The LIRR's Named Trains

A while back I received a couple of older Montauk Branch timetables from back in the 80s and one thing I realized is just how many similarities there were to our schedules in terms of service patterns.

I decided the best way to display these old relics is to list out each one's name, when it ran, and it's departure/arrival time. Now, there are two sets of trains I was able to group them into with the first one being trains that ran only to/or ended before World War 2, and the second group being ones that ran into the MTA years after the MTA was formed in 1966. I hope this makes it slightly easier to distrugish them.

Before I start, I’d also like to say that I cannot guarantee accuracy on these trains. While I tried to factcheck, I cannot guarantee that everything said about each of these trains, specifically pre-World War 2 is fully accurate. This is due to their being limited material to work with, and little timetable evidence. You must remember that most of these trains ran over 100 years ago. I included as much information about each train as I can find.

Named Trains - Pre World War 2:

"The Greenport Express" - Summer Friday-only from New York to Greenport, all parlor- car, left New York at 4:01pm, made Jamaica then ran nonstop to Calverton, before stopping at Aquebogue and all stops to Greenport arriving there at 6:48pm.

Inside parlor car from Greenport

"The Block Island Express" - Summer Friday-only from Long Island City to Montauk via the Montauk Branch with connection to ferry to Block Island.

“Cannon Ball” - “The Cannonball” is old remnant of the old Summer Friday-only all-parlor car “Cannon Ball” train which ran from New York to Manorville, where the train split in half with one portion going to Greenport and the other to Montauk.

“The East Moriches Special” - Summer Saturday-only train from Long Island City to East Moriches. Likely targeted for fisherman.

“The Fisherman’s Special” - April-October-only train from Long Island City to Canoe-Place and Montauk. Left early in the morning to allow a full day for fisherman. Ran to Canoe Place in April, then made an added stop in Montauk in May. Interestingly, on the return trip, they actually provided a dedicated railway express agency car to store and ice the newly-caught fish. Isn’t that neat. Another thing to note is that I didn't include the actual dates these trains ran as they’re so unreliable.

Fisherman's Special (Photo: Trains Are Fun)

“The Hampton Express” - Summer-only train from New York to Montauk, left Penn Station at 9:49am, arrived Montauk at 1:40pm

“The Long Island Seabreeze” - Sunday-only train from New York to Montauk with boat connection to New London

“The Montauk Express” - Summer-only train from Montauk to Long Island City

“The Montauk Special” - Summer Friday-only train from Pittsburgh to Montauk via New York (2:05pm) making Southampton and Montauk only arriving at 4:05pm. Return-trip left Montauk at 7:45am, made Southampton, before New York at 10:30am.

“The Moriches Special” - Summer Saturday-only train from Long Island City to East Moriches, later renamed “East Moriches Special”

“The New York Express” - Ran westbound from Montauk to New York, left Montauk 2:06pm, and made all local stops to Patchogue (besides Golf Grounds), before Jamaica and New York arriving at 6:12pm.

Interior of push-pull parlor cars (Photo: MTA)

“The Patchogue Express” - Summer-only train from Long Island City to Patchogue.

“The Patchogue Express (Brooklyn Section)” - Summer-only train from Flatbush Avenue to Patchogue, originally “The Patchogue Special”.

“The Saturday Special” - Saturday-only train from New York to Montauk/Greenport. It was then split into two trains, “The Peconic Bay Express” which went to Greenport and “The Shinnecock Express” which left Penn Station at 12:55pm, then ran non-stop to Speonk before making all local stops to Montauk arriving there at 4:25pm.

 (Photo: Richard Glueck/Trains Are Fun)

"The Shelter Island Express" - Summer Friday-only, extra-fare train from Long Island City to Greenport.

“The South Shore Express” - First-class, all-parlor car train from New York to Montauk

“The South Shore Limited” - Little is known other than it running from Long Island City to Eastport via the Montauk Branch.

“The Special Limited” - Summer Friday-only, all-first class train from Long Island City to Montauk. Originally known as "The Hamptons Limited".

The Sunrise Special in 1927

"The Sunrise Special" - Summer-only, all-first-class, extra-fare train from Long Island City to Montauk on Fridays, and back on Mondays. 

Let’s now take a look at trains that ran after World War 2. These named trains are some of my favorites.

