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.

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. 

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!

Late Friday Links 1/3

Happy New Year! It's difficult to find relevant links right now, because there's not much in the news, but we might be getting some snow this Monday, which would be nice considering I go back to School on Monday for the first time since 12/20. 

• Car Hit Central Islip

Unfortunately last Saturday a car was hit early at Central Islip.

• Mastic-Shirley Rider Enraged

So apparently this Mastic-Shirley rider is enraged with construction going on at the station which I somehow didn't know about.

• Year In Review 2024 

I also forgot this one, I'm adding it later while working on another post, the MTA released this article and it's definitely interesting and nice to see.

I know neither of those articles are very interesting, but I felt like getting something out. I'm not looking forward to this weekend, as I know I'm going back to School on Monday but hopefully they'll be some snow and SNOW DAYS to look forward to.