Long Island's grade crossing problem

An increasingly growing problem with the LIRR has been the recent abundance of vehicle grade crossing strikes. In the last 2 years, there have been 4-5 significant ones. Most recently, on Feburary 3rd, an extra train running from Jamaica to Ronkonkoma (a result of earlier cancellations) struck a car around 7:15pm. Luckily, there were only a couple injuries and no fatalties but this comes to show the consequences of a bad decision. This shows that Long Island is in the midst of a grade crossing crisis.

Incident in Farmingdale on Feb 3rd

A common trend you will notice with the grade crossing strikes is that most of the more notable ones occur on the Ronkonkoma Branch. And this makes sense, given that not only are the grade crossings on the Ronkonkoma Branch are on straight, 80 mph high speed branch, but it also passes through some of the densest areas as well. At big railroad crossings with very frequent traffic, passenger vehicles and 80 mph multiple-units do not mix well. I think the main solution to this issue would be for the LIRR to look to either close or grade-separate the crossings on the Ronkonkoma Branch, at least the most prevalent ones. Many of the grade crossings on the Ronkonkoma Branch are just an accident waiting to happen. 

While the two most dangerous ones, Pond Rd and Ocean Avenue in Ronkonkoma are scheduled for elimination (which is a great thing), there are a couple other dangerous ones as well like Carleton Avenue in Central Islip, Suffolk Avenue in Brentwood, and Straight Path in Wyandanch are most cause for concern. Additionally, Broadway in Bethpage and Robbins Lane in Syosset have also been cited to be dangerous. I personally think eliminating these particular grade crossings as well would also help the issue and while this would be expensive, it would help significantly to prevent these accidents from happening. 

The LIRR should also do a better job educating drivers on the importance of practicing safety when on or near grade crossings. 

In the end, as Long Island grows and gets even more congested, grade crossing strikes will likely become even more common and the LIRR should do something about this issue now, and begin projects to eliminate the most dangerous ones before we lose more people to crossing strikes. 

What The Ronkonkoma Branch Timetable Could Look Like

It’s been a while since we’ve looked at a branch in the series of sample timetables but today, ladies and gentlemen we are back at it with the crowded Ronkonkoma Branch. But before I begin, guys, be aware, we are not entering the most complicated and complex part of the project, covering the biggest, crowded and complicated branches. 

Anyways, ridership along the Main Line (particularly the electrified segment east of Hicksville) is huge. You may know that Ronkonkoma is actually the second busiest station on the entire railroad that’s not in New York City, after Hicksville. This in mainly in part due to poor service levels in eastern Suffolk, as discussed in a post I wrote a couple of days ago, but also, in the 1980s, the railroad electrified the line all the way to Ronkonkoma and this resulted in a ridership boom along the branch. 

With that being said, providing adequate service levels on the Ronkonkoma Branch was no easy task. While the opening of the third track and Mid Suffolk Electric Yard definitely cleared up some of the worst capacity constraints, track space on the Main Line is still limited and during the height of the rush hour, when trying to manage sustainable levels of service with only 3 tracks from both Ronkonkoma and Huntington, along with supporting diesel trains from Port Jefferson, Speonk, and Oyster Bay, and the occasional local west of Hicksville, things can get difficult fast. 

For the purpose of these timetables, not surprisingly, I have given priority track space to the Ronkonkoma Branch, over other branches on the Main Line. I did this because ridership clearly reflects this, and given that it’s the second busiest branch, after Babylon, trains get crowded fast. 

Included in the linked .pdf file is the full sample weekday and weekend Ronkonkoma Branch timetable. Peak, off-peak, extra, and special event trains have all been included. Note that this is a new and improved timetable design.

The timetables have yet to include deadhead/non-revenue moves, both of which have been planned out alongside crew and equipment rotations on paper, using AI, and will be included in the attached PDF with the completion of this project. I tried to mostly minimize deadheading as much as possible since it’s essentially just wasted time, crew, and equipment hours but in some cases it was unavoidable to make the most out of the resources available. 

Key Assumptions 

• My only real assumption is that the LIRR will commit to improving service east of Ronkonkoma. Right now, stations east of Ronkonkoma such as Yaphank, Riverhead, and Greenport see easily some of the worst service levels in the entire MTA system. Seeing only 3 trips a day, the LIRR has done little to improve service over the years out there, however, last year they announced the construction of a brand new station in Yaphank, and with this my hope is that this will give some sort of incentive for the LIRR to improve service out there, especially since better reverse-peak service should be a no-brainer to cater to those going to the lab. 