Named Trains - Post World War 2:

Railfan Extra w/Parlor Cars (Trains Are Fun)

"The Hampton Express" - Summer Friday-only train from Hunterspoint Avenue to Montauk, left HPA at 3:24pm and arriving into Montauk at 6:13pm

"The Cannon Ball" - Summer Friday-only parlor-car train from Hunterspoint Avenue to Montauk, which left Hunterspoint Avenue at 4:12pm, made Jamaica, then Westhampton, Southampton, Bridgehampton, East Hampton, and Montauk arriving at 6:59pm.

“The Sunrise Special” - Summer Friday-only parlor-car train from from Jamaica, which left Jamaica at 6:13pm then ran nonstop to Westhampton, then making Hampton Bays and all local stops to Montauk, arriving at 8:50pm.

The Friday Hamptons timetables were revamped in the 1980s, and by the end of 1989, they looked more like this, 

"The Hampton Express" - Summer Friday-only parlor-car train from Hunterspoint Avenue to Montauk, which left Hunterspoint Avenue at 2:07pm, made Jamaica, before operating non-stop east to Westhampton before making all local stops to Montauk besides Southampton Campus, arriving in Montauk at 4:50pm.

 (Photo: Retired Railfan Horn Guy)

"The Montauk Light" - Summer Friday-only parlor-car train from Hunterspoint Avenue to Montauk, which left Hunterspoint Avenue at 4:12pm, making Jamaica, Westhampton, Southampton, Bridgehampton, East Hampton, and Montauk, arriving in Montauk at 6:38pm. This literally ran on the Cannonball's schedule and I guess this was the replacement name for the Cannonball during this time. It's unfortunate that such a great train name "The Montauk Light" had to be used to replace the most famous name of them all. 

“The Sunrise Special” - Summer Friday-only parlor-car train from from Jamaica, which left Jamaica at 6:13pm then ran nonstop to Westhampton, then making Hampton Bays and all local stops to Montauk, arriving at 8:50pm.

"The South Shore Express" - Summer Friday-only 7:05pm parlor-car train from Jamaica to Montauk making Bay Shore, Sayville, Patchogue, Mastic-Shirley, Westhampton, Hampton Bays, and all local stops to Montauk arriving around 9:40pm.

"The Cannonball" - Summer Sunday-only 6:30pm parlor-car train from Montauk making East Hampton, Bridgehampton, and Southampton, before Westhampton and operating non-stop to Jamaica arriving at 8:50pm. 

 

“The Beachcomber” - Summer Sunday-only 8:30pm parlor-car train from Montauk making East Hampton, Bridgehampton, and Southampton, before Westhampton and operating non-stop to Jamaica arriving at 10:50pm.

“The Wall St. Special” - And last but not least, my personal favorite, the Wall St Special which was the 7:00am Summer Monday-only parlor service from Montauk to Jamaica which made all local stops to Westhampton before Jamaica. This train still runs to this day except it’s not called this anymore and it makes more local stops unfortunately.

And finally, let's take a look at the current named trains that still exist to this day starting with the famous Cannonball train from Penn Station to Montauk.

Current Named Trains:

"The Cannonball" - Summer Friday-only from Penn Station to Montauk, departing New York at 4:07pm, arriving in Montauk at 6:56pm.

"The Cannonball West" - Summer Sunday-only from Montauk to Penn Station, departing Montauk at 6:21pm, arriving into New York at 9:10pm. Note that it's no longer noted as this on the timetable.

UNOFFICIAL -"The Advance Cannonball" - Summer Friday-only from Hunterspoint Avenue to Montauk, departing Hunterspoint at 1:11pm, arriving in Montauk at 4:14pm.

And that concludes the list. I hope that the LIRR will make an effort to bring back more of the old train names, especially as they get new diesel equipment and can improve service east of Babylon. It pays tribute to those who spent years working on the railroad, and pays tribute to all the expansive history the LIRR has had through it's three decades in operation! This is something I'll work in on my later versions on my Montauk Branch/South Fork reworked timetables.

While researching for this post, I realized how much I wish I could go back in time and see these all parlor-car trains flow down the Montauk Branch myself. If you study the actual timetables, you'll notice that a lot of the trains that ran back 100 years ago from today still run to this day under similar schedules. It's crazy to think that the same trains people rode 100 years ago still exist to this day. I don't know whether to say that's a good thing or not!

