they'd be forced to basically grind ALL service to a complete halt, without the flexibility to divert trains to/from Brooklyn, and it would be a complete mess in Jamaica with trains waiting for trackspace to discharge. If something were to happen at Forest Hills, for example, the entire Mainline would go down for good and that could ruin an entire rush hour causing a ripple effect and causing delays lasting for hours and hours on end. The LIRR shouldn't place all it's fate in the Main Line, as we've seen before, incidents are relatively common on the Main Line, and there've even been a couple of full suspensions. 

I'll be elaborating on this more in my reworked timetable project, but I believe the LIRR should operate a handful of locals to Brooklyn on the bigger branches, and provide more supplemental Brooklyn service during the peak and reverse-peak periods. By doing this, not only are they giving these branches more service, while giving Brooklyn riders more connection options, they are also allowing themselves some room in case of a delay on the Mainline. If there were to be a large enough delay to suspend the Main Line in either or both directions, they could divert trains to Brooklyn and people could then catch the subway up to Midtown or wherever else they want to go.

I believe it's important that the LIRR should evaluate demand on each one of the LIRR's branches, and determine which branches need Brooklyn service most, and at what times, and try to incorporate more of it as a supplement. If carefully planned, trains operating on the Atlantic Branch up to Brooklyn can stand clear of "more important" trains from the South Shore heading up towards the Main Line. They'd definitely have to make some changes to the track layout at Jamaica, but I'm sure it could be done relatively easily.

I'll be talking more about improvements to Brooklyn in my Reworked Timetable Project, as we go further into the smaller branches, so, you'll see just exactly what the LIRR could do to improve service there.

The LIRR's new service plan didn't unnoticed, as the baseline schedules did make some valuable improvements across the board including service patterns the LIRR should stick with, but it did reduce service where it's needed most, and it introduced some serious, structural flaws that shouldn't go unnoticed.  

And in conclusion, I believe the LIRR should go back to the drawing board, start from scratch, and rethink the service patterns, adding more trains to Brooklyn and HPA/LIC, instead of just diverting them there!

“Transfer at Jamaica”

“Change” or “Transfer” at Jamaica is a very common phrase on Long Island. Chances are, if you live on Long Island, you’ve heard this phrase at least once before in your life. The phrase refers to the concept of getting off one train at Jamaica and transferring to another one at Jamaica.

As many of you know, Jamaica Station is the convergence of all but one of the LIRR’s branches (specifically the 3 major “trunklines”). At this point, the Atlantic Branch, Montauk Branch, and Main Line all converge into one giant station. Trains on all but one of the LIRR’s branches (The Port Washington) pass through this station at one point of the day.

The LIRR goes to four western terminals; Penn Station in Midtown, Grand Central on the East Side, Hunterspoint Av in Queens, and Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn. Let’s pretend you wanted to go to Atlantic Terminal. You could stand on the platform at Ronkonkoma and wait all day for a train to Atlantic Terminal but unless you’re there at 5:30am on a weekday, you’re going to be waiting a long, long, long time. Changing trains at Jamaica allows you to cut that wait time in half in many instances, and makes it an easy way to get to those terminals and anywhere on the island.

Let’s pretend you live in diesel territory but you’d like to go to Nostrand Av, for example, diesel trains cannot go onto the Atlantic Branch, therefore, the LIRR gives you the only option of getting on a train that is stopping at Jamaica, then at Jamaica changing to the proper train. 

This means that a weekend Ronkonkoma Branch traveller who wants to go to Brooklyn won’t have to wait until 5:30am monday morning.

The LIRR used to have “timed transfers”, which essentially meant that a Far Rockaway-Brooklyn train had a particular connection to a particular train going to Penn Station as shown on TrainTime and the schedules. Essentially, if the Far Rockaway-Brooklyn train was late, the Huntington-Penn Station train that was it’s connection would wait until that train arrived in order to pick up those passengers. However, with the opening of East Side Access, the LIRR abolished timed-transfers, meaning that the Huntington-Penn Station train would no longer wait. Therefore, if the wait time for Penn Station was 20 minutes, so be it, you’d be stuck for 20 minutes.

Changing trains at Jamaica is a concept only really found on the Long Island Rail Road. The LIRR’s sister, Metro-North, doesn’t really have that situation as all trains end or begin in Grand Central Terminal. Therefore, there’s no need to change. You may think of transferring at Harlem - 125 St, but since all trains begin in Grand Central, there’s no need. The LIRR’s other neighbor, NJTransit, specifically constructed a transfer station in Secaucus for seamless transfer between NJTransit’s former Erie lines (the Main, Bergen, and Pascack Valley lines) to trains to/from New York. NJTransit, however, doesn’t have timed connections at Secaucus, nor anywhere else. Therefore, if your train from New York is late, you can probably forget about catching your connection at Secaucus. They’re actually better about connections at their Newark stations.

Jamaica station, and it’s HALL and JAY interlockings, have been designed specifically to make transfers as easy as possible for passengers. The interlockings were designed so well that trains going in opposite directions never have to cross paths. This involves the use of “flyover tracks” where the tracks “flyover” the ones there and then come down into the interlocking.

HALL Interlocking (Photo: Trains Are Fun)

Essentially, it’s possible for a train from Long Beach-Grand Central, a train from Speonk-Long Island City, and a train from Huntington-Penn Station to all approach the station, stop at Jamaica, and then leave on their merry way without ever having cross in front of each other. This can also be seen in the other direction. This is thanks to the builders at Jamaica which specifically designed it for this purpose. During peak and sometimes off-peak periods, it’s not uncommon to see bunches of trains run “neck-to-neck” through the interlockings and onto the platform.