Service Guidelines

• During the morning rush hour, a hodgepodge of local and express trains depart Ronkonkoma throughout the peak period. There is no true consistency in stopping patterns, and that is entirely in part due to the varying difference in service needed throughout the peak. Service generally emulates current levels however additional trains have been added to provide better service to all stations with more and better express service provided to drastically shorten the commutes of those who commute from the easternmost stations in Ronkonkoma, CI, and Brentwood.
• During the evening rush hour, service is also quite scattered. 
• During the off-peak period and on weekends, service to/from Ronkonkoma runs approximately every half-hour. Trains generally run to/from Penn Station, which is the preferred terminal during those hours. 
• During the busiest travel times on weekends, additional service has been added to reflect ridership and take load off existing trains. 
• I’ve yet to include service east of Ronkonkoma, which will be covered in a future post specifically about the North Fork.

Like Patrick O’Hara of the LIRR Today worded it, Ronkonkoma can be viewed as a monster. If you don’t constantly feed it trains it will turn around and gobble you up real fast. The Mainline is already one of the worst routes for overcrowding during rush hours, and if service isn’t provided at a satisfactory level you can expect to see people standing the entire 1h20m ride to Ronkonkoma. 

During the morning rush hour, one of the biggest issues with the LIRR’s ESA timetables is the elimination of true express service from Ronkonkoma. This was one of the best parts of the old schedule, with the fastest trains shaving upwards of 10 to even 15 minutes off the commute time from Ronkonkoma. I have long held that running a couple of  “super-expresses” from Ronkonkoma in the morning and back in the evening will go a long way in relieving crowding. 

Despite all the capacity constraints along the branch, I definitely feel I provided adequate service over the course of the morning rush hour, balancing speed with flexibility. In addition to the super-expresses mentioned above, intra-island and riders to alternate terminals were not forgotten and were instead treated to two the addition of two one-seats to Atlantic Terminal along with another to Hunterspoint Av, making more local stops to accommodate inter-island travelers. 

To speak on the train to Hunterspoint Av, I specifically timed this train, departing Ronkonkoma at the bright and early 5:13am, with the intention of appealing to construction workers (note all that development in that area of Queens), to allow for a direct ride for an early start. In addition, I feel the two Brooklyn trains will be well-travelled, especially by the Wall Street crowd, and train 2021 (the 6:56a from Ronkonkoma), is perfectly timed to allow for easy travel to downtown Brooklyn or the Financial District for a 9am start. To some (specifically those with a Manhattan-oriented logic), this may seam like wasted capacity, however, Intra-island travel along the Main Line is solid, and so is demand for the direct service to Brooklyn. By providing trains to alternate terminals, not only can you provide additional service without eating up precious Manhattan trackslots, but the trains can take on local stops for seamless inter-island travel. 

During the evening, I have completely revamped the structure of service to provide faster and more frequent service. It is much more difficult in the evening to balance service to two different terminals, oppose to just one in the morning. One of the most frustrating parts of the current timetable is the lack of options. There are a limited number of trains provided Ronkonkoma, and of these, a majority are very slow. I worked to include more express service, while still providing satisfactory local service. 

During the off-peak period, with a couple exceptions, service is generally provided every half-hour to/from Ronkonkoma, like today. You will notice that on the westbound weekday panel, two additional trains start Farmingdale towards Grand Central in the two hours directly following the end of the peak period. This is with the specific intent of providing Main Line stations west of Hicksville with a direct service line opportunity following the peak for anyone who needs it.

And finally, reverse-peak service remains quite similar to how it is today with a majority of the trains untouched. However, I have added a couple trains to New York during the evening, using existing equipment deadheads to do so. This will greatly reduce crossing on some current trains that are currently very crowded, even on a lot of non-event days. These new trains also provide faster options (i.e running express on the Main Line between Bethpage and Jamaica). One of these added trains, which runs on Fridays only, is actually a flyer that runs non-stop from Hicksville to Penn Station. 

In conclusion, despite the difficulties I faced, particularly during the busiest part of the peak period, I feel that I provided adequate service to and from Ronkonkoma and all other stations along the branch. By using the third track and the expanded Mid-Suffolk Electric Yard to my advantage, I was able to create a balance between satisfactory local service and high-speed express service, while balancing service out to all terminals in order to adequately serve each of their needs, meanwhile not leaving out intra-island riders. In the end, the Ronkonkoma Branch is a difficult branch, as unlike the other branches, which generally have a busy period, the Ronkonkoma Branch has a much wider window especially in the evening, as trains departing NYC as early as 2pm regularly rack up standees carrying all the construction workers home, and unlike most of the other branches, the crowds generally don’t let up until well after 11pm on some nights with people heading home after events at both Elmont and MSG.

