East End Service: Greenport Scoot, Montauk Line, Etc.

The current LIRR service to/from Greenport is all rail. There are no through trains from New York City; passengers must transfer at Ronkonkoma to a Ronkonkoma - Greenport shuttle train.

The LIRR operated Road n' Rail service (coordinated train & bus) 1962 - 1980. One of their Road n' Rail routes was a bus between Greenport and Huntington, where you would transfer to a train to Jamaica. I rode it several times between the mid 1960s and the mid 1970s, between Jamaica and Cutchogue. I understand they also once had a Road n' Rail bus between Greenport and Babylon, but I never rode that particular bus route.

jhdeasy wrote:The current LIRR service to/from Greenport is all rail. There are no through trains from New York City; passengers must transfer at Ronkonkoma to a Ronkonkoma - Greenport shuttle train.

The LIRR operated Road n' Rail service (coordinated train & bus) 1962 - 1980. One of their Road n' Rail routes was a bus between Greenport and Huntington, where you would transfer to a train to Jamaica. I rode it several times between the mid 1960s and the mid 1970s, between Jamaica and Cutchogue. I understand they also once had a Road n' Rail bus between Greenport and Babylon, but I never rode that particular bus route.

BAR and JHD:

The LIRR last ran Road N' Rail bus service to Greenport and the North Fork in the early 1980s until the schedule
changes of September 8, 1981 on weekdays and October 17, 1983 on weekends respectively...

I searched my LIRR Eastern Long Island and Ronkonkoma/Greenport Branch timetables from the early 1980s to
find this information because I was interested in finding out about when this service was discontinued myself...

See this topic from July/August 2012: http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... 3&t=100642" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Note the link to some historic information and pictures of the LIRR Road N' Rail bus service there...

MACTRAXX

Thanks for the helpful information. I am planning to ride to Greenport later this month. The timetable I picked up last year in NYP was for 2/24/14 through 5/18/14 and at that time the M-F morning train only went as far as Riverhead where a transfer was made for a bus to Greenport.

Bill O'Connell

BAR wrote:Thanks for the helpful information. I am planning to ride to Greenport later this month. The timetable I picked up last year in NYP was for 2/24/14 through 5/18/14 and at that time the M-F morning train only went as far as Riverhead where a transfer was made for a bus to Greenport.

That bus from Riverhead to Greenport was/is probably Suffolk County Transit System bus route 92.

MACTRACXX wrote:The LIRR last ran Road N' Rail bus service to Greenport and the North Fork in the early 1980s until the schedule
changes of September 8, 1981 on weekdays and October 17, 1983 on weekends respectively...

I searched my LIRR Eastern Long Island and Ronkonkoma/Greenport Branch timetables from the early 1980s to
find this information because I was interested in finding out about when this service was discontinued myself…

Thanks for the researching the LIRR timetables to verify the end of Road n' Rail service to Greenport. This is something I wondered about myself. I'll let Steve know this information so that he can update his website. It mentions Babylon to Montauk Raoad n' Rail service ended in 1980, but I did not see it note an ending date for the service to Greenport.

http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/roadnr ... dnrail.htm

Even with the DMs in service since 1999, there has yet to be a "thru train" on the North Fork.

BAR wrote:Thanks for the helpful information. I am planning to ride to Greenport later this month. The timetable I picked up last year in NYP was for 2/24/14 through 5/18/14 and at that time the M-F morning train only went as far as Riverhead where a transfer was made for a bus to Greenport.

Bill O'Connell

That was a tie replacement program.

R36 Combine Coach wrote:Even with the DMs in service since 1999, there has yet to be a "thru train" on the North Fork.

According to MACTRAXX, who looked thru his collection of old timetables, thru train service between Jamaica and Greenport ended with the Ronkonkoma electrification and the timetable of January 18, 1988.

BAR wrote:Is the current LIRR service to Greenport all rail or a combination rail and bus? Thanks.

Bill O'Connell

In the present, the LIRR's service is all rail. They generally only use buses when train service has to be suspended due to trackwork.

However... on summer weekends, when the crowding on Montauk-bound trains has gotten bad enough that not everybody can fit on the train, and some people are left behind, the LIRR will instruct those stranded passengers to take the next eastbound train to Babylon or Patchogue, and arrange for bus service to pick up those stranded passengers and take them the rest of the way to the Hamptons and Montauk. So there's still some vestige of bus service As far as I know, this doesn't happen too often, but it did happen recently on July 3rd (July 4th weekend is naturally a big weekend for travel to the East End, so it's not surprising)

When in Greenport you'll notice the former freight house now houses a railroad related museum.
In the "road n rail" days the freight house was used as a garage for the road n rail busses.

As for a weekday morning trip to Greenport the connecting train leaves New York a bit later than it did a couple of years back.

If you want some more time in Greenport (and on a hot day, the ferry ride to Shelter Island is always a pleasure), you can always take the
Hampton Jitney back. These busses run through to NYC.

http://www.hamptonjitney.com/PDFS/NF_20150709.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Ken

[quote="jhdeasy"][quote="BAR"]Thanks for the researching the LIRR timetables to verify the end of Road n' Rail service to Greenport. This is something I wondered about myself. I'll let Steve know this information so that he can update his website. It mentions Babylon to Montauk Raoad n' Rail service ended in 1980, but I did not see it note an ending date for the service to Greenport.

Thank you: Mike McEnaney and Jack Deasy I updated the webpage. http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/roadnr ... dnrail.htm Oops, I'm sorry to PC offend some folks with links.

In case nobody has noticed, there's a Friday night schedule that runs Greenport to Ronkonkoma and then express to Jamaica. Is this an equipment move turned revenue?

NK:

Interesting observation - I believe Friday is when the Greenport Scoot equipment is swapped out and deadheaded to Jamaica.
One of these trainsets is used to provide a second eastbound Friday evening train between Ronkonkoma and Greenport.

On Friday evenings you have both sets of equipment out at Greenport Station at some point - it makes some sense to run one of these sets back to Jamaica in
revenue service - I believe that the LIRR has been reluctant to do this because it may end up carrying many Ronkonkoma riders looking for a nonstop express
train option even with the change at Jamaica. This would be an interesting train to ride at some point this Summer...MACTRAXX

Hey NIMBYkiller,

(Hi Jared!)

What time/date do you see that move leaving Greenport terminal?

I checked the on-line schedule and it is only showing the usual westbound leaving at 9:39 on 5/20. THAT movement usually ties up at Ronkonkoma for the night and returns Saturday morning.

Historically, in the summer, there has been a Friday night "equipment move" from Greenport to Hillside - it takes the "dirty" train into the shops for cleaning. The crew brings a "clean" train to Greenport earlier than than the usual movement, leaving the "clean" train for the 9:39 return to Ronkonkoma.

Curious,
de Don n2qhvRMLI

Don and NK:

The new Summer LIRR schedules go into effect on Monday May 23rd - Friday May 27th (going into Memorial Day weekend)
would be the first Friday the new schedule is in effect. The current schedules are in effect until Sunday May 22nd meaning
that this new service will not be running yet on Friday May 20th. I am as interested as both of you are in this new service...

MACTRAXX

It's mentioned here: http://web.mta.info/supplemental/lirr/N ... ements.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;