Blizzard to bring LIRR service to complete standstill

The LIRR just announced a couple hours ago that due to the ongoing blizzard, one that will probably end up being pretty historic for Long Island, that they will completely suspend LIRR service by 1am tomorrow morning, when things are projected to reach a point where it is unsafe to continue running service into the overnight, which is forecasted to be the heaviest part of the storm.

I personally think that 1am is a bit late, and that they are taking a chance by running some trains that late, I'd rather see the LIRR fully finish curtailing operations slightly earlier, as the later we go, the risk that a train could get stuck increases, however, we will have to see how things play out. 

They will gradually suspend service with each branch having one last train to run, allowing for the LIRR to stash away equipment in strategic places allowing for quicker cleanup pending the end of the storm

Here are the final trains to run on each branch:

Babylon

• The 11:44pm from Babylon to Penn Station
• the 11:43pm from Penn Station to Babylon

Long Beach

• The 12:12am from Long Beach to Penn Station
• The 11:58pm from Penn Station to Long Beach

Far Rockaway

• The 11:07pm from Far Rockaway to Grand Central
• The 11:20pm from Grand Central to Far Rockaway

Hempstead

• Hempstead Branch trains weren't running due to signal upgrades.

Port Jefferson

• The 9:39pm from Port Jefferson to Huntington, with connection available to New York.
• The 11:27pm from Port Jefferson to Huntington, without any New York connection.
• The 11:52pm from Huntington to Penn Station
• The 11:46pm from Penn Station to Huntington, with connection available to Port Jefferson

Port Washington

• The 11:26pm from Port Washington to Penn Station
• The 11:28pm from Penn Station to Port Washington

Ronkonkoma

• The 11:07pm from Ronkonkoma to Penn Station
• The 11:17pm from Penn Station to Ronkonkoma

West Hempstead

• The 11:02pm from West Hempstead to Grand Central
• The 10:57pm from Grand Central to West Hempstead

Montauk

• The 11:25pm from Speonk to Jamaica
• The 11:30pm from Jamaica to Speonk
• The 9:42pm from Jamaica to Montauk will terminate in Speonk

Greenport

• The 2:21pm from Ronkonkoma to Greenport
• The 4:37pm from Greenport to Ronkonkoma

Metro-North has said they will run a weekend schedule for the entirety of Monday. While Long Island is actually supposed to receive the worst of the snow, I have my doubts on whether or not Metro-North will be able to hold their promise. The NYC subway is currently running both underground and above ground, running all local, however, with the worst of the storm coming overnight, I doubt they will continue providing above ground service throughout the night.

As far as service restoration goes, depending on how much Long Island actually ends up getting, and when it actually stops (this determines how much time they have to clean up), my best guess is that they'll be able to get limited service up and going Tuesday morning, primarily on the busier branches (Babylon, Ronkonkoma, Port Washington, and Port Jefferson) for the Tuesday morning commute, however, this would likely come with delays and cancellations, and I doubt we will see service back up and running on the East End until Tuesday evening at the earliest.

I will be closely following the news and I will update you guys later or tomorrow morning if they give any updates on what's going on. As for now we will just have to wait for more information.

LIRR & MNR running on weekend schedule on Monday, 1/26

Unlike what I expected, the MTA announced yesterday afternoon that they would be operating on a weekend schedule today. Metro-North will operate on a holiday schedule with baseline weekend service but a couple of extra trains for those unfortunate enough to make the trek into work. They are doing this because they still have quite a bit of cleanup to do after last night’s snowstorm. 

As a quick heads up, there will be no service east of Ronkonkoma today as that branch is buried deep in foot of snow.

**Edit: As of 10:15am EST, it seams they have either resumed service east of Ronkonkoma or never stopped it in the first place**

The LIRR and MNR will both likely transition back to regular weekday service for the Tuesday morning rush hour tomorrow, after snowfighting operations pretty much conclude.

If you do must travel today, take caution out there. Not only is it very cold but it's also very slippery so go extra slow and don't run for your train. 

Stay safe and warm everybody!

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. 

Overnight ice resulted in a rough morning commute on LIRR

Well, after yesterday's storm, the LIRR had a slightly rougher time this morning providing the promised full weekday schedule. 

