by pineywoodsman
Living in Westbury (for now ) I am abit annoyed and confused as to why we still only receive hourly service at our station in the off peak hours.
I never quite understood why the two Huntington trains an hour do not make all stops along the Main Line, but alternate stops, as in one train serving Westbury and Merillon, and another serving Carle Place and New Hyde Park (all trains stop at Hicksville & Mineola).
We certainly don't have as many stops as the Babylon Line, yet the Babylon Line stations usually get service every 30 minutes in the off peak/weekends, and trains generally make all stops between Babylon and Rockville Centre. For the Huntington Branch, all we are talking about is two extra stops, maybe 4-5 min added to the schedule, which should be easy enough on weekends.
I have written the LIRR PCAC, and they responded that due to the lack of a proper yard facility in Huntington it allows little time in turning trains, but said on weekends it is feasible. I've also written the MTA & LIRR and complaining to local pols as well. Not much response on that front so far.
Westbury is the busiest of the 4 "local" stations, and lately I have been seeing plenty of people waiting on the platform on weekends & off peak. I certainly think if Cold Spring Harbor (which is much more lightly populated) sees a train every 30 min, so should Westbury. Yes I know Cold Spring Harbor is a busy commuter lot, but I'm talking about weekends when it is a ghost town.
Also, as Westbury tries to attract people to live in new condos and apartments downtown, the train service (among other things) remains a limiting factor.
We already saw what happened with the PW branch when service was increased from hourly to half hourly, ridership rose. Certainly having more people coming to Westbury to use the train would be a good thing.
Even in rush hours I do find gaps in peak direction service in Westbury, such as between 5:50am and 6:30am, which could easily be remedied by adding a Westbury stop to the 6:00am from Farmingdale. I know things are tight on the Main Line, which has to share it's two tracks with the Huntington, Ronkonkoma, Oyster Bay, Port Jeff, and occasional Montauk trains. Throw in all the grade crossings and the service it provides is already a challenge for those who have to rely on the LIRR for everything (I'm unable to drive, its just LIRR and "NICE" Bus). The regular schedules of the Babylon Line would be a welcome relief for me, which is again why I'm trying to move to someplace like Bellmore or Merrick (but I've got to find a place first..that's the difficult part ).
I do feel however on weekends when there's not as much of a "crunch", having all Huntington Trains stopping at Westbury every 30 minutes at least shouldn't be a big deal. The railroad seems to put us on the same page as Carle Place (which is barely a station, no lot, mainly rush hour use only), Merillon Ave & New Hyde Park (areas which are also served by the Hempstead branch).
But Westbury is a more densely populated area that has a downtown. Sure we get a few more trains in rush hour than the others, plus the 3 Ronk trains they added, but I just don't get how the LIRR decides stopping patterns. Again that would point back to station ridership, the last study I could find was in 2006, awhile ago when things were quite different.
I would appreciate some ideas, perhaps someone can get in the "mind frame" of the LIRR as to why so many trains skip Westbury and why they will not simply add a stop...it's certainly not nearly as expensive as adding additional trains. The LIRR should be trying to serve as many passengers as possible and I just get the feeling they aren't.
I still haven't forgotten how after Sandy when the Ronkonkoma Branch was restored the trains bypassed Westbury leaving us with no service for almost 2 days while trains zoomed past. And that happens too often after storms when service was restored (happened after that blizzard weeks ago too). Or that snow is removed at our station AFTER the rush hour while I saw crews of 6-8 at Bellmore keeping those platforms spotless.
I never quite understood why the two Huntington trains an hour do not make all stops along the Main Line, but alternate stops, as in one train serving Westbury and Merillon, and another serving Carle Place and New Hyde Park (all trains stop at Hicksville & Mineola).
We certainly don't have as many stops as the Babylon Line, yet the Babylon Line stations usually get service every 30 minutes in the off peak/weekends, and trains generally make all stops between Babylon and Rockville Centre. For the Huntington Branch, all we are talking about is two extra stops, maybe 4-5 min added to the schedule, which should be easy enough on weekends.
I have written the LIRR PCAC, and they responded that due to the lack of a proper yard facility in Huntington it allows little time in turning trains, but said on weekends it is feasible. I've also written the MTA & LIRR and complaining to local pols as well. Not much response on that front so far.
Westbury is the busiest of the 4 "local" stations, and lately I have been seeing plenty of people waiting on the platform on weekends & off peak. I certainly think if Cold Spring Harbor (which is much more lightly populated) sees a train every 30 min, so should Westbury. Yes I know Cold Spring Harbor is a busy commuter lot, but I'm talking about weekends when it is a ghost town.
Also, as Westbury tries to attract people to live in new condos and apartments downtown, the train service (among other things) remains a limiting factor.
We already saw what happened with the PW branch when service was increased from hourly to half hourly, ridership rose. Certainly having more people coming to Westbury to use the train would be a good thing.
Even in rush hours I do find gaps in peak direction service in Westbury, such as between 5:50am and 6:30am, which could easily be remedied by adding a Westbury stop to the 6:00am from Farmingdale. I know things are tight on the Main Line, which has to share it's two tracks with the Huntington, Ronkonkoma, Oyster Bay, Port Jeff, and occasional Montauk trains. Throw in all the grade crossings and the service it provides is already a challenge for those who have to rely on the LIRR for everything (I'm unable to drive, its just LIRR and "NICE" Bus). The regular schedules of the Babylon Line would be a welcome relief for me, which is again why I'm trying to move to someplace like Bellmore or Merrick (but I've got to find a place first..that's the difficult part ).
I do feel however on weekends when there's not as much of a "crunch", having all Huntington Trains stopping at Westbury every 30 minutes at least shouldn't be a big deal. The railroad seems to put us on the same page as Carle Place (which is barely a station, no lot, mainly rush hour use only), Merillon Ave & New Hyde Park (areas which are also served by the Hempstead branch).
But Westbury is a more densely populated area that has a downtown. Sure we get a few more trains in rush hour than the others, plus the 3 Ronk trains they added, but I just don't get how the LIRR decides stopping patterns. Again that would point back to station ridership, the last study I could find was in 2006, awhile ago when things were quite different.
I would appreciate some ideas, perhaps someone can get in the "mind frame" of the LIRR as to why so many trains skip Westbury and why they will not simply add a stop...it's certainly not nearly as expensive as adding additional trains. The LIRR should be trying to serve as many passengers as possible and I just get the feeling they aren't.
I still haven't forgotten how after Sandy when the Ronkonkoma Branch was restored the trains bypassed Westbury leaving us with no service for almost 2 days while trains zoomed past. And that happens too often after storms when service was restored (happened after that blizzard weeks ago too). Or that snow is removed at our station AFTER the rush hour while I saw crews of 6-8 at Bellmore keeping those platforms spotless.
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
— Benjamin Franklin
— Benjamin Franklin