As always, if you have any questions/comments/thoughts/suggestions/etc, feel free to leave a comment down below, I'd like to keep this list accurate so if I forgot any please let me know!

The Cannonball Set For It’s Inaugural Debut of The Season

Tomorrow will be one of the most important days of the year for the railroad- as they get ready to transfer thousands of vacationers out to their destinations out east. Various trains serve these beachgoers, including some trains that run specifically on Fridays. Most notable of those trains, is the famous Cannonball route, which departs Penn Station at 4:07pm, runs non-stop over the 73-mile stretch to Westhampton, before making all stops to Montauk besides Hampton Bays and Amagansett, arriving in Montauk at 6:56pm.

The Cannonball is one of the LIRR's most popular trains, and the Hamptons Reserve tickets sell like hotcakes. On busy weekends like Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day, this train sells out even faster. 

Back in the day, the LIRR used to run the train with a couple of Hamptons Reserve cars. It gave you special perks to buy the ticket such as reserved seating, and snacks and drinks along the way. Following the pandemic, they quietly discontinued this service.

Due to the popularity of this train, you may think it has a relatively bad punctuality. However, [Gavin clears his throat], unlike certain trains (if you know, you know), this train was actually very well-scheduled, and is doing much better than it was pre-pandemic. It's still almost as crowded, but it generally runs on time. Even though it runs express through Amagansett and Hampton Bays, it still takes the longest to get from Westhampton to Montauk, considering it's padded considering it has to make double stops.

Typically, The Cannonball is known for being filled with rich folks heading out to the Hamptons for a nice vacation, possibly in their houses out in the Hamptons.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to go see it at Penn Station, but I may be able to have a buddy go scope out at Penn Station to watch it's inaugural departure, so I can get photos for you guys, but I don't know. However, I will be seeing it at my home station, as it flies by. As I like to say, the Cannonball flying by is one of the official start of summer for me (if school letting out isn't!) 

Photo: Trains Are Fun

If anyone is planning on riding the Cannonball tomorrow, I'd love to hear how it goes!

LIRR announces summer timetables 2025

The Long Island Rail Road’s new schedules- just announced at the board meeting yesterday, finally bring much-needed tweaks to schedules. 

While the LIRR has added some very desperate and much needed tweaks, they haven’t dug any deeper to really solve the route causes of the overcrowding and delays nor have they sought to actually provide more options. The truth is, Long Island is known for having some of the best beaches in the world, and the LIRR should try to match that by providing the best transportation to those beaches. 

Schedule Padding

The LIRR has added one-additional minute of running time between Ronkonkoma and Central Islip for trains 2017 through 1031. They've also given all Montauk westbound trains one additional minute of running time between Montauk and Amagansett, same being said with the Oyster Bay Branch with all those westbounds getting an additional minute between Oyster Bay and Locust Valley. The agrevating thing about this is that this schedule padding isn't needed- firstoff westbound Montauk trains constantly arrive in Amagansett 1,2,3 or even 4 minutes early, and while it's bit tighter with Ronkonkoma trains, they still normally arrive either early or on-time. I will admit I see them with some of the padding on Summer Sundays, but besides that, they shouldn't be wasting time padding trains that have ran perfectly fine for 2 years. 

South Fork

The LIRR’s seasonal service to the Hamptons and Montauk is back- and the railroad has made some changes to improve summer service! Remember train #6005, the 11:37am out of Montauk? You may remember that it used to always run late and overcrowded and more often than not got extended to Penn Station because it ran with 12-car dual-mode equipment and way to many passengers to try to get off the platform and onto other busy trains into New York. With these new schedule changes, train 6005 is now running to New York as train 6095 on Sundays, this is something I predicted. In addition, the lesser-known train 6013, the 4:18pm from Montauk is now also extended to Penn Station, a move I can definitely see. They also updated the times to include additional padding for many of the summer Sunday westbound trains, and while I normally don’t support schedule padding to too much of a degree, this is something that had been needed for a long time.