If you've been outside yet today, you'll know it's FREEZING outside (it's in the upper teens), and as you know, when you had a cold night, it's not uncommon, especially on the LIRR, for the switches to freeze, which happened overnight. A couple switches, all of those being at important locations, and as a result, caused delays and even a couple of cancellations throughout the entire morning rush hour:

• There was switch trouble near Mineola which caused delays on the Oyster Bay Branch that resulted in 35-40 minute delays, and to make matters worse, train 505 (the first dual mode out of Oyster Bay) broke down in Oyster Bay which resulted in congestion. They even had to have train 508 (the 6:43a from Jamaica to Oyster Bay) go all the way to Hicksville to make a reverse-move and get around that broken switch. This also later resulted in the entire Main Line getting put in a chokehold as everything got backed up causing an average of 10 minute delays during the height of the morning rush hour.
• There was switch trouble at both Stewart Manor and Elmont-UBS Arena which resulted in train 709, the 7:04am from Hempstead to Atlantic Terminal having to make a reverse-move.

In the end though, you cannot blame the LIRR for this as this is all weather-related. Afterall this was the first real snow of the season and I think it's impressive enough that they were able to run pretty much a full suite of trains for the Monday morning rush hour already, considering when you look at NJTransit, they annulled basically 25% of the rush hour fleet. And really the delays weren't terrible, when you look at it, as only a small handful of trains ran more than 20 minutes late with the worst of the delays being train 508 which arrived Oyster Bay 43 minutes late.

MTA will suspend 7 express service for a whole month

Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse with the (7) train disruptions, the MTA just announced a couple days ago that they will be suspending diamond <7> express service completely from October 27 which was yesterday until until November 21st. This comes as a huge letdown to Queens riders who rely on the (7) as a lifeline and specifically it's rush hour express service to get to work.

While true <7> service is already suspended already, as the line is only express between Mets-Willets Point and Junction Blvd and Junction Blvd and 61 St-Woodside, it's still a letdown to see the entire thing go completely for these outages in favor of more local service.

While all of this is unideal and will likely cause congestion and delays, in the end, when all is said and done, it will allow for track replacements that will provide huge reliability improvements along this busy line and will prepare the line for service over the next century.

The LIRR’s Spring Trackwork Program

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

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

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

• Valley Stream - Switch Rehabilitation & West Hempstead Crossing Rehabilitation 

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

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

• Montauk Branch - Crossing Replacement and Maintenance Activities 

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

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

• ADA Station Rehabilitation - Hollis

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

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

• ADA Station Rehabilitation Project - Forest Hills

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

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

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

Additional Trains for St. Patrick's Day

Tomorrow is Saint Patrick's Day, a religious "celebration" day. Each year, the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade is held in Manhattan and draws crowds from all over the world. This New York City attraction, like many, draws tons of Long Islanders into the city to see or even participate in the parade.

The parade is an "alcoholic celebration" meaning that many people that go will go to restaurants and bars and become drunk afterward, and as more and more people decide to drink and take public transportation home afterward, trains have become more crowded. The sheer volume of extra travelers not only causes loading delays, but clashed with the last of the peak travelers heading in for a day of work, can cause serious delays throughout the system.

Last year, the parade fell on a Saturday, so, the additional trains the LIRR ran allowed them to get through the day pretty well, but this year it falls on a Monday, meaning that not only do you have the rush hour travelers, but now you've got these passengers to worry about as well.

All of this has caused train crews to absolutely despise St. Patrick's Day, as there's nothing worse then having a train full of drunks coming home on a Monday night, multiplied with all the rush hour commuters and you've got jampacked trains full of intoxicated passengers. Often times belingerent drunks would cause problems over not paying fares, arguing with other passengers, dropping food on the floor of already dirty railcars, and drinking even more on the trains! One year, there were over 22 seperate incidents on the LIRR that required police assistance.

As you can tell, this is an overwhelming and not fun day for crews. It's important to be advised that conductors typically have much less patience for unruly passengers, so be aware if your looking to have a good time.

NYC St. Patrick's Day Added Service:

In order to minimize loading delays, the Long Island Rail Road will be providing four additional westbound trains between 8:41 and 9:53. Two of those trains will come from Ronkonkoma while two others will come from Babylon.

• 8:41am from Ronkonkoma, making local stops through Wyandanch, then Farmingdale, Bethpage, Hicksville, Mineola, Jamaica, and Grand Central.
• 9:06am from Babylon, making local stops through Rockville Centre, Jamaica, and Grand Central.
• 9:40am from Ronkonkoma, making local stops through Wyandanch, then Farmingdale, Bethpage, Hicksville, Mineola, Jamaica, and Grand Central.
• 9:53am from Babylon, making local stops through Rockville Centre, Jamaica, and Grand Central.

