LIRR finishes St.Albans accessibility upgrades

The LIRR just announced the completion of some accessibility improvements and small station refreshments  at the little and underused Saint Albans station in Queens. 

These upgrades included a new street-to-platform elevator, new communication systems, and parking lot improvements. In addition, they also reconstructed the station’s tunnel, build new concrete sidewalks, two new Help Point kiosks, more station signage, LED lighting, CCTV security cameras, and a new elevator machine room.

While little St. Albans has long been in need of refreshments, there’s a specific reason why they chose to do them now as it actually coincides with a much larger effort to improve transit in Southeast Queens through the 2022 expansion of the City Ticket, which allows for discounted fares within New York City.

Overall, I believe this project is only a good thing. Southeast Queens, and specifically St.Albans station has long been neglected by the LIRR, and seeing accessibility improvements will hopefully at least partially, combined with improved service, act as an incentive for more travel to/from this under-used station. The truth is that ridership at stations in Queens has only been growing and this should purposely and hopefully continue this trend.

Late Friday Links 5/2

Happy Friday! It’s been a busy week so it’s a huge relief that it’s Friday. Here’s a couple Late Friday Links for your commute home: 

• West Hempstead Branch Catches Fire

Apparently early this morning there was a fire onboard a work train this morning in Malverne, and they had to make repairs, therefore suspending service for multiple hours during the morning rush hour and it seams repairs are finally done being made.

• Superstorm Sandy East River Tunnel Repair Work

If you've been reading the news lately then you might have seen that Amtrak plans to rebuild the East River tunnels, which were damaged during 2012's Superstorm Sandy but is recieving some backlash from commuters and more specifically the LIRR who's worried it will snarl service for hours if they can't keep up their OTP's for each train perfectly.

• NJT Strike Talks

And finally, as there's a possibility for a New Jersey Transit strike on the horizon, commuters are warned to prepare for "chaos" and to work from home whenever possible. 

Anyways guys, sorry I can’t write more I just have a busy day. Nothing too much is going on on the railroad, and I definitely don’t have time to list out the subway changes but the West Hempstead Branch will be suspended between Valley Stream and West Hempstead this weekend for track replacement

Have a good weekend!

Interlocking Walkthrough: WEST HEMPSTEAD

We will now take a look at the interlocking known as WEST HEMPSTEAD, also known as WM. For the purposes of this post and for the purposes of simplicity, I'll refer to it as WM in this post. WM interlocking, is a rather new interlocking, being put into service on a weekend in October of 2009.

As The LIRR Today states it, "while the naming behind WM is complicated, the interlocking itself isn't".  As you may know, the West Hempstead Branch is only single-tracked for it's entire length, therefore, going east, the branch is single-tracked right up to where the pocket track splits off from the Main Track to go around to the station’s island platform.

The "yard" itself consists of two tracks: fence and long. The fence track is shorter and runs "along the fence", and the track is an direct extension from the pocket track, however, it can also be accessed via a crossover from the long track.

On the other hand, the LONG track is rather long. It actually is long enough to extend all the way to Hempstead Gardens station, visible from the platform there, hence the name. Now it seams to only be able to hold a 12-car set (NOW try to think of a 12-car set on the West Hempstead branch) showing how close the West Hempstead Branch's tiny terminal and it's next station are, but it's rather long for the tiny West Hempstead Branch.

The West Hempstead Branch actually does have a small yard (I prefer to call something of this scale a layup), similar to what is seen at Far Rockaway. Now, the way the yard is setup requires a train to first enter the platforms, then switch onto a track leading to the yard, something that doesn't seam to be too much of an issue on this small, local branch. 

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

WM Interlocking consists of one big position-light signal smack down inside the middle of the action.

Anyway, thanks for checking out this short interlocking walkthrough. Sorry it was so short and poorly put together, I had to try to make it in a short amount of time to get it out for tomorrow.

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.

What The West Hempstead Branch Timetable Could Look Like

Let’s now turn our attention to the West Hempstead Branch. The West Hempstead Branch is a sad little branch, as since LIRR service expanded, its service has been slowly chipped away over the past few decades. During the peak, it feels like a rob Peter to pay Paul situation, as by giving a little West Hempstead train a rush-hour slot into Penn Station, you’d be taking away a much needed seat for Babylon, Huntington, and Ronkonkoma riders. The mentality is that poor ridership along this branch cannot justify the wasting of a rush-hour slot for a train in the cramped Penn Station.

