What The Far Rockaway Branch Timetable Could Look Like

Our fourth post will take a look at The Far Rockaway Branch. The Far Rockaway Branch is a rather short branch, and is also of relatively low-speed. However, that doesn’t mean that ridership isn’t solid, though, as it sees decent ridership just short of the Long Beach Branch.  

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

The timetables have yet to include the deadhead/non-revenue moves which will be planned out along with the crew and equipment rotations using AI and will be written down on paper. They’ll be included in a separate page in the attached pdf. Nonetheless, I have tried whenever possible to minimize the amount of deadheading as it’s essentially wasted crew and equipment hours. However, in some cases, it’s unavoidable in order to make the best use out of the resources available.

Like was said on the introduction page, before we can begin talking about the actual timetables, “Key Assumptions” and “Service Guidelines” needs to be taken care of and mentioned before this project can become fully feasible since I’ve built the timetables off of it. I’ve tried my best to make these schedules able to be done with these projects completed or not, but in some cases that isn’t possible.

Key Assumptions:

• The current infrastructure on the branch will remain the same or similar to what it is now.

Service Guidelines:

• During peak hours, I will try my best to make it as “clockface” as possible, and I will also try to meet the 20-minute headways I’ve set up. I will try to provide one flyer per rush hour, however, that’s unlikely considering the branch’s size. I will try to provide one train to/from Penn Station per hour, along with a Grand Central or Atlantic Terminal at a minimum. During most hours, one additional train will originate in Valley Stream, and make all stops west of Valley Stream to provide additional service west of there. 
• During off-peak hours, service is provided approximately every hour to and from Grand Central.
• During the morning reverse-peak period, apart from hourly service from Grand Central, there are also a hodgepodge of trains from Atlantic Terminal to provide additional reverse-peak service. I've also implemented hourly service from Penn Station to Valley Stream during morning reverse-peak hours to provide additional service to these Queens stations.
• During the afternoon reverse-peak period, service consists of a mixture of trains going to all 3 city terminals. 
• On weekends, train service is increased during the busiest times; (specifically 8:30am to 11:30am WB and 4:00pm to 7:30pm EB).

Link to Far Rockaway Branch Timetable

Similarly to the Long Beach Branch, peak hour service on the Far Rockaway Branch has been designed to make it easy to get to and from any one of the 3 city terminals during rush hours. I specifically designed this timetable to run on a clockface-like schedule, except unlike the Long Beach Branch, it isn't perfectly clockface. Reverse-peak service on the branch, essepcially during the earlier hours of the morning, is phenomenal, thanks to Far Rockaway having two tracks all the way to the final stop and due to it not really having a yard, meaning many of these trains are "revenue deadheads".

I believe that the 20-minute headways that were established during most of the peak should meet the ridership demands of the branch. I also believe that this branch's setup that allows you to get to pretty much any one of the three terminals during almost all the peak hours is a good system allowing for fast and frequent service. I have also added hourly trains from Valley Stream during the morning rush allowing for additional trains so provide more express runs.

During the busier periods on weekends, I was able to provide additional service to/from Penn Station (in the mornings), and Atlantic Terminal (in the evenings). I may change which terminals those extra trains go to upon further input. That is in addition to hourly trains from Valley Stream during those that will allow those extra trains to Penn Station to skip Rosedale, Laurelton, and Locust Manor. 

Especially during the morning rush, I tried to add Kew Gardens, Forest Hills, Woodside, and Sunnyside stops during convenient times to allow for intra-city travel along the branch. You will notice that additional trains have also been started.

I firmly believe my current setup for the Far Rockaway Branch will provide customers with a fast, frequent service, and if you have any questions about how this service is ran, please feel free to ask me.

As always, if you have any questions/comments/suggestions/corrections/thoughts, etc, you can leave a comment 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.

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!

“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: VALLEY

In today's interlocking walkthrough, we're gonna take a look at the complex and known VALLEY interlocking on the bustling South Shore. To start, a special trait about VALLEY is that of all the railroad's interlockings, at least those that lie on Long Island. It's not supsrising, as VALLEY hosts 5 of the railroads eleven branches, including the Long Beach and Far Rockaway Branches as stopping services, and the West Hempstead, Babylon, and in some cases, Montauk Branch trains pass through (one very early reverse-peak Babylon train stops there). Valley Stream marks the end of the Atlantic Branch, and the start of the aforementioned 3 branches.

Here's an arial view of the entire VALLEY interlocking (don't worry I'll explain it well):

Sorry it's so small. Anyway, starting at the westbound end of the platform, there are four tracks. The two northernmost tracks are part of the Montauk Branch (Babylon, West Hempstead, and Montauk trains usually use these tracks). Therefore, the two southern tracks make up the Atlantic Branch which is used by Long Beach and Far Rockaway trains. 

The first part of the interlocking consists of a cluster of different switches to the west of the station, there's a total of four crossovers. A train travelling eastbound from the Montauk Branch can actually switch onto any of the Atlantic Branch tracks, but not vice-versa.) The switches are designed in a way to allow Montauk Branch trains to stop at Valley Stream, though they rarely do. 

The Atlantic Branch officially ends at the eastern tip of Valley Stream's platform, this marks 15.8 miles since Atlantic Terminal. East of here, the Atlantic Branch splits into two branches-the Long Beach and Far Rockaway Branches. The Far Rockaway Branch turns south via a weird pair of crossovers just east of the station and these trains can now go on their merry way for the 20 minute stretch to Far Rockaway. If you continue straight after the Far Rockaway branch diverges, it will land you on the platforms of Lynbrook. If you don't choose to head towards Long Beach, these trains could also choose to go on the VALLEY Lead Track, which is a electrified siding that is used to layup trains, specifically the old West Hempstead - Valley Stream shuttles that ran before ESA changes. The lead track eventually merges back to the Long Beach branch, before the final crossover and the interlocking ends.

Before East Side Access, the West Hempstead branch, as some of you know, was made up of these clumsy, bi-hourly shuttles that terminated at Valley Stream during the off-peak periods. The "natural, and current" path for West Hempstead trains is for a train coming off the branch to just join the Babylon Branch and then "leap" to Jamaica. However, before ESA, these trains had to have this clumsy, inefficient crossover move that required these trains to switch over 3 tracks in order to make the platform at Valley Stream to terminate. This is why many of the peak trains on the branch would just skip Valley Stream entirely. It's not hard to imagine what would happen if these zig-zagging West Hempstead trains were mixed in with rush hours.

Meanwhile that's going on, the Babylon Branch justs "plows through" without any restriction. I mean, the Montauk Branch doesn't really have switching movements as much of that occurs later down the line. There's one early reverse-peak service (I believe it departs Penn Station at 4:30 something) for Babylon that stops there, but other than that, these trains can just carry on their merry way without having to worry about a thing.

Hiding in the corner is the small, tiny, Valley Yard, which is a 3 track yard that actually isn't electrified and will normally store MOW equipment.

There's also VALLEY Tower which controls the Babylon Branch interlockings:

VALLEY Tower. Note the Far Rockaway crossovers. (Photo: The Position Light)

Here's a nice look at the massive position light signals (Photo: The Position Light)

I feel like this video by a friend of mine really captures the spirit of VALLEY interlocking, showcasing just how crazy things can get during rush hours. It's an important interlocking, as without it, there's no South Shore service. I remember hearing that back years ago when they redid the interlocking, there was no train service to it at all and they ran special dual-modes from Babylon Branch stations via the Mainline.