Interlocking Walkthrough: JAY

Let's now take a look at the busy JAY Interlocking. Similar to it's counterpart, HALL interlocking, it serves as the second major interlocking for Jamaica Station. I like to say HALL and Jay interlocking are decently similar, both with their own unique set of quirks & characteristics.

Here's a diagram of JAY interlocking, from the handy-dandy New York City trackmap:

As you can see, JAY interlocking is extremely busy, and seams to be much less structured than HALL interlocking is.

It's difficult to understand the interlocking, especially at first, but let me try to explain the key fundamentals of the interlocking so you'll begin to understand the rest of the interlocking. 

The idea, similar to what is seen at HALL interlocking, is to segregate trains so they never cross paths. Ever notice that typically speaking, westbound trains leave from tracks 1, 2, and 3 and eastbound from tracks 5, 6 , 7, and 8? While technically any train can leave from any track at Jamaica, they specifically do this for a reason, as to streamline the flow of trains.

This also explains why a majority of the trains headed towards Brooklyn typically come from the Atlantic Branch, since, the way the station is configured, makes it easier to get those trains over to the tracks headed towards Brooklyn.

You'll also notice that for much of the interlocking, westbound and eastbound traffic is actually segregated from each other, therefore the paths of an eastbound train headed towards Babylon, for example, and a westbound train headed towards Long Island City would never once have to cross paths. This speeds up the interlocking substantially and allows for more capacity.

The way the interlocking is setup also gives JAY interlocking a secret advantage, which allows two westbounds (one headed towards Penn/GCT/HPA and one to Atlantic Terminal to both leave simultaneously and never cross paths. This allowed them to do timed-transfers, which, they abolished after East Side Access, and leads to the greater flexibility of the interlocking.

Anyway, I don't think it makes sense to explain the entire interlocking like I normally do as similar to HALL, there's a lot going on and I don't think you guys want to read an entire explanation of it, but I hope that gave you a better idea of what this interlocking is about.

Boland's Landing

If you were asked to name every LIRR station, the one you’d probably be most likely to leave out is Boland’s Landing. To be honest, I wouldn’t even be surprised if you haven’t heard of it in the first place. Anyways, Boland's Landing is one of the two lesser-known, and lesser-served employee stops, with it's eastern partner, Hillside, serving the much larger Hillside Maintenance Complex, and therefore, seeing more riders and many more trains then it's eastern partner.

Boland's Landing, which exists with the purpose of serving the Morris Park diesel shops, is one of the oddest, and most obscure of stations on the LIRR. Firstoff, unlike any of the other stations on the railroad, including, Hillside, it doesn't have an actual concrete platform, as instead, it has a wood platform, similarly to Hollis. This station is very lowly-used and since all of the people using it are employees anyway, it's not the end of the world that it's still just a wooden slab. Secondly, It's also the only station on the railroad to only see service on weekdays (I guess excluding Hunterspoint Avenue and Long Island City). 

Thirdly, if you go onto TrainTime and try to buy a ticket/plan a trip to Boland's Landing, you can't do so. This is unusual and this is only seen at this station as even at Hillside where you can't buy tickets, you can still plan a trip there. Therefore, the only way to even see what trains stop there would be to go onto the timetable pdf itself.

Fourthly, Boland's Landing is the one and only flag stop on the railroad. Since so few trains are actually scheduled to bother stopping there, it's a general rule of thumb that an engineer will watch and if he or she sees someone on the platform they'll stop the train and pick them up. This isn't the case at Boland's sister station, Hillside, where trains must stop there, and this is a big NO-NO anywhere else in the system, and, this is a unique trait to Boland's Landing. By the way, you'll be surprised to know that that photo is the only known photograph taken directly on the platform.

And last but not least, fifthly, Boland's Landing doesn't properly appear on the M7's ASI system as when the annoucement "Boland's Landing" is said, it actually appears as Bolands-Employees, and that's an interesting little quirk about the ASI system. Boland's Landing is a 2-car platform, making it the shortest platform (in electric territory from what I know) and the doors typically only get keyed open in the first car anyway, so it's really, really short too!