The Ronkonkoma Conundrum

(Photo: Tri-State Rail NOW)

The Hamlet of Ronkonkoma, a place I live quite close to, probably seems like a very dense urban neighborhood, however, the truth is quite far from that. In fact, there’s barely more people in Ronkonkoma then there are that use that station. The truth is, the vast majority of people boarding at Ronkonkoma are actually not from Ronkonkoma itself, or even if it’s immediate surrounding communities but rather from places east, north, south, and even west of it.

In order for commuter rail to work as it’s supposed to, service should be proportional to population density, all the way out to the end of the line. At no point should there be a steep service drop-off (unless the population similarly drops off, which hasn’t and won’t happen on Long Island). For example, out on the North Fork, service may be relatively proportional out in Greenport, however, Riverhead for example has 30% of people living there while service sees an 85% reduction. Many of those who live in Riverhead, or other communities on the North Fork, “just drive to Ronkonkoma.”

The truth is these riders just fly past their local stations because the levels of service compared to what you can get at Ronkonkoma is just laughable. The lack of service on the East End is much worse considering there are very few alternatives besides taking Hampton Jitney which is double the price. Another example of this is the West Hempstead Branch. While it gets much, much better service than that of on the East End, it still sees slightly less service then that of the Far Rockaway, Long Beach, and Hempstead branches, all of which have communities of very similar population density. Therefore, ridership suffers and people look elsewhere for better service.

Not only do the desperate riders who live east of Ronkonkoma flock to Ronkonkoma for actual service, many riders that live closer to the Montauk and Port Jefferson branches, also find themselves driving to, and then parking at Ronkonkoma. While rush hour options on the Montauk and Port Jefferson branches are definitely much, much better than on the East End, they are still limited compared to what you can get on the Ronkonkoma Branch, therefore people drive there for the more frequent and direct service.

The truth is only an estimated 34% of Ronkonkoma ridership comes from the Ronkonkoma area itself. Roughly two thirds of riders who use this station are driving from a community elsewhere on Long Island that is probably served by a very different station. It’s possible to determine from the LIRR’s 2012-2014 Origin and Destination Survey where the MTA asked riders to provide their zip code:

• About only 34% of riders come from the local area, while another estimated 18% of riders drive south from communities along the Port Jefferson Branch.
• 17% backtrack of it’s riders backtrack east from Brentwood, Central Islip, and Islandia (with the latter being more understandable due to the location being closer to Ronkonkoma.)
• 15% of riders drive north from communities along the Montauk Branch in the towns of Brookhaven and Islip.
• 12% of riders drive from areas along the Main Line in eastern portions of the Town of Brookhaven (instead of using Medford or Yaphank stations which is understandable given the one rush-hour train provided)
• 3% of riders drive west from the North Fork (areas in town of Riverhead and Southold)
• 2% of riders drive up the island from the South Fork (areas in the towns of Southampton and East Hampton)

If this doesn’t get the point across about just how many people from all over the island use this station, then I don’t know what does. A majority of these people are from the diesel branches, which makes sense, and the rest are riders backtracking from Central Islip and Brentwood, which actually surprised me quite a bit.

Diesel branch refugees

Nearly half those who surveyed using Ronkonkoma actually lived closer to a station on Long Island that’s served in diesel territory. And while the one-seat ride to New York is appealing to many, and is probably the main incentive, it’s also probably somewhat in part due to the poor rush-hour service levels. Both the Montauk and Port Jefferson branches see some pretty poor gaps in service, especially during the height of the morning rush hour, both having 30 minute gaps during the busiest part of the rush. In addition, with the exception of the dual-modes, which are well trafficked, there is little direct service into Manhattan (where a majority of the diesel riders are headed), therefore a lot of people would rather just drive to Ronkonkoma for the more frequent, and in many cases faster service.

Backtrackers from Central Islip and Brentwood

One of the more surprising elements of the survey was the abundance of backtrackers from Brentwood and Central Islip. At first I found this quite surprising considering the fact that both Brentwood and Central Islip see a very wide majority of the service Ronkonkoma does, therefore, unlike in diesel territory where service is limited, there’s no service incentive to backtrack.

However, when you look more closely at the data, the answer starts to become more clear. A majority of these riders took trains following the immediate swarm during the rush hour, taking trains that left at 8:31a, 9:41a, 10:41a, and 11:41a. By then on a normal weekday the parking lots would have been full, and this might explain why these people would drive to Ronkonkoma to park in the parking garage, which likely would still have storage space. The other reason people would backtrack is in order to ensure a seat, during the height of the morning rush hour, prior to the ESA schedules, there were a number of express trains out of Ronkonkoma:

• Train 2013, (the 6:24a from Ronkonkoma) which ran nonstop to Hicksville, and then New York.
• Train 2015 (the 6:39a from Ronkonkoma) which ran right before the old train 2017 from CI and carried a lot of local passengers
• Train 2017 (the 7:04a from Ronkonkoma) which ran nonstop to Deer Park.
• Train 2019 (the 7:19a from Ronkonkoma) which stopped at Central Islip and Brentwood before running non-stop to New York. This was one of the most trafficked trains for these 3 stations, therefore, a ton of people would likely drive to Ronkonkoma to guarantee a seat.