Summer Fridays

While many of you will remember the LIRR’s various summer offerings, I’ll go over them since they made a couple of changes. On Fridays, the LIRR adds a couple of trains:

• Train 89 departs Patchogue at 3:17pm, stopping at Sayville, Bay Shore, and Babylon only.
• Relief Train 66 departs Babylon at 12:05pm, stops at Bay Shore, Sayville, and Patchogue only.
• Train 12 departs Hunterspoint Avenue at 1:11pm, stopping at Jamaica before running express to Westhampton, before calling at all local stops at Montauk.
• Train 16, The Cannonball, departs Penn Station at 4:07pm, runs non-stop to Westhampton, before stopping at Southampton, Bridgehampton, East Hampton, and Montauk. They’ve added additional padding at most of the stops, bringing the final arrive time into Montauk to 6:56pm, eight minutes later than last year. 
• Dual-mode train 20, the 5:13pm from Penn Station to Montauk will run 5-days a week for the first time, replacing train 42 permanently for at least the summer. 
• Train 24, the holiday-only 7:19pm express from Jamaica to Montauk has been annulled from the schedule with no reason provided.

The first run of The Cannonball thru Sayville in 2024

One of the nicest upgrades with this new schedule is the LIRR’s new shift to focus more on providing better summer-service earlier in the week. Currently, the LIRR’s summer-schedule is much more oriented around people who are leaving for the South Fork later in the afternoon on Fridays, however changing patterns after COVID-19 with more people working from home more have caused many people to want to head out east earlier in the week (such as on Thursdays and even Wednesdays) and “work from home” from wherever they’re staying on Thursday and/or Friday. While I’m not trying to conclude that the LIRR’s capacity on the Montauk Branch isn’t busy, there’s been a decent shift to service earlier in the week and the LIRR should look to grow it, something they are finally doing. 

As part of the reworked timetable project, I will continue to work to fine-tune summer service on the Montauk Branch until I get it right.

Summer Sundays

Service on the Montauk Branch on Summer Sundays last year was a HUGE problem last year, with many trains running late and overcrowded on various weekends last year. There’s not much the LIRR can do about this- as on Summer Sundays westbound service is already running at hourly headways which is at capacity. The LIRR should really look to fine-tune service at this point, since the most they can do is possibly add one or two relief trains out of Southampton to help balance service a bit. This years Sunday return schedule offers the same suite of trains as last year, however they have padded a bit more to help with slow-loading something that should greatly improve OTPs. They also have two popular trains, trains 6005 and 6013 (the 11:37am and 4:18pm trains out of Montauk respectively) run to Penn Station, to help with overcrowding and provide an easier option by not requiring 12 full cars worth of people to trundle off at Jamaica and attempt to fit into an MU headed for Penn Station. In my reworked timetable project, I predicted they’d extend #6005 to Penn Station, as its something they did routinely last year, and I think it’s a great thing that is zero-cost but will improve service for everyone. The extra trains that operate out of The Hamptons on Summer Sundays are: 

• Train 6005, the 11:36am train out of Montauk, making all local stops to Speonk before running non-stop to Jamaica, arriving there at 2:18pm. This train has now been renumbered to #6095, and extended to Penn Station, arriving there at 2:41pm. 
• Train 6007, the 1:46pm train out of Montauk, making all local stops to Speonk before running non-stop to Jamaica, arriving there at 4:20pm.
• Train 6009, the 3:25pm train out of Southampton, making all local stops to Speonk before running non-stop to Jamaica, arriving there at 5:14pm.
• Train 6013, the 4:17pm train out of Montauk, making all local stops to Mastic-Shirley, then Patchogue and non-stop to Jamaica, arriving there at 6:56. This train has now been extended to Penn Station, arriving there at 7:22pm.
• Train 6017, the 6:21pm train out of Montauk, making all local stops to Westhampton before Jamaica and Penn Station, arriving there at 9:10pm.

In my opinion, it’s imperative to provide hourly-service going westbound from the Hamptons on Summer Sundays to avoid points of dangerous overcrowding. One trend is that many people tend to spend a week out on the South Fork, therefore alleviating the need to take a later train in the afternoon. Therefore, those people are overcrowding trains #6001, #6005, and #6007, putting extreme stress on them. In my opinion, The LIRR should look to take the equipment of train 6007, and instead use it on a new train, departing Montauk around 9:30am to firstly provide a better option for people in the Hamptons looking to head into the city for a day, while also cutting that four-hour gap that puts #6005 under so much stress in half. Train 6007 has never been the busiest train ever, and I think the equipment would be much better used on that. 