The LIRR does however publish the schedule for this station and for the other employee stop, Hillside and while passengers aren't allowed to board/detrain here, it's a great tool to pick a train that may actually stop here so you can check it out. Just note that this timetable is updated to when this post was written.

I believe there may be talks to reopen the Woodhaven station which is located undergound near this location, and that may spell the end to this station, I'm just theorizing here, but if that were to be the case that would spell the end of flag stops on the Long Island Railroad. 

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!)

Interlocking Walkthrough: HALL

Today, we're going to be taking a look at one of the LIRR's biggest interlockings- HALL interlocking. HALL Interlocking can only be competed by it's sister interlocking, JAY interlocking, which controls the part of Jamaica where trains are coming from in the west, therefore, complementary to it, this interlocking controls trains coming into Jamaica station from points east.

While I like to say all 3 Jamaica interlockings- HALL, DUNTON, and JAY are important, I like to think that JAY and HALL are the more important ones, as they are busier, and as DUNTON is also off to the side a bit only controlling a much lesser portion of trains on the Atlantic Branch. The busier JAY interlocking will be featured in a post in a couple of weeks.

HALL Interlocking is so large that I think it's almost impossible to explain it and it would be quite a long post if I attempted to, therefore, I'm going to try my best to sum it up and explain it from there. I'll give you the "gist", and once you get the "gist", you should be able to figure out the rest of the interlocking from there. 

However, thanks to a very handy-dandy NYC subway trackmap, you'll be able to see what HALL looks like in detail:

As you can see, HALL's borders extend from where the Babylon Branch (uhm, excuse me, Montauk Branch) join in to the last switch before Jamaica station begins going westbound.

While I think that diagram makes this interlocking look much simpler, I still believe it can be very confusing to grasp, at least at first.

You'll notice how the tracks of both the Atlantic Branch (shown below), and the Montauk Branch have to try to get off of HALL interlocking so they can head towards the South Shore, therefore, they duck under the interlocking in order to get away from it. 

Here's another photo that more clearly shows it:

You'll notice that the same thing happens a bit later on into the interlocking with the Montauk Branch heading off, however, when it's their time to leave the Main Line, they rise all the way up and go over the eastbound tracks, oppose to under like is seen with the Atlantic Branch. 

Now, go into Google Earth and take a look at the interlocking, and also note that the Atlantic Branch tracks leave from the middle, however, you'll notice that the Montauk Branch tracks leave from the center, too. All of this was done specifcally with the intent of streamlining the interlocking, allowing eastbound and westbounds to stay apart from each other the entire way, in this way, this allows the LIRR to operate this massive amount of trains through the interlocking.

In addition, with the way it was separated, a dispatcher wouldn't have to wait for an eastbound Montauk Branch train to go before a westbound Main Line train could go, even further simplifying operations. I feel that the way they made this interlocking made it geniously-designed to handle all the immense train-traffic it has to manage, the way they had the 2 branches leave the Main Line without disrupting the flow of the other Main Line traffic is just genius and probably took a lot of work to get right.

I tried to simply this interlocking walkthrough, considering the immense complexity of the actual interlocking, and if it doesn't make sense, trust me, once you read the JAM interlocking walkthrough, when it comes out, it'll all come together. Trust.

The LIRR’s Spring Trackwork Program

It’s a Friday afternoon, your waiting on the platform at Hunterspoint Avenue for an eastbound train towards the Hamptons (cuz, let’s face it who doesn’t take a train to the Hamptons in April) and you hear on the PA an announcement stating that tie replacement on [affected branch] will [cause this to happen]. 

Yep, that’s right we’re now approaching the busiest portion of the LIRR’s Spring Trackwork program, massive program

Here’s a general overview of what will be going on on the railroad this spring, please note that some of these have already finished, I decided to include everything that’s going on: 

• Valley Stream - Switch Rehabilitation & West Hempstead Crossing Rehabilitation 

On the weekends of March 29-30, April 5th and 6th, and April 12th and 13th, one of the two main tracks on the Montauk Branch (Babylon Branch) will be closed between Jamaica and Rockville Centre to support a series of switch rehabilitations in or near Valley Stream, along with a grade crossing rehabilitation on the West Hempstead Branch, which will take the West Hempstead Branch fully OOS on those weekends. 