Nowadays, now that all of those trains are gone with East Side Access (for the worse in my opinion), I expect less people backtrack given that all trains from Ronkonkoma stop at Brentwood and Central Islip. However, there are probably some that due, either for parking (later in the rush) or to guarantee a seat.

Should the LIRR ever put in the work to improve service on the diesel branches, specifically working to alleviate the service gaps during the height of the rush hour, something I’m doing in my timetable project, they can probably fix the parking issues at Ronkonkoma, along with Central Islip, Brentwood, and Deer Park, opening up more spots for those people and leading to less backtracking. Currently, the free lot at Ronkonkoma fills up by 7:30am, and the same can probably be said for CI, Brentwood, and Deer Park which likely fill up around the same time or earlier.

I also believe that a huge part of the problem lies during the off-peak period, specifically during the reverse-peak. On days with events in NYC or at UBS Arena, trains to and from New York consistently have all 8, 10, or even 12 cars packed to the absolute gills with standees. The severe overcrowding is largely in part due to poor or even nonexistent reverse-peak service levels on the diesel branches. In addition, the diesel lines don’t have UBS Arena stops on any trains therefore people once again “drive to Ronkonkoma” further overcrowding those trains. Even with 2, 3, or even 4 extras (in addition to the regularly scheduled trains) after the Islanders games at Elmont, I still have seen trains that are crushloaded.

All of this puts extraordinary stress on poor Ronkonkoma. While capacity has improved greatly since the Third Track and Mid-Suffolk Electric Yard, service has actually in a way decreased. If you look at schedules pre-pandemic, there were 17 trains on the branch, now there are still 17, which is a increase of a grand total of 0 trains. And if you look at when the service is provided, you’ll notice that there’s a increase in service during the 4-6am hour. And while this is great considering the amount of construction workers with early shifts that live on this branch, it means there’s actually a decrease for people who are commuting during the height of the morning rush hour. To put it into perspective, prior to ESA, there were 7 trains arriving into New York during the 8-9am period, nowadays, there are only 4.

A big part of my timetable project has been to both improve peak service on the Ronkonkoma Branch while also improvising diesel service. This combination will hopefully draw less people off this overcrowded line and on to diesel trains that can help handle the loads better. If your interested in taking a look at it, it will release tomorrow morning at 6:00am!

Snow, Snow, Snow: Winter Storm Fern

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Issue With Mineola Station

One of the LIRR’s biggest accomplishments, rolled out alongside with the opening of East Side Access was the opening of the Third Track project. This project brought huge capacity improvements to the Main Line allowing for additional trains to be ran down out in the peak direction, and even more specifically during the reverse-peak periods.

And while this project was HUGE for the railroad and while limited in peak service improvements, provided groundbreaking improvements to reverse-peak service on the Main Line between Floral Park and Hicksville and to other points connecting to it. 

There was one huge problem with the final draft that was a huge dealbreaker for reverse-peak and intra-island commuting on the Main Line, specifically at Long Island’s third biggest job hub, Mineola. Mineola is not only a busy station, but  a beautiful station that serves as an important job hub. In the original draft for the Third Track Project, it called for all stations from New Hyde Park thru Westbury to have their platforms demolished in favor of new 12-car platforms, and it also called for Mineola station to like Hicksville, receive an island platform allowing for express trains to simultaneously stop at Mineola without having to bother switching tracks. 

In the final plan, however, this was dropped as a cost-saving measure and Mineola was slated to receive 2 normal 12-car platforms like the other stations. This was a major flaw with the final design and really dragged down the value of the project, since, trains, that run express down the Main Line from/to places as far away as Port Jefferson, Ronkonkoma, Patchogue and Speonk could no longer stop at Mineola without switching to the third track serving as a deterrent for these trains to switch tracks and cause backup on the Main Line just to stop there and provide intra-island service opportunities.  

(Photo: Fan Railer)

And when asked, the project team said that the decision was made to “avoid residential property impacts both east and west of the station” and “ because the LIRR believes that the revised NASSAU Interlocking configuration (moving NASSAU 1 and 3 closer to Mineola) would permit sufficient stopping flexibility for "intra-Island" service." This proves to be untrue as having a train running down the express track slow down to switch to the local track, stop at Mineola, then switch back to the express track proved to be very disruptive to local track operations as if your trying to do this during the height of the rush hour (when most intra-island travel is occurring) then your likely to cause delays to a local train that’s waiting behind to also make its Mineola stop. And while this is going on, things have already been made worse as you also got the Oyster Bay Branch junction which requires Oyster Bay Branch trains to go through Mineola and onto the junction at 10 mph which gums up the local track already.