I look forward to seeing how these changes and the additional padding will affect train 6005 and its running time as it and its overcrowding was a big talk of last year.

North Fork 

The LIRR’s new 2025-updated schedules make no changes to North Fork Service, another area I feel has extreme potential for growth. This will be talked about more in the North Fork Reworked East Side Access timetable.

Summer Weekends

Long Beach

The LIRR has made no changes to service to Long Beach, with the same super-express trip departing Penn Station at 9:33am, making Jamaica and Long Beach only at 10:20am. The return-trip departs Long Beach at 4:28pm, only 10-minutes before the local, making it much less useful this year. 

I believe the Long Island Rail Road could make more effort to improve summer-service to/from Long Beach, which would be a huge win for both the railroad and the town of Long Beach, and this will be discussed in the Long Beach Branch Reworked Timetable post.

Jones Beach/Freeport

The Long Island Railroad sneakily cut the three eastbound extra trains to Freeport, in addition to the  extra westbound trains.

In conclusion, while I believe the LIRR made some targeted changes to improve service, I believe there’s still a long way to go and in addition to the discussions regarding Summer Service in my Reworked Timetable Project, I may write further posts further diving into summer service specifically.

What The Montauk Branch Timetable Could Look Like

Next up is the Montauk Branch. I decided to do this one today, because Sunday is well, my birthday, and today is well the last day of school before my birthday so why not do such a special post on such a special day! Anyways, we’ve now entered uncharted territory. Up until now, we’ve mainly been covering branches with rather simple service patterns and simple peak service, but today, ladies and gentlemen, we’ll dive into the rather complex Montauk Branch! Weekday service is complicated enough, but once you throw in seasonal service, things start to become extremely difficult.

It’s often overlooked, but the Long Island Rail Road’s Montauk Branch sees quite a few riders along its length, especially during the summer. The branch is known for its summer services, and the famous “Cannonball” that runs nonstop from New York’s Penn Station all the way out to the Hamptons and Montauk. Ridership has been growing, especially along the segment between Babylon and Patchogue, but also out in The Hamptons and Montauk. Even Mastic-Shirley and Speonk, despite service challenges, are slowly growing. The achilles heal of the branch is on Summer Sundays when the LIRR can’t keep up with the extreme demand being put on the Summer Hamptons trains causing extreme crowding and delays. My hope is that the LIRR will continue to adjust the schedule until they finally get it right. I’ve definitely made many changes to how the Summer Sunday service is run in an effort to even the loads and shift service a bit.

As you may or may not know through my various posts overtime or by knowing me, my home branch is the Montauk Branch and I ride it relatively frequently. I’m very familiar with it and therefore, I believe I’m able to help it even more and I’ve put in “extra effort” in an attempt to really try to get it right and excuse me if I go a little “over” with  service on this branch. 

One of the most important observations I’ve noticed is the increase in intra-island travel. In general, the further east you go, the less and less people who will actually go as far as Manhattan. People in the Hamptons and Montauk are tired of trekking all the way to the city all day, therefore, they seek jobs in locations in Suffolk or even Nassau Counties. However, since train times to their jobs aren’t favorable, they just drive instead. The introduction of the South Fork Commuter Connection (SFCC) definitely made a difference, but there’s still more to be done with both LIRR and SFCC service out there. My timetables specifically pay extra attention to intra-island travelers, as there’s so much room for growth in that department especially on this branch, and I did my best to make sure they were well looked after.

In general, my sample Montauk Branch timetable represents a noticeable increase in trains, especially during the reverse and off-peak periods. However, this also represents a smarter use of equipment. A good example of this is balancing the amount of trains to Montauk. The timetables below show sample service patterns for weekday and weekend Montauk Branch service, east of Babylon. It’s important to note that at this time, connecting trains aren’t shown, and they may or may not be once all the timetables have been created and published. 

Included in the linked PDF file below is full Sample Weekday and Weekend Montauk 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.

