New rail service and restoration

Long Island Rail Road Service Investments

Service every half-hour on weekends will be established in both directions to Ronkonkoma and will be restored to Port Washington.
Weekend service to Greenport will be extended for 10 weeks.
A new 4:09 p.m. weekday train will run from Penn Station to Ronkonkoma.
A new 7:00 p.m. weekday train will run from Ronkonkoma to Penn Station.
A new 8:22 p.m. weekday train will run from Penn Station to Hicksville.
A restored 4:37 p.m. weekday train will run from Penn Station to Wantagh.
A restored 4:57 p.m. weekday train will run from Penn Station to Freeport.

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gee i wish njt would do this

From The LIRR Today:

lirr42 for [url=http://thelirrtoday.blogspot.com/2013/07/new-service-enhancements-coming-to-lirr.html]The LIRR Today[/url] wrote:Governor Cuomo's office announced today (because how can any good news come down these days without the Governor's name on it?) that the MTA will be using its surprise $40 million gift from the State of New York to enhance some services for the Subway, Buses, Metro-North, and yes, the LIRR.

Earlier in the year the MTA announced it would be getting an unexpected $40 million boost in its state aid for 2014, and now they have finally announced what they plan to do with the money.

The news came down in a press releaseon Governor Cuomo's site this morning. Most of it is the Governor patting himself and the MTA on the back for their coolness.Of the $40 million, roughly $13.8 million will be going to MTA New York City Transit for subway and bus improvements as well as a decent chunk of change for improving station layouts and maintenance.

Metro-North will spend $1.7 million per year to add real-time train information signs at all of its New York stations. These "real-time train information signs" are very similar to the signs that have been at every single LIRR station for the last several years. But, for the most part, Metro-North had its fun last year when they added 230 trains per week in 2012, and will not be adding any more trains this time around.

The LIRR gets to benefit from this MTA windfall as well. The LIRR is slated to get $2.6 million for improvements to train service. The press release that came down this morning details some of the improvements:

• Half-hourly Port Washington and Ronkonkoma Branch service on Weekends
• Weekend Greenport Service will be extended for 10 more weeks
• A new 4:09 p.m. weekday train will run from Penn Station to Ronkonkoma.
• A new 7:00 p.m. weekday train will run from Ronkonkoma to Penn Station.
• A new 8:22 p.m. weekday train will run from Penn Station to Hicksville.
• A restored 4:37 p.m. weekday train will run from Penn Station to Wantagh.
• A restored 4:57 p.m. weekday train will run from Penn Station to Freeport.

By far the single greatest improvement this time around is the weekend half-hourly service on the Port Washington and Ronkonkoma Branches. The Port Washington Branch got is half hourly service taken away in 2010, and that ended up costing the LIRR a lot of riders. A little while back the LIRR restored midday weekday half-hourly service to the branch, and now the riders of the LIRR's most isolated branch are now getting their half-hourly headways back on the weekends too.

The Ronkonkoma half-hourly service is a pretty substantial improvement too. Riders along this branch have long been wishing for half-hourly off-peak service, but up until this point the LIRR has always said that half-hourly service along the single-tracked portion of the branch was impossible, but apparently by some miraculous feat it now seems possible.

There are also three new trains that will come about in this round of enhancements. A new peak eastbound Ronkonkoma train will be added at the very beginning of the rush (presumably to take some stress off of 2058 which leaves at 3:55pm)

A new 7:00pm train will be added at the end of the evening rush hour from Ronkonkoma back to Penn Station. I presume that train is added only in part to get the equipment from the new 4:09pm train back form Penn Station since the Ronkonkoma Yard is pretty full already at night. It seems its the only reasonable explanation considering there is already a westbound train that leaves Ronkonkoma at 7:13pm, 13 minutes later.

There will also be another cleanup train added to Hicksville at the very end of the evening rush to close a gap in service to those stations.In addition, two evening peak Babylon trains will be restored to Freeport and Wantagh.

This press release is only the beginning of this, we are still a couple months away from seeing these changes actually coming to be, and there are still a lot more details that have to be ironed out (i.e. what is going to happen with those Farmingdale locals that were added in just last March and if midday weekday Ronkonkoma Branch half-hourly service will also become a reality).

The MTA is likely to make more information available as we get closer to the date, but this is all good news nonetheless!

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sounds good but how about more weekend greenport night runs.like i said a 11pm greenport to ronkonkoma run would be great so you could enjoy a evening dinner in greenport not lunch.(who will listen to me anyway)

The KO half hourly is not what we thought it was...its just extending the Farmingdale turns/starts out to KO.