I’m conclusion, this was a huge loss for Mineola and for this project as a whole. By neglecting to build a middle platform, the LIRR essentially turned down an opportunity to provide tons of additional intra-island service opportunities to the places that need it most, but decided to instead just drag their foot and cut their losses.

LIRR’s new timetables will go into effect on Nov 10 with one shoulder addition

The LIRR is doing what I call a “soft launch” of the new timetables by releasing them without actually making announcement about it, which I can understand as it only consists of a couple tweaks here and there, nothing really significant.

The only major change to the schedule was the addition of a new shoulder period train to help provide additional capacity during this busy period on the Ronkonkoma Branch:

• A new 3:20pm train from Penn Station to Ronkonkoma, stopping at Jamaica, Hicksville, and all stops to Ronkonkoma besides Pinelawn.

Other than that though, there really isn’t much else going on besides routine fall track work. I was definitely hoping for them to make more adjustments, but at least the addition of a train is something decent. As far as Thanksgiving service goes, from what I’ve gathered, it appears that they aren’t planning on providing any extra service this year to my utter disappointment.

LIRR providing extra service to PGA tournament in Bethpage

The LIRR is actually providing quite a suite of extra trains for the PGA tournament in Bethpage next week. They are providing trains to/from Farmingdale to both Ronkonkoma and New York  before and after the event, and they are also staging a couple unscheduled extras to help bare the rest of the crowds.

The nice thing is with the way the Ronkonkoma Branch runs, they actually currently run a couple of equipment trains in the morning, in both directions, to deadhead equipment out to the yard in Ronkonkoma eastbound and to also deadhead a couple sets west to Hicksville and Westbury to represent local runs on the Main Line. 

The LIRR innovatively converted all of the eastbound equipment runs in the morning into revenue service, providing some very impressive headways into Farmingdale in the morning. The two westbound equipment runs also provide express service from Ronkonkoma (the busiest station on the line by far) to Farmingdale. This is very innovative. And, the best part is, since those two westbound runs originate on the Main Line, they won't affect peak hour passengers as those passengers wont get on until it gets to the Main Line.

Reverse-peak direction

• Train 1996, a 4:34am departure from Penn Station, stopping at Woodside, Jamaica, Mineola, Hicksville, and Farmingdale, arriving at 5:30am.
• Train 2006, a 5:13am departure from Grand Central, stopping at Woodside, Jamaica, Mineola, Hicksville, and Farmingdale, arriving at 6:06am.
• Train 1998, a 5:48am departure from Penn Station, stopping at Woodside, Jamaica, Mineola, Hicksville, and Farmingdale, arriving at 6:46am.
• Train 2008, a 5:54am deaprture from Grand Central, stopping at Woodside, Jamaica, Mineola, Hicksville, and Farmingdale, arriving at 6:50am
• Train 4906, a 6:36am departure from Penn Station, stopping at Woodside, Jamaica, Mineola, Hicksville, and Farmingdale, arriving at 7:35am
• And here's an interesting one, train 2128 (currently a shuttle that deadheads to Farmingdale for whatever reason), a 6:37am departure from Atlantic Terminal stopping at at Nostrand Avenue, East New York, Jamaica, and Farmingdale. 
• Train 4908, a 7:15am departure from Penn Station, stopping at Wooside, Jamaica, Mineola, Hicksville, and Farmingdale.

Now, see a common theme here? All of these trains are actually scheduled deadhead equipment runs already, so essentially, the LIRR is running these for zero cost. 

Peak direction

During the peak direction, the LIRR doesn't directly add any service, and I don't blame them for this as the line is already pretty much at capacity at that time of the morning, and, by adding more service they'd be screwing the LIRR's most important market, westbound commuters.

• Train 2501, orginates at Ronkonkoma at 5:40am, runs express to Farmingdale stopping there at 6:09am, then runs to Westbury before resuming it's normal route making all local stops.
• Train 2103, originates in Ronkonkoma at 6:54am, stopping at Farmingdale at 7:19am (it orginates there), before resuming it's route making all local stops.

In the afternoon, the LIRR doesn't provide close to as a impressive lineup, but, in their defense, they also provide more service during the afternoon reverse-peak, and they do have some unscheduled extras that'll run. 

Reverse-peak direction

• Train 4955, a 4:57pm departure out of Farmingdale, making Jamaica, and Penn Station.

Peak direction

• The LIRR will add stops on the express trains, providing a very frequent service to points east on the Main Line. 