Due to this, Babylon Branch service will be reduced in both directions between Penn and Babylon during the majority of these 48-hour periods. Also except Montauk Branch schedules to be changed with some trains being extended to/from Jamaica. Limited semi-express service will continue to operate between Penn Station and Babylon for the majority of these 48-hour periods. Additionally, bus service will replace train service on the West Hempstead Branch for this 48-hour period. LIRR customers should expect adjusted schedules on trains on these affected branches while switch work is being performed. Additional service will be provided to/from Montauk on Sunday, March 30th for the Montauk St.Patrick’s Day Parade. 

• Montauk Branch - Crossing Replacement and Maintenance Activities 

On Saturday, April 19th, all tracks between Babylon and Montauk will be out of service for a period of 30 hours while the Snake Hollow Road crossing in Bridgehampton is replaced Tut hull Creek Bridge timber rehabilitation occurs between Sayville and Patchogue, and other track/structural maintenance is performed between Babylon and Montauk. 

With all main tracks out of service between Babylon and Montauk, the Montauk Branch will bustitute train service during a period of 30 hours.

• ADA Station Rehabilitation - Hollis

The ADA project at Hollis is excepted to resume construction on March 24th.

While construction is performed to support the ADA Rehabilitation Project at Hollis, select trains will bypass stops at Elmont-UBS Arena, Hollis, and Queens Village during the midday/weekday period. 

• ADA Station Rehabilitation Project - Forest Hills

The ADA Station Rehabilitation Project at Forest Hills is slated to resume construction in April.

While construction is performed to support the ADA Rehabilitation Project at Forest Hills, select trains will bypass stops at Kew Gardens, Forest Hills; and Woodside during the weekend period. 

With all the construction projects going on, and add that to all the extra trains the LIRR has been running for the St.Patrick’s Day Parades in New York and Montauk, it will be difficult for the railroad to hold up, but I’m sure they’ll manage it as they always do.

Fixing The LIRR’s Intra-City Problem

A question I always asked myself back years ago was why are there so many LIRR stations in Queens? Why just why are there so many when few get close to enough ridership to warrant their existence? Well, at that point I was on the mindset that the sole and only purpose of the LIRR is to bring LIRR commuters to and from Manhattan and Brooklyn, and that intra-island and reverse-peak customers didn’t matter. I didn’t understand enough about how the LIRR works to really understand, but it’s a good question. Anyways, obviously the LIRR prioritizes getting people between their home on Long Island and Manhattan, and Intra-island, intra-city, reverse-peak, off-peak riders, you get the idea, get the backseat over the Manhattan commuters. 

And while that makes sense to a decent extent, since this isn’t the New York City Subway system, this means that intra-island, intra-city, reverse-peak, off-peak riders, whatever, all take a back seat to the Manhattan commuters. And, that isn’t fair to them.

Many countries in other parts of the world (specifically Europe) have successfully managed to integrate their suburban commuter systems into their urban transit systems. While I don’t expect the LIRR to run trains via the subway tracks as hilarious as that is, it would be nice to see them do something to treat the inter-city riders, possibly even introducing a new fare system. There are many people in the city who would love to have to have a direct rail link locally, specifically something the subway couldn’t do. 

A good example of this is the many Queens communities that live past the final terminal of the Subways and many of them would love to have “some sort of connection” to the Subway that didn’t involve a long subway ride or a even more grueling bus ride. Many of them could take the LIRR from places such as Bayside, Douglaston, Queens Village, Hollis, or Locust Manor, but they chose not to because the price versus service provided isn’t worth it. Currently, if you live in Queens Village, for example, to get to Midtown you can hop on the LIRR, 