Before we can dive into the actual excel timetables, let’s quickly go over Key Assumptions and Service Guidelines:

Key Assumptions

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

Service Guidelines

• Rush hour service should be increased to meet current ridership demands, especially in The Hamptons and on the Babylon - Patchogue segment.
• During the morning rush hour, service mainly consists of a mix of trains out of Speonk and Patchogue. Trains from Speonk and Mastic-Shirley typically originate out of Speonk Yard while trains from Patchogue usually turn off eastbound trains at Patchogue. Service definitely resembles what’s currently on the timetable, but there’s the addition of more trains. The branch keeps the current westbound dual-modes with both following the same schedule as today. Two trains originate out of Montauk in the morning rush to match the two that terminate there in the evening rush. In addition, I was able to schedule an additional early-morning run out of Patchogue. 
• Service during the evening rush hour is much less structured (not that it is during the morning rush) but I think I did a good job of balancing equipment over the course of the rush hour. The two current dual-modes in the evening run on the same schedule as currently and I’ve introduced new trains to fill in the various gaps over the course of the rush hour, and most of those trains leave from Hunterspoint Avenue/LIC or Jamaica. 
• An important thing to note that SFCC Services/East End Scoots have not been included. Those will be included in the South Fork timetable which will come out in a couple of months once I’ve made it. 
• During the midday off-peak period, hourly service at a minimum has been sustained to Patchogue, and while much more “wild” I was able to give Speonk and Mastic-Shirley a rough average of bi-hourly service. This meets the current service standards as far as Patchogue, and there’s a huge improvement in midday service to Speonk. There’s currently some very nasty gaps including a large gap during the entire morning between 7:14am and 12:46pm, and I was able to completely eradicate that. 
• Another addition is expanded reverse-peak service. Currently, during the mornings, there’s a 2 hour gap between trains to Patchogue and I was able to lessen that gap by exactly an hour with the inclusion of a brand-new reverse-peak train to Speonk for the first time ever! Trains that would otherwise be equipment trains will now accept passengers along their way. For example, there are now several “revenue deadheads” out of Jamaica Storage Yard in the early morning hours, and I had these trains make stops along the Mainline or Babylon Branch to supplement service there too. Westbound reverse-peak service in the afternoon has also been improved, esspecially along my home section with trips being added from Sayville, Patchogue, and Speonk. 
• On weekends, hourly service has been sustained at a minimum to Patchogue and bi-hourly to Speonk. I’ve also added additional trains during the busier weekend periods in the morning going westbound and in the evening going eastbound, especially by completely eradicating the ridiculous two-hour 6 minute gap along the Patchogue-Babylon segment. I will discuss Summer Hamptons service below. 

Link to Montauk Branch Timetable

To start, we need to note that the LIRR has very limited diesel equipment. Therefore, it was difficult to provide good service on the diesel branches. The current fleet is in no way capable by any means of handling the overwhelming ridership, especially during the Summer, and with the current equipment, there’s little room for growth. That being said, I’ve written these timetables with the intent of them being utilized by current equipment. Luckily and also sadly (Railfan part of me), the LIRR has ordered more equipment so I will do my best to provide even better service once they come.

On the weekday westbound panel, a new early morning train has been added out of Patchogue, therefore closing the 50 minute gap between the 4:47 and 5:37am, as commutes are growing earlier. 

Morning peak service is structured similar as it is today, and many of the morning rush hour favorites have resumed similar or the same schedules as their real-life counterparts. Most of the through-trains on the branch terminate at Hunterspoint Avenue or Long Island City, however, the first through-train from Patchogue terminates at Jamaica for better use of equipment (train #51 turns in Jamaica to make up the first morning departure to Oyster Bay.) The first dual-mode train which is out of Southampton continues to follow its schedule, while the other dual-mode from Speonk also continues to depart Speonk at 6:18am. Currently, there’s only one morning train from Montauk. One of the biggest additions to this timetable is the addition of a new express DM from Montauk at 4:37am. This train makes all stops to Speonk, then runs express from Speonk to Patchogue, before running nonstop to Jamaica, all the while doing this in as little time as humanely possible. This train provides an earlier departure from Montauk, something I’d desperately like to see, while providing an express run and getting people in in city in time for 8am jobs. This train runs ahead of my favorite train, train #37, therefore, people who need the local stops can just drop-back at either Speonk or Patchogue. 