Weekend

On the weekend, the LIRR is only providing eastbound service in the morning to the event, (I find it supriisng that they aren't convering the very early westbound equipment moves to service but whatever) but my guess is that they'll run unscheduled extras on those days, too.

• Train 7934, a 4:15am departure out of Penn Station, stopping at Woodside, Jamaica, Mineola, Hicksville, Bethpage, and Farmingdale, arriving at 5:13am.
• Train 7936, a 4:39am departure out of Penn Station, stopping at Woodside, Jamaica, Mineola, Hicksville, and Farmingdale, arriving at 5:35am.
• Train 8008, a 5:30am departure out of Grand Central, stopping at Woodside, Jamaica, Mineola, Hicksville, and Farmingdale, arriving at 6:28am.
• Train 8012, a 6:33am departure from Grand Central, stopping at Jamaica, Mineola, Hicksville, and Farmingdale, arriving at 7:32am.
• Train 8014, 8016, 8018, and 8020, 7:31, 8:33, 9:33, and 10:33 departures out of Grand Central, all stopping at Woodside, Jamaica, Mineola, Hicksville, and Farmingdale, arriving at 8:29, 9:30, 10:30, and 11:30am respectively.

Now, we get the bad part, the LIRR strike is happening at what is probably the worst possible time, since, apparently they could go on strike as early as September 18, giving them only 5 days to restore service in time for the Tuesday morning rush hour/PGA tournament. 

In all, I think, for the most part, the LIRR mastered this plan, and as long as the strike doesn't put a giant fork in the plans, then this should work relatively well. I feel like the LIRR converting deadheads to service could be hopeful, since it shows their willing to do that. Possibly in the future they could actually convert these deadhead moves to revenue service, full time, which would be huge to provide even more reverse-peak service opportunities, something that would be a huge step forward.

I look forward to seeing how this service pattern plays out, and it's just great to see the LIRR using their deadhead equipment to their advantage to provide a very robust line of service. This is going to be a huge event, and getting people to and from it as quickly as possible is key, and this should be a huge motivation to not drive. 

If you'd like to view the full timetable including all service to the event, you can do so by visiting MTA.info.

Photos: Farmingdale (8/2025)

 

Interlocking Walkthrough: KO

Our next interlocking to be featured in this series is the well-known KO interlocking. Located at Ronkonkoma station, this is actually the easternmost interlocking on the Main Line located an ever-impressive 49 miles from Long Island City. KO is split into two separate interlockings, KO 1 and KO 2 with KO 1 west of the station and KO 2 east of the station.

Switches

KO interlocking begins just east of the Pond Road crossing. Just after the crossing, the certified north siding splits off Mainline 1. That siding doesn’t get all that much use, I’ve seen it be used to house tiny equipment trains, and that’s about it.

The certified north siding then merges back a bit later, then there’s one last crossover from Mainline 1 back to Mainline 2 before Mainline 2 diverges from Mainline 1 to enter Ronkonkoma’s 3 station platforms.

Almost right after Ronkonkoma’s station platforms is the start of KO 2.  Mainline 1 and 2 come much closer to each other, as a third track spurs off Mainline 2 called the WASH track. This track is essential as it houses the trianwash which is what they use to clean the trains. They have few of these left, only here, Babylon, and Richmond Hill. Following the end of the car wash, there’s a pair of two switches, first from Mainline 1 to Mainline 2, then from Mainline 2 back to Mainline 1. These switches allow trains on either tracks to go to the hard, or to continue on Mainline 1 east of Ronkonkoma.

We now reach Ronkonkoma Yard, also referred to as Mid-Suffolk Electric Yard.

I also forgot to mention that a 20 mph restriction is in place thru  KO 2 is restricted to 20 mph.

Ronkonkoma Yard has 23 tracks, broken into two clusters, in which 11 of them were added to support additional train service after East Side Access. It goes as follows:

Ronkonkoma Yard is fully electrified, and during the nighttime, for the most part is pretty much full of almost everything you can see, plenty of full 8, 10, and 12, and even some 6 car consists make an appearance being stored here for the morning rush.

I feel like it's easier to show a diagram of the yard, rather then to explain every little switch in the yard, so here's a diagram of it I found on Trains are Fun:

 

The eastern limit of KO 2 is right before Lincoln Avenue, and at that point, KO interlocking officially ends and the 20 mph speed restriction is dropped for a slightly better 45 mph speed limit all the way to Riverhead.

Well that concludes KO interlocking!

Interlocking Walkthrough: NASSAU

In today's interlocking walkthrough we're going to take a look at NASSAU Interlocking located in Mineola. It stretches east from Merllion Avenue to half way to Carle Place, and the Oyster Bay Branch splits off in the middle of this. It includes a fair bit for an interlocking of this length. 