Last year, the LIRR ran 15 additional westbound trains and 16 additional eastbound trains. I will admit that last year, it was a weekend, so you've got the peak trains and generally good post-peak service to help get people there, but I expect there will be some issues. However, I really would've liked to see them provide at least a bit more additional service. This year we'll be missing out on the dual-modes, which are the only extra service my branch gets, along with the other extra trains. I would've at least liked to see them add at least one additional westbound/eastbound train to Grand Central on the Long Beach, Port Jefferson, and Port Washington Branches, but I guess not. They also aren't running any additional eastbounds, which while I can kinda understand considering travel back from the parade is usually scattered throughout the evening, I'm a bit suprised that they went all out last year and did nothing this year.

In an effort to signficantly reduce the number of incidents and keep trains as orderly as possible, the LIRR will be banning all alcoholic beverages on trains, platforms, and waiting areas from 5:00am Monday 3/17 to 5:00am Tuesday 3/18. MTA Police will enforce this! If you try, they will confiscate it.

Apparantly Metro-North will be providing five additional trains to and from the parade, however, I cannot seam to find any information on them so if anyone knows or can find out please comment below!

Montauk St. Patrick's Day Parade Added Service:

The Annual Montauk St. Patrick's Day Parade will take place on Sunday, March 30th this year and will begin at 12:00 p.m. Quite a few people take the train out east for the parade, and since it's not yet summer, the LIRR will provide additional trains to provide for added capacity.

The exact details for these trains have not been announced as of now, however, you can expect an additional eastbound train about an hour earlier then train 6008, that departs Jamaica at 8:13 and arrives Montauk at 10:55am. You can also expect an additional eastbound that will originate in Babylon, trailing after train 6008.  

Coming back westbound, they typically run a train that emulates summer-only 6007, that departs Montauk in the 1:00pm hour. This train is normally a local to Babylon before terminating in Jamaica. I remember there were delays last year on the Montauk Branch on this date, so hopefully things will do better this year.

It's supposed to rain on Monday during the entire length of the parade, so while many will still go and participate, the loads shouldn't be as bad for this reason. 

So, if your going to ride the train on the "worst day to ride the LIRR", make sure to follow the rules so you have a good time! I'm looking forward to seeing how St. Patrick's Day turns out this year. 

Fun Fact: Did you know that NJTransit's fleet of Single-level coaches, known as Comets are known for their reoccurring odor of vomit as "vomits" or "vomit comets". Thank goodness my beloved C3s aren't stinky!

LIRR & MNR to run on a weekend schedule on President’s Day

Monday is Presidents Day, and while it’s a holiday for some (including me), it’s also a working day for others. For those with employers that don’t give a hoot about presidents, the LIRR will be operating on a weekend schedule, and MNR will operate on a Saturday schedule. In many previous years, the LIRR has at least added one to three trains to the schedule , but this year those who commute are unlucky. I’m not too worried about loads, especially with the snowstorm coming, however, some of the Ronkonkoma and Babylon Branch trains may become crowded.

Snow, Snow, Snow: Winter Storm Demi

Rumor has it that we'll receive some snow tomorrow morning. 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. Make sure to check back Monday as well, as I'll be elaborating further on the LIRR's snow operations!

MTA: No train service to Rockaways for 4 months next year

I'm sleepily writing this post after basketball tryouts, so I'm exhausted and please forgive any typos that may come up. Earlier this evening, I heard that the MTA is shutting down train service to the Rockaways for 4 months from January 17 to May 19, 2025. 

During this shutdown, (A) trains will terminate at Howard Beach-JFK Airport in both directions, and the Rockaway Park Shuttle trains will not run at all. The MTA stated that they are doing this to repair bridges that were extensively damaged during Hurricane Sandy, which I could definitely see.

Now, the Rockaways is the undoubtedly the least used portion of the New York City Subway, but it did come as a surprise, and it will still affect over 9,000 riders, and for many of them, the subway is one of the only modes of transportation into Manhattan. They will be running free Q97 busses from Howard Beach to Far Rockaway, and free Q109 busses from Howard Beach to Beach 67 St and Beach 90 St. They also said that "enhanced train service for LIRR is being considered."

Tri-Rail and Amtrak to suspend service on Wednesday and Thursday for Hurricane Milton

Due to the upcoming Hurricane Milton, Tri-Rail and Amtrak in Florida have suspended operations entirely this Wednesday & Thursday. 

According to the SFRTA safety plans, train crossing gates must be secured whenever their are winds  of 39 mph.

Officials have stated that service will be continued until the last train of the night on Tuesday evening, and that service is expected to begin Friday morning.

In addition, Brightline, a rather new high-speed carrier, is also halting service between West Palm Beach and Orlando until they determine it is safe to continue operating trains.

My hope is that any destruction that comes with the storm will not be too violent, and I send my luck to Florida and neighboring states.