Amtrak7 wrote:The KO half hourly is not what we thought it was...its just extending the Farmingdale turns/starts out to KO.

Do you remember where you saw that? The press release on the Governor's website simply says "Service every half-hour on weekends will be established in both directions to Ronkonkoma" it does leave quite a bit to the imagination but it leads me to believe that it will be all day service.

I guess we'll have to wait for the schedules to come out to be sure.

Ahhh, I see where you see that now (page on MTA's website). That's kind of a rip off. The way they worded it earlier in the day could definitely lead one to believe that half-hourly service to Ronkonkoma was finally going to become a reality.

I guess not, though, just more smoke and mirrors from the MTA and Cuomo.

lirr42 wrote:Ahhh, I see where you see that now (page on MTA's website). That's kind of a rip off. The way they worded it earlier in the day could definitely lead one to believe that half-hourly service to Ronkonkoma was finally going to become a reality.

I guess not, though, just more smoke and mirrors from the MTA and Cuomo.

And that 4:09p new Main Line train will only go as far as Farmingdale, not KO.

Amtrak7 wrote:And that 4:09p new Main Line train will only go as far as Farmingdale, not KO.

Now that's blatantly misleading people. The press release from the Almighty Andrew M. Cuomo's office this morning clearly said that the 4:09pm train would go to Ronkonkoma.

The 3:55p train gets fairly crowded and there's nearly a half hour gap in service right on the onset of the evening rush, a train like that would probably help a lot.

But hey, any news is good news for the Governor's office.

The reverse peak train will originate from Farmingdale at 7PM, not Ronkonkoma.

RestrictOnTheHanger wrote:The reverse peak train will originate from Farmingdale at 7PM, not Ronkonkoma.

Yes, that also appears to be true. I did do a double take at first when I saw that they had a new train leaving Ronkonkoma at 7:00pm when there was already a train that left there at 7:13pm, but I went along with it figuring it was necessary to get the equipment back west anyways.

Perhaps Albany should release a press release entitled "Governor Andrew M. Cuomo Misleads Ronkonkoma Branch Passengers"

Well every little bit helps and for the most part, even if it isn't entirely accurate, that does apply here.

But only extended Greenport weekend service? What a joke. It's astounding how they're completely ignoring the obvious. The shuttle that trots between KO and Yaphank, Riverhead and Greenport however few times a day could easily make extra round trips without extra equipment. Though a part of me wonders if they need to keep the set out of service most of the day in case the loco and/or cars need to be swapped out between runs with equipment from the other diesel branches.

The "extension" of weekend Greenport service is also overstated.

Restore Greenport service through our November timetable change. This will add 8-10 weeks of service on weekends between Ronkonkoma and Greenport. (Duration depends upon date of Timetable change each winter.)

An extra 10 weeks (starting with the weekend after Columbus Day) would mean weekend service would run until just before Christmas, now they are talking about the November timetable change, which could mean as little as 4 extra weeks of service. If they were determined to just extend the service, it should be through the Christmas and New Years Holiday (popular times for the 2nd homeowner crowd to be on the east end).

No matter, the existing weekend Greenport schedule is USELESS to us local North Fork residents looking to take a day trip to the city.

To quote another regular poster, the Jitney has nothing to worry about.

Ken

peconicstation wrote:The "extension" of weekend Greenport service is also overstated.

Restore Greenport service through our November timetable change. This will add 8-10 weeks of service on weekends between Ronkonkoma and Greenport. (Duration depends upon date of Timetable change each winter.)

An extra 10 weeks (starting with the weekend after Columbus Day) would mean weekend service would run until just before Christmas, now they are talking about the November timetable change, which could mean as little as 4 extra weeks of service. If they were determined to just extend the service, it should be through the Christmas and New Years Holiday (popular times for the 2nd homeowner crowd to be on the east end).

No matter, the existing weekend Greenport schedule is USELESS to us local North Fork residents looking to take a day trip to the city.

To quote another regular poster, the Jitney has nothing to worry about.

Ken

From what I understand, it's extended to start in April and run through the November timetable change.

Does this mean that the Friday afternoon extra train LIRR Train# 254 will be extended to the November timetable change or will it just be Saturday and Sunday service to Greenport?? Thanks

LINYARailfan wrote:Does this mean that the Friday afternoon extra train LIRR Train# 254 will be extended to the November timetable change or will it just be Saturday and Sunday service to Greenport?? Thanks

No changes to Friday service.

What's really needed are some extra Ronkokoma peak trains between 2072 and 2080. Right now there's only half hourly service, and 2078 is the most crowded train of the evening rush (104%); 2080 is running at 95% (which in practice is a lot of standees because of middle seats)