The common response to discussion about possible intra-city travel in the LIRR is that passengers coming in from Nassau and Suffolk Counties, and I quote from The LIRR Today, who mentioned a very valid point, don’t want to be overrun by the cities “riff-raff” who would like on and take up all their seats once they cross the city line. And while this is a valid point to some degree, I mean imagine an entire (F) trains load worth of people trying to cram onto the already standee-filled #1056 to Ronkonkoma at Jamaica. It would be complete chaos. You can’t exactly charge $2.59 for travel on the LIRR since if you did, all hell would brake loose, and really since the LIRR is a capacity-restricted system with limits. I personally don’t have to worry about this nonsense as I take the Montauk Branch, a branch that rarely makes city stops, however, if I took the Ronkonkoma Branch for example more often, I’m sure I’d notice quite a crowd piling on At Queens Village, especially during the reverse-peak.

I think the LIRR should come up with a way to encourage and incentivize intra-city travel, without going to the expense of longer-distance travelers.

In an attempt to find that workable solution, I have worked on looking after intra-city riders in my sample reworked timetables project I’ve been working on. 

First, to address the issue of service levels not meeting ideal conditions, I have worked to provide more service to stations within the city limits by having more trains terminate/originate at Great Neck and Valley Stream for example. While not directly in city limits themselves, both of them are close to the border and are convenient places to turn trains. I’ve been able to establish manageable headways by providing additional trains from these locations during both the peak and reverse-peak periods, along with expanded service during busier travel times on weekends. Additional service will also be provided to Queens Village and Hollis, which will be handed over to the brand new Belmont Park Branch which will specifically target these riders, and I’ll talk more about this in future posts! 

These trains, while not running with 12-car consists, will run as a manageable alternative to the subway, providing decent headways all day long.

On the topic of fares, while I’m not an expert on railroad fares, and don’t think I have a workable solution worth talking too much about, I’d propose an advanced version of the City Ticket, except it would be valid during all off-peak times. When I end up throwing together the final book and finalize things in this project, I may talk more about a proposed City Fare, however, for now, know that intra-city riders are well taken care of!

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!

Interlocking Walkthrough: WOOD

Up next for our Interlocking Walkthroughs is WOOD interlocking. It’s not that old anymore, but for a part of the railroad that has been around for so long, I expected it to be older. This interlocking first went into service on March 21, 1988, right around my birthday! As crazy as it may seam for an area so congested, WOOD only consists of three crossovers with two on the Port Washington Branch and one located on the Main Line.



Switches

WOOD interlocking covers the short span east in which the Port Washington and Main Line both run parallel each other. There are three crossovers. The Port Washington Branch’s crossovers, going from west to east, consist of a crossover from track 1 (the westbound track) to track 2. Not to far down the line, there’s another back from track 2.

The Mainline, however, only has one little crossover from Mainline 2 (the eastbound express track) to Mainline 4 (the eastbound local). This switch could be used for an eastbound that is bypassing Woodside but needs to make local stops in Forest Hills and Kew Gardens. However, normally I’ve noticed the LIRR will run trains stopping at Forest Hills and Kew Gardens down Mainline 4 in the first place, so these switches don’t get much use outside of a couple of peak trains.

Signals

For it’s 20th birthday present, in 2008, the LIRR gave WOOD Interlocking a nice little revamp. They installed high-speed switches which must have been the big present as high-speed switches are perfect for operations like what’s being performed on the Main Line. The signals used here are tri-color light signals arranged in a triangle pattern.

WOOD interlocking, like many Port Washington Branch interlockings, was controlled by HAROLD tower until it was closed in 1995. Nowadays, it’s remotely-controlled by Penn Station Control Center.

Neighbors

This interlocking is bordered to the west by HAROLD interlocking and is bordered to the east by JAY interlocking. Due to the LIRR typically running the majority of trains that are stopping at Kew Gardens and Forest Hills are routed down Mainline 4 in the first place, this switch isn't used too often. During rush hours, having trains slow for crossovers is nt the greatest thing when you have to operate so many trains so close together, and it's much more efficient and streamlined to not have to switch tracks.

Well, this should wrap up WOOD interlocking!