Well, since conditions in Penn Station have greatly improved since East Side Access was unveiled, smaller branches such as the Long Beach, Far Rockaway, and West Hempstead Branches stand out the most to gain because they are no longer be “shut out” of Penn Station. My hope is that if we can increase service to stations along these branches, people will begin to gravitate back to them and things will even a tad bit out.

Included in the linked PDF file below is the full sample weekday & weekend West Hempstead Branch timetables.  Peak, off-peak, reverse-peak, and special-event trains are all included. Note that this is a new and improved timetable design.

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

Like was said on the Introduction Page, before we can begin talking about the actual schedule “Key Assumptions” needs to be taken care of and mentioned before this project can become totally feasible. I’ve tried my best to make these schedules able to be done with these projects completed or not, but in some cases that isn’t possible. 

Key Assumptions:

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

Service Guidelines:

• During peak hours, train service is sustained at 30-minute headways in the peak direction.
• Passengers will no longer be required to transfer trains at Valley Stream! Service will be provided to a western terminal during all daylight hours.
• With a couple of exceptions, Babylon Branch trains will no longer stop at St. Albans as it will be served exclusively by West Hempstead trains.
• During the off-peak hours, service will be provided hourly to Hunterspoint Avenue (Grand Central on weekends).
• On weekends, I was able to squeeze one additional round-trip to Penn Station during the busiest travel period.

Link to West Hempstead Branch Timetable

Obviously, planning peak-hour West Hempstead Branch service was not my top priority while making these schedules, so these trains got “scraps” of the slots that were left during rush hours. That being said, riders on this branch will still have access to a pretty decent selection of peak and reverse-peak trains. During the morning rush, the trains to New York are able to operate primarily through the middle of the peak, while in the evening rush, the trains to West Hempstead primarily leave during the beginning and end of the peak. During the rest of the rush hour, trains will operate to/from Atlantic Terminal or Hunterspoint Av.

During the weekday off-peak period, trains will operate to/from Grand Central as they currently do. Originally, Brooklyn was chosen over Grand Central because because I wanted to provide more service there, but once the LIRR made the worthwhile descion to significantly scale-back service to Grand Central, it made much more sense to send them there as the LIRR did. This is monumental for the branch, which hasn’t ever had direct off-peak service to Manhattan. However, with that being said, I was still able to send some trains to Atlantic Terminal throughout the peak and reverse-peak periods.

To be honest, I’m not the biggest fan of the West Hempstead Branch, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they just abandoned the branch entirely. Originally, I planned for 90-minute headways on the branch, despite hourly service at this time, but after thinking about it more, it makes more sense to provide hourly service so things are easier to understand.

Another noticeable addition to this timetable is the addition of much more reverse-peak service. I’ve always felt like the West Hempstead Branch is a good branch to provide solid reverse-peak service, something it’s continued to lack even after East Side Access. Instead of deadheading equipment which is commonly done right now, I got creative with it and created a reverse-peak express train. It may seam odd to run an express train on a line with such low ridership and service, however, since there’s no yard and there’s extra equipment laying around that needs to get moved, why not? deadheading equipment. Instead, I decided to include a couple express runs.

The truth is... now that the LIRR actually takes this branch seriously, and gives it more then an bi-hourly shuttle, it must allow it to open up and join into the playing field, and these little improvements should really give it a nice upper-hand.

I don’t commute along the West Hempstead Branch, therefore if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. I also don’t know much about St. Albans, but with the hospital nearby, I assume there’s some sort of demand for intra-island and reverse-peak service. If anyone thinks more service there would be welcome, again, please let me know. You can leave a comment by using the Disqus system below, or you can email me at gavin.s.wilcox@gmail.com.

P.S At the very end, I decided against the arrows as I noticed they could be very distracting and they are beyond difficult to insert into the excel timetables. They will be added on the final copies of all the timetables and will be removed from the Port Washington Branch timetable in the next version.

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

Interlocking Walkthrough: VALLEY

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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