Switches

Anyways, now lets take a look at the actual interlocking itself. Like many of the other recent interlockings covered, it's broken into 3 parts, NASSAU 3, NASSAU 2, and NASSAU 1. Let's start on the eastern side with NASSAU 3. 

NASSAU 3 starts a bit east of Mineola station, with a crossover from track 3 (the westbound track) to track 2 (the middle track), then another one from track 1 (the eastbound track) to track 2, then there's yet another crossover, from track 2 to track 1, followed by the final one from track 2 to track 3. Then, there's a very small siding that merges onto track 3. 

The North Side Track is a short rarely used freight siding that can hold four to five freight cars at its very best.

Now, we enter NASSAU 2, and come into the fun part, as we come into Mineola station, the Oyster Bay Branch merges into track 3. Now here's the interesting part. Originally, when there were 2 tracks Oyster Bay trains would merge onto the track that was in their direction (track 1 for westbound, track 2 for eastbound), but since the third track, all eastbound Oyster Bay trains must also leave for the Oyster Bay Branch on track 3, which is an irritating problem. This means that if an eastbound Oyster Bay train is late its gonna further cause delays then if it was merging from the eastbound track. 

As we leave Mineola station, we enter NASSAU 1. Our first crossover is a couple hundred feet west of the station platform, where there's a crossover from track 3 to track 2 (this is what allows Oyster  Bay trains to come to/from the middle track, followed by a crossover from track 1 to track 2, and another one from track 2 to track 1 and another from track 2 to track 3. And that marks the end of NASSAU Interlocking.

Signals

NASSAU Interlocking now uses the color light signals.

Towers

Originally, there was a NASSAU tower right there in Mineola, but, it was demolished in 2020 and operations were moved to Jamaica Control Center (JCC).

Anyway, that should about do it for one of my more favorite interlockings, NASSAU Interlocking.

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!

1998 Station Eliminations

Came the 90s came the modern-post 2000s era of the LIRR with sleek DE and DM locomotives with futuristic C3s hauling them, and gone were the ratty old MP15ACs which many of which still serve in freight service to this day. While EMD and Kawasaki were building the new equipment, the LIRR had to do some preparations for the arrival of this new equipment.

Much like how the M1s worked, the C3s would only be able to platform at high-level stations, therefore, the railroad would have to go around and convert the few remaining low-level stations to high-level stations.

By the 90s, all of the stations on the Port Jefferson Branch east of Huntington had already been converted as the C1 test cars had already begun service however many of the stations on the Main Line east of Ronkonkoma and on the Montauk Branch hadn't been converted.

Therefore, the LIRR sent out crews to begin building these new platforms.

While high-level platforms have many benefits, one of them isn't being cheap, and building more than 30 of them at once would cost quite a bit, therefore, the LIRR constructed many of these 1990s platforms at shorter lengths then seen on platforms at many stations. Platforms on the Port Jefferson Branch and at Bay Shore were constructed with a full 12-car long platforms however the stations on the Montauk Branch were only 4 to 8 cars and the cars east of Ronkonkoma were a measly one car length! That choice has come back to them as summer loading on the Montauk Branch at stations connecting to the Fire Island Ferries and at many of the stations in the Hamptons is very slow. 

And while they didn't go cheap and did construct high-level stations at most of those 30 or so stations, the railroad also did single-out a couple unlucky ones and shortened their platforms to 0 cars long.

A sign informing customers of Quogue’s retirement.

On March 16th, 1998, the LIRR abandoned service at 10 stations with many of those being on the Montauk Branch. Trains on the Montauk, Oyster Bay and Greenport branches made their final stops at Penny Bridge, Fresh Pond, Haberman, Richmond Hill, Glendale, Quogue, Center Moriches, Mill Neck, Southampton Campus, and Holtsville.

The first five of those stations were along the Lower Montauk Branch. The Lower Montauk Branch had long been struggling to keep ridership and it wasn't surprising they cut the cord for these stations.

Penny Bridge was located at Calvary Cemetery near Newtown Creek in Laurel Hill (map), and was a very small station with only a low platform and a shelter. It got it's name from a bridge of same name that linked Laurel Hill, Queens to Brooklyn. The station only had one daily rider when it closed so it's not at all surprising that it did meet it's fate.

Penny Bridge (Photo: Dave Keller Archive)

Haberman was another small station, this one located in Maspeth, Queens (map) like Penny Bridge, it also had a low-level platform. The station had opened in September 2010, and still had manual crossing gates, a guard shack as recently as 1973. It only had 3 daily riders when it closed in 1973.

The next station was Fresh Pond. Fresh Pond was another small station positioned with a low-level island platform that sat at the point where the Bushwick Branch diverged off the Montauk Branch (map). The station was west of Fresh Pond Yard, a major freight yard even to this day.