Jamaica Station is designed so well that the LIRR can operate 6 trains through the complex at one time without ever having to cross-paths with another train. Despite the slow speeds as these trains navigate the never-ending mindfield of switches, signals, and flyovers, the movement of trains through Jamaica is actually very fluid. The system, however, isn’t perfect, and neither are the signals, since a signal malfunction or switch problems can cripple the rest of the rush hour if not attended to quickly.

Jamaica station consists of 8 station tracks (not including the two without platforms), and 5 different platforms. The tracks aren’t exactly configured in a way that consists of a platform and 2 tracks next to it, and then another. Instead, it’s a slightly different configuration is that much easier to understand when shown graphically. I was planning on making my own diagram, but I'm short on time so I'm going to borrow the one made by The LIRR Today:

Credit to Patrick from The LIRR Today for this image!

Jamaica station can effectively be split in half as there’s mainly two sets of platforms with the first being the westbound set and the second being the eastbound set. The westbound platforms.

The two westbound platforms house tracks 1, 2, and 3, while the three eastbound platforms house the tracks 6, 7, and 8. During rush hours, trains from three different terminals can arrive on tracks 1,2 and 3, and those passengers can transfer between trains by walking across the platform. If passengers would like to access track 3 from track 1, or vice versa, the position of track 2 allows them to open the doors on both platforms allowing people to walk through the open doors of a train on track 2.

Therefore, during a rush hour, a westbound train to Hunterspoint Av can pull in on track 1, a Penn Station train on track 2, all the while an Atlantic Terminal train pulls in on track 3. This is great, especially during rush hours as passengers can easily switch trains. At other stations such as Secaucus and Newark Penn for instance, it’s much more difficult as you have to go over flights of stairs. Therefore, less complaining about a single transfer at Jamaica!

Anyways, track assignments at Jamaica are pretty consistent. Generally, from what I’ve seen, terminating trains/Hunterspoint Av trains generally arrive on track 1 while New York trains arrive on track 2 and Brooklyn trains on track 3. Coming eastbound, trains bound for the Atlantic Branch (Far Rockaway and Long Beach) generally arrive on track 6 while trains bound for the Montauk Branch (Babylon and West Hempstead) generally arrive on track 7 and trains for the Mainline and diesel trains originating at Jamaica typically depart from track 8.

Meanwhile, tracks 4 and 5 are like the “multi-purpose rooms” of the railroad. They are in the middle of everything and can be used in either direction. Generally speaking, the railroad typically sends flyers down these tracks. I’ve believe I remeber off-peak Long Beach trains arriving on that track, but it’s generally only used a bit during peak periods.

The Misconceptions

When many people hear the the phrase, “Change at Jamaica”, people normally associate it as something that is annoying and painful, and don’t think about the fact that all they have to walk either across the platform or up and over.

Changing trains at Jamaica isn’t all that difficult. The transfer experience is slightly better at Babylon as all you have to do is walk across the platform and the train’s already there, but it’s also much better then the transfer experience at Huntington. Also, before you complain about safety issues or getting mugged and what not, Jamaica station itself is a very safe station.

However, with that being said, there’s one thing you can get out of this article: people absolutely despise transfers. Some people despise it so much that they’ll go out of their way for a train to New York (even on the diesel branches), even if there’s an earlier train that can get them their either much closer to when they need to be or much faster. For many, their destination is New York Penn, therefore, people will cram onto trains to New York Penn leaving the perfectly fine trains to Grand Central and Atlantic Terminal unused. If they cannot get a train to their destination on their branch, they’ll drive to a station that does. Even those who go to Grand Central will still go out of their way for a direct train, even when they could just get on an Atlantic Terminal train and get to their destination faster.

Since the majority of people want to go to the New York terminals, the LIRR schedules most of the trains to go there. However, there’s a lot of people that go to the NY terminals since it’s easiest to get to. There’s many people who would likely get to their destinations faster by utlizing Atlantic Terminal or Hunterspoint Av instead, but they choose to just go via New York because that’s where most of the trains on their branch are going. For example, a Inwood-Hunterspoint Av commuter may want to take a train to Hunterspoint Av, but may choose to go to Penn Station instead due to the necessity for a transfer since no trains on their branch go there.

Therefore, this increases loads on the New York trains, and as a result, those who actually want to get to New York Penn essentially can’t. By adding trains to Hunterspoint Av and Atlantic Terminal, not only will it free up seats on those New York trains for those who actually want to go to NY-Penn Station and NY-Grand Central, but it’ll also provide additional service that anyone can use, no matter their terminal. A way to encourage those who might get to their destinations faster by utilizing Atlantic Terminal and/or Hunterspoint Av is reminding them about the time difference. They could even attempt to create a map showing which areas can be served fastest by one particular terminal. You could likely convince some to switch over if you explain the benefits.

(Photo: The LIRR Today)

I believe the LIRR should also bring back timed-transfers. With the completion of East Side Access and all the scheduling drama came one of the biggest scheduling mistakes the LIRR has made: abolishing timed-transfers.

In conclusion, the phrase “Change at Jamaica” has been a tradition that has aged quite well. In the future, I believe the LIRR needs to be more flexible as a railroad, but I also believe the transferring system at Jamaica makes so many of the LIRR’s trips possible!