Track Calling Patterns at Penn Station

For those of you that have ever traveled eastbound from Penn Station, the ritual you follow is probably well known. You stand in the concourse, semi-patiently waiting, eyes glued to the departure board, and then all of a sudden the track number for your train is posted, and then, along with dozens of others, you scurry towards the staircase to your respective track.

Photo: The LIRR Today

No matter if you take an Amtrak to Chicago or a LIRR to Mets-Willets Point, every single rider is familiar (but not happy) with this ritual. In many occasions, people question why stations like Hoboken & Grand Central Terminal manage to have their track numbers posted sometimes even hours before departure, yet at Penn, you have to suffer thru this cumbersome routine. It all boils down to operations. There is much much more breathing room at stations (i.e Grand Central or Hoboken),so things can be much more consistent and they can post much earlier.

Honestly, most of you know that Penn Station is a madhouse, people going to all over the country (yes, the country!), are all confined into damp, dim conditions, that are crowded, and there’s so many trains on so many tracks. With trains coming in from places as close as Rahway or Jamaica, to trains arriving in from places as far as Miami, Chicago or New Orleans, it’s very difficult to fit everything together especially during the crazy rush hours, so, one late-arriving long-distance train in the middle of the rush hour could result in last-minute changes or shufflings of the track assignments.

For some reason, even when things seam to be going well on a quaint weekend, the ushers at New York Penn are rather reluctant to post track numbers for trains any sooner then 5-10 minutes before given train is set to depart. However, they’re are many patterns one can observe if you travel frequently enough and know what to look for, but the general rule of thumb is that track numbers are generally posted around 5 minutes before departure. By posting them closer to the departure, this can sometimes help with crowding, especially when their are events (such as at MSG) or during the peak.

Photo: The LIRR Today

However, one of the major disadvantages of waiting till last minute is that people will feel rushed, they think that since the train is going to leave so soon, the best thing for them to do is to dive down the first door seen, that way they have the best chance of making the train. Therefore, people will think that if they don’t immediately dive down the first open door they see, then they’ll not get a chance of getting a seat. These two combined reasons tend to lead to fairly uneven load distribution, and this can be common at staircases at the headend of the train such as 7th Avenue.

Another advantage of not waiting to post track numbers is that one, it loosens up the concourse, and during the peak of the peak, that is very helpful. And, if they do post them early, people can leisurely stroll down to the platforms and not feel rushed since “How can the train leave without me if the train hasn’t even made it to the station yet?”, and if people come early they’re more likely to spread themselves along the platform which really helps with loads on the train, because, if people all rush down the staircase into the first 3 cars, then, it’ll be very uneven and people could get a seat if they weren’t rushed.

So, if posting track numbers proves to be so beneficial why don’t they do it? Well, due to the cramped nature of NYP, there are a very limited number of platforms that trains can pull into and discharge on, furthermore, discharging onto a platform with people waiting on it proves to be a very messy thing. It’s also important to note that not every train that leaves Penn Station comes in empty from West Side Yard, a handful of trains during the peak come into Penn Station, discharge, then immediately turn around and head out for places on Long Island (sometimes even not from the OG terminal) without even going to West Side Yard. And, I can only imagine the chaos that could be caused if a busy westbound train during the peak arrives at Penn after the track number has already been posted and there’s tons of people already waiting on the platform…. It would be a fight for the arriving passengers to be trying to get off the train while the eastbound passengers would be trying to get on to get a seat.

While posting track numbers is definitely beneficial for trains that originate in West Side Yard/deadhead into NYP empty, but calling trains to early, despite seaming helpful to passengers, can get pretty messy very quickly. Luckily, the ushers know this, and let’s hope that they continue to call the tracks to trains at the right times.

Interestingly, a little-known secret of Penn Station, is that track numbers vary a lot more during the off-peak periods, and this can be expected since there’s much more wiggle room + there’s constantly construction going on in Queens and all over the place.

In conclusion, while in some cases, posting track numbers early is a very convenient treat, in other cases, by going wild with the posting of track numbers, it can cause heavy crowding and other problems. I’m hopeful that one day Penn Station will become less of a mess, but at this point, it’s anyone’s guess as to what will happen.