I’ve done my very best to built up service on the branch in hopes of drawing riders of the busy Ronkonkoma trains, and by increasing Montauk Branch service, during the peak of the peak, especially west of Patchogue, I hope to make the Montauk Branch a much more attractive option. Currently, there’s a large westbound gap between 6:56am and 7:35am on the Patchogue-Babylon section, therefore you can get to New York at 8:18am or 8:52am. I personally think this is very annoying that they don’t run another train in between, therefore, I’ve added in an additional train in departing Southampton at 6:11am at to eliminate that gap and provide another train during the peak-of-the-peak that I think is perfectly timed and I think this will be worthwhile in getting people to stop driving from communities along the Montauk Branch up to Mainline stations since Montauk Branch service stinks compared to what they can get at Ronkonkoma, for example. 

During the morning rush, there’s a funny-looking train I think I better mention, train #57. This train originates in Patchogue and closely follows the same schedule as its counterpart as far as Babylon, however, instead of terminating in Babylon, it continues up the Central Branch, making all local stops on the Main Line between Bethpage and Floral Park, before going to Belmont Park via the eye there. While this train isn’t perfectly timed for the average intra-island traveller, this train is perfectly timed for people who need to get to Nassau County earlier, such as teachers or construction workers. This train is perfectly timed to encourage intra-island travel to places on Long Island such as Bethpage, Westbury, Floral Park, and Belmont, while also providing additional opportunities for Hicksville and Mineola. I had this train run to Belmont Park  so it doesn’t get overrun with by making all the local stops from Patchogue to Floral Park. Manhattan commuters, however, aren’t left-out as they can transfer at Babylon to an electric express train to Grand Central. My hope for this train is to encourage intra-island travel along the South Shore. The equipment would then turn for to become #1823 from Belmont Park to Long Island City where it would be mixed back into the diesel pool, therefore it would be theoretically possible to ride the train all the way to the city if you wanted to go all the way out of your way! 

One of the most beautiful things of this timetable is the improved service east of Speonk. 2 new westbound trains #13 and #19, departing Montauk at 9:30am and 6:23pm have been added to the schedule along with the dual-mode. All 3 of these trains fill huge gaps left by other trains, and coupled with the South Fork Scoots, will really help encourage midday travel on the East End. I’ve also added many more trains to/from places in the Hamptons such as East Hampton, Bridgehampton, and Southhampton, and especially during Rush and reverse-peak hours, these really help make the frequencies east of Speonk attractive.

Midday service on The Montauk Branch is mainly comprised of  typical hourly-scoots to Patchogue, along with the occasional Speonk train, however, additional westbound trains have been added throughout the day from Mastic-Shirley and Speonk to encourage ridership. In addition, there’s a new weekday off-peak eastbound train from Jamaica to Southampton. One thing you’ll notice as a trend through this timetable project is that there’s many more off-peak and reverse-peak trains start/end in Hunterspoint Avenue or Long Island City, I believe that with the development going on in the area, there’s definitely room to grow and I also believe it’s much easier to just turn trains there. I’ve tried to convert all trains that run empty equipment moves there over to revenue runs, and I’ve sent additional trains to turn there as well as an alternative to Oyster Bay service. Certain off-peak trains add stops at Hicksville and Mineola and this was done specifically to supplement service there.

To give a word on weekday reverse-peak service, there are a number of “revenue deadheads” that will start out of Jamaica Storage Yard early in the morning in order to get equipment out to Speonk and Patchogue to makeup westbound runs. These trains will make additional stops along the Babylon Branch or Mainline to supplement service there, too.

The weekday eastbound timetable includes most of the current eastbound runs, however, several trains have been eliminated and repurposed to provide better service. I’ve been able to add additional trains into the excel timetable, especially during the peak-

Weekend service mainly resembles current weekend service, however, additional trains have been added to the schedule during the busier weekend periods (specifically 8:30am WB to 11:30am WB and 4:00pm EB to 7:30pm EB). One additional train has been added out of Montauk on weekends leaving Montauk at 9:23am in hopes of eradicating that nasty gap between 7:01am and 3:16pm during the winter, and to take some load off of #6005 in the summer. A new early-bird fisherman’s train departs Hunterspoint Avenue at 5:00am sharp on summer weekends, allowing travelers to maximize their time out on the East End. In addition, multiple additional eastbound trains have been added to the schedule in order to provide additional weekend East End travel opportunities all year long. Additionally, two eastbound trains have actually been fitted it in the afternoons, to patch the unacceptable 7 hour gap in eastbound service out there.