Next was Glendale, which easily was the smallest of these stations, only consisting of a stool to discharge passengers. As for ridership it only had two of them per day. No wonder this one got closed!

(Photo: LIRR History)

The next and last of the Lower Montauk stations was Richmond Hill, which unlike the others, had a long, elevated, high-level platform. Despite the station having a long, high-level platform, it was only used by one person and was closed in March of 1998. Even though it could have remained open for no cost, it just wasn't worth it considering it was the odd one out on this branch. As you can see the BMT Jamaica Avenue Line passed right over it (map).

When the remaining Lower Montauk Branch stations were closed, this branch was only served by just two Oyster Bay Branch trains, with one in the morning and one in the evening in the peak direction. Others travelled via the Lower Montauk, but none of them stopped at these stations. Train 507 was the final revenue train to travel via the Lower Montauk Branch on a daily basis before it too stopped doing so in October 2012 after Hurricane Sandy.

Mill Neck was the one Oyster Bay Branch station to be abandoned. The station was located between Locust Valley and Oyster Bay (map). The station had lower-level platform, and some 12 to 20 passengers used it before it was eliminated. The station actually survived through quite a lot, being burned down twice in it's history. The station building is now used as a town hall. 

A colorized photo of Holtsville in 1959 (Photo: Trains Are Fun)  

Holtsville was another one of the 10 closed during the 1998 Station Eliminations. This one was located between Ronkonkoma and Greenport on the Scoot. It was located at Waverly Avenue (map). It originally opened in 1843 as Westerly but was then changed to Holtsville in 1897 as did the surrounding area. This station was little-used back in 1998 when it closed, but the area has grown quite a bit since then. I personally think that if they improve service out on the North Fork (not even electrifying), then there could be talks of reopening this one. The Suffolk County Traction Company's trolly line terminated south of Holtsville, after running south from Patchogue. They planned to extend it to Port Jeff, but never finished it as the company went bankrupt.

Center Moriches was located between Mastic-Shirley and Speonk on the Montauk Branch. The station consisted of one low-level side platform on the south side and that was about it. The station had two tracks because of MO siding. Like Bellport which would've been the 11th but faced a lot of local opposition associated with it's closure and ended up being saved, only saw a few riders and even fewer trains.

Some residents in the area have had some interest in seeing Center Moriches station reopened. The Moriches area has grown quite a bit in the past few years, and many believe it could sustain enough ridership to warrant service similar to what is seen at Bellport.

These final two stations were located on the second most remote part of the LIRR- the South Fork east of Speonk. 

Quogue station in 1997 (Photo: Trains Are Fun)

The first of these two was Quogue which was located between Westhampton and Hampton Bays. Quogue was yet another tiny, roadside shack with almost no ridership. Once they eliminated Quogue, most of the Hamptons stations were pretty evenly spaced from each other. I wouldn't say ridership would warrant this station being reopened as there's little development in the area of the original station (map).

And finally, Southampton Campus. This was another little-used, roadside station that opened in 1974, with the goal of serving LI University's Southampton College (map). As attendance at Southampton College declined, so did the station which closed like the others in 1998 (SUNY Southampton closed in 2005.) SUNY Stony Brook took over and is now called "Stony Brook Southampton", and Stony Brook Southampton has covered slightly but I don't think it would warrant it's own station again. Even if they were to reopen this station, they'd probably cheap it out and have it run like Bellport used to with only a limited number of the already limited number of trains that pass by it actually stop there, and you'd get cheaped out when you could go to Southampton which is only five minutes east and is more then plenty to serve this area and college.

At the end of the day, the main reason the LIRR even closed these stations was due to money issues. You'd be suprised at how much the LIRR actually saved by not having to close these stations. The LIRR told The New York Times in 1998 that rebuilding these stations would cost about $260,000 to $2.25 million per station, and to spend $2.25 million for a station which only serve 30 or so people at maximum daily is just not worth it. I'm sure the money the LIRR saved was much better used elsewhere. 

At this point, I think it's mega unlikely the Lower Montauk Branch will ever return, as there's really no good reason to reopen it. Ridership was low in the first place, and there's no good reason to reopen the stations in the first place, and with the IBX, thats even more unlikely. To be honest, if they electrify out to Port Jefferson and Patchogue chances are that Hunterspoint Avenue and Long Island City may close as well as sad as that is. If they ever improve service out on the East End and on the North fork, it may make sense in the future to reopen some of those stations and if the Oyster Bay Branch were ever to be electrified (not that I’m suggesting that), then maybe they could warrant a reopen of Mill Neck but I don’t know.

In conclusion, these stations will always be remembered in LIRR history.