Once we slither over to the weekend westbound panel, we notice that all of the Summer Sunday Hamptons trains pretty much take over the timetables. Be sure to read the reference notes in the columns carefully in order to determine which trains run on which days!

From my observations on how the Montauk Branch survives functions during weekends in the summer, the vast majority of delays are first caused by slow loading. These delays are some of the worst type of delays as they can quickly amplify into huge delays that we therefore have to suffer through the entire afternoon. What happens is, the platforms at stations in the Hamptons are short, therefore, trains have to spend lots of time taking on passengers at every stop and while the train may have enough cars to accommodate the loads (rarely), the short platforms slow things down CONSIDERABLY! If a train has to sit there for a couple of  extra minutes at each stop, that time can add up to 20 minutes by the time you finally reach Speonk. Minor delays can throw off even the most heavily padded of them all, and one late train (#6005 I’m looking at you!) can put a chokehold on the entire branch. 

Summer Sundays are some of the worst days to ride this branch as trains OTP’s are atrocious, and while I wish I could say I had a solution, I really don’t. There’s really not much I can do to help things, you see, the LIRR is an extremely capacity-restricted system, and there’s not enough equipment to provide the level of service needed on these days. I tried to patch the worst of the gaps, but the most I could do was add a train here or there from Southampton, to hopefully dull some of the loads, but most of the loads are from stations east of here anyway.

One thing you may notice is the addition of a couple of Patchogue-Hicksville scoots on summer weekends. As we know, the most of the crowding and lateness comes from the East End, however, there's also crowding at stations such as my home station of Sayville for people going to the fire island ferries. These trains are timed to run before the their typical counterparts to provide additional options in hopes of reducing crowding.

I’ve noticed that the trains that typically rack up the worst of the crowds are trains 6001 (the 7:01a from Montauk to Jamaica), 6005 (the 11:37a from Montauk to Jamaica) and 6007 (the 1:47p from Montauk to Jamaica). If you know the schedules, you may notice a trend, all 3 of these trains have huge gaps accompanying and preceding them. #6005 is easily the worst of these problems as it’s so popular due to the fact that there’s a 4-hour+ gap  before it. Therefore, it constantly runs extremely late due to overcrowding and during the worst summer weekends gets extended to Penn Station since it typically runs with dual-mode equipment and because there really isn’t room on any poor connection to be bombarded with 12 cars worth of people! I’ve decided to just extend it to Penn Station since it obviously goes there normally anyway.

One thing I’ve done is add Hicksville and Mineola stops to some Montauk, Speonk and Southampton trains in both directions, allowing for Nassau County residents to more easily get out to Fire Island and the East End more easily.

The Cannonball and its westbound counterpart, The Cannonball West both run on the same schedule as they currently do, and many other famous Hamptons trains continue their legacy. In the future once I dive even deeper into East End Service Patterns, I hope to bring back famous named-trains such “The Sunrise Special”, “The South Shore Express”, “The Montauk Special”, and “The Patchogue Express”!

I also want to quickly touch upon the brand-new train 6008. Currently, the current 6008 is an all-year train to Montauk, leaving Jamaica at 8:13am, and is the most popular of the weekend Jamaica-Montauk trains. However, in my schedule, that will run on it's same schedule, but under #6010 to make room for the new #6008, a 7:14am express from Penn Station to Montauk. This new train will depart New York at 7:14am, stop at Jamaica before running non-stop to Patchogue, Speonk, and all stops to Montauk. This train runs unsettlingly close to train #6006, however, on Summer Saturdays, it provides a one-seat ride and much needed capacity. I originally planned to include Bay Shore and Sayville stops on this trains to provide a one-seat to the fire-island ferries, however, I decided by doing that that would get rid of the "express" nature I wanted for this train. In addition, later on in the afternoon, I added an a

 

In conclusion, I think I’ve given a good run-down on the major points of these service patterns. You’ll definitely notice oddities in this schedule, and I almost always have explanations for them, so if you’re interested in more elaboration, please don’t  hesitate to leave a comment. It's a huge branch and time did not permit me to cover nearly close to all the material there was to cover. It's way more likely then not that I made a mistake, especially with the single-track east of Sayville, and if you catch any mistakes please let me know. As always, if you have any comments, thoughts, suggestions, corrections, etc, you can leave a comment below. 

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