Ellison Avenue bridge replacement

MACTRAXX wrote:

Amtrak7 wrote:The special schedules for the entire system are now posted.

It looks like they just took the Roslyn Road timetables and added 8702/8703, etc. Some of the minor things that were changed since then (i.e. 8715 not bypassing Speonk anymore) were overlooked.

The reduction of Babylon service to hourly, if not absolutely necessary to run the Ronkonkoma Z-trains, will probably lead to some ugly crowding issues...

A7 and Everyone:

The special schedules for ALL lines on 5/16 and 5/17 are also available at Penn Station...

From Mineola to Hicksville a bus "bridge" will be in operation on those days for Port Jefferson and
Ronkonkoma Branch riders

Everyone: Upon further review of the combined Port Jefferson and Ronkonkoma Branch timetable that will be in
effect for the weekend of 5/16-17 I took note of these service changes:

The "Bus Bridge" will go into effect between 12 Midnight and 1 AM on the morning of the 16th and will remain
in operation until around 1 AM on Monday May 18th between Mineola and Hicksville...
Westbury and Carle Place will be served by local buses between Mineola and Hicksville...

Beginning at 7:37 AM until 11:37 PM on both Saturday and Sunday Ronkonkoma Branch trains will operate via the
Central Branch and Babylon going west to Penn Station - Eastbounds will operate from 6:59 AM on both days
until 10:59 PM from Penn Station in the same manner serving Farmingdale through Ronkonkoma...

Overnights Friday into Saturday -and- Saturday into Sunday the "bus bridge" service will serve Ronkonkoma Branch
riders with connecting trains from Hicksville - Ronkonkoma during those hours...

Bethpage will be served by shuttle buses direct to Mineola and local buses to Hicksville and Farmingdale
during the hours that the Ronkonkoma Branch trains are running via the Central Branch...

There will be the two usually scheduled weekend round trip trains between Ronkonkoma and Greenport...

Port Jefferson trains are scheduled every two hours and will operate from Hicksville to Port Jefferson along with
Hicksville-Huntington shuttle trains operating in between to provide hourly Hicksville-Huntington service...

The last through eastbound train leaves Penn Station at 11:42 on Friday night 5/15 to Huntington arriving at 12:48
AM witsh a PJ connecting train leaving Huntington at 12:51 arriving at PJ at 1:35 am...

The last through westbound train leaves PJ at 11:22 PM on Friday night 5/15 arriving at Huntington at 12:10 AM to
connect at 12:16 AM from Huntington to Penn Station arriving at 1:20 AM...

The targeted time for the resumption of train service between Mineola and Hicksville looks to be around 1 AM
on Monday May 18th - with full service expected for that morning's AM rush period...

It seems like the LIRR will need just about all available Diesel trainsets during this weekend with what looks to be
regular schedules for the Montauk and Oyster Bay Branches scheduled for the 5/16-17 weekend...The changes with
the expanded Montauk Branch Summer Service go into effect on 5/18 with the first through Cannonball to Montauk
scheduled for May 22nd this year (different topic but relevant noting this track work program's dating) and with that
added ridership the LIRR may be pressed even more for Diesel equipment with the start of the East End '15 season
meaning that this scheduled weekend Ellison Avenue Bridge demolition project would not be practical after this time
until sometime in September noting how many service changes that will be necessary...

The weekend of May 16th and 17th is definitely going to be a very interesting time period for the LIRR...

MACTRAXX

This is no different from the Roslyn Road work, and in terms of diesel utilization, the QUEENS and JCC work. The first two occurred in August, during the peak of the summer travel season. Buses replaced trains east of Ronkonkoma on those days to free up equipment.

The JCC one occurred after the summer was over, and there was no weekend Greenport service at the time.

The Ellison Avenue construction outage will be the weekend of 10/24-25, again after Columbus Day. It is possible to cover the Ronkonkoma service with the 8 regular DM consists and make up an extra one for the Montauk Branch, though I have no idea how they did it during the summer in 2007, even with 2 cars and an engine freed up from Greenport.

What is surprising me is that I originally only expected changes on these lines:

-Port Jeff
-Ronkonkoma
-Oyster Bay (track space in Mineola)
-Far Rockaway (connections)
-West Hempstead (connections)
-Babylon (track space for rerouted Ronkonkoma trains)
-Montauk (routing trains via the South Shore)

To see changes on the Port Washington, which has no connections (and it's not like track space in Penn is at an absolute premium on the weekend...), is surprising and strange.

A7:

Good points concerning Summer weekends - Some do have less travel then others sometime for a variety of
reasons (weather, etc.) and large trackwork programs can be scheduled provided that the weekend in question
does not involve a major holiday like Memorial Day (5/22-5/25) being the unofficial start of the East End Resort
Season...What ever happened to the noticeable 10 percent ridership drop during the prime Summer season time
of mid June until Labor Day?

I noted that the two Greenport scoots are on the schedule for 5/16-17 and I thought myself that this could be a
easy service to replace with buses for this period - in this case apparently not...

MACTRAXX

The changes on the weekend are due to how the equipment rotations were affected by the subtraction of service.

SwingMan wrote:The changes on the weekend are due to how the equipment rotations were affected by the subtraction of service.

Some of the changes, yes, but I'm suspicious - if you look up the 2005 weekend schedules on the Internet Archive for unaffected branches, it's substantially the same as the special timetables, random hour-long gaps on the Babylon included.

If I remember, when they did the VALLEY cutover, a special timetable wasn't issued for the Main Line branches, and there was definitely no Port Wash special timetable for QUEENS.

They are taking an entire bridge down! Over the MAINLINE! In an extremely tight spot! Over ONE weekend!

It IS a big disruption in normal running...and people are questioning the schedule???!!!

LIRR video explaining Ellison Ave bridge replacement project and rerouting of main line trains.
MTA LIRR Ellison Avenue Bridge Replacement Project, May 16-17
From the animation of the new bridge (1:16) when complete there does not appear to be room for a third track.

On the weekend of May 16-17, there will be a 48-hour Train Service Suspension Between Hicksville & Mineola.
The LIRR is replacing the Ellison Avenue Bridge, which spans the LIRR’s Main Line tracks in the Village of Westbury. Demolition of the bridge will require a 48-hour suspension of train service between Hicksville and Mineola. This service suspension will primarily affect the Port Jefferson and Ronkonkoma branches. However, ALL Long Island Rail Road branches will be affected with revised departure and arrival times for weekend trains. Special weekend timetables will be in effect for ALL branches on Saturday, May 16 and Sunday, May 17. To avoid delays, use south shore or Port Washington branches.

Summary of Changes
Saturday & Sunday, May 16 & May 17

Ronkonkoma Branch
Midnight – 7 AM

Buses replace trains between Hicksville and Mineola.

7 AM – Midnight

Bethpage customers will be bused between Mineola and Hicksville.

Ronkonkoma through Farmingdale customers will travel to/from Penn Station by train without transfers, as trains will be diverted via the Central & Babylon Branches.

Huntington/Port Jefferson Branch

Buses replace trains between Hicksville and Mineola for the entire weekend.

Trains between Huntington and Port Jefferson will operate every two hours instead of the usual 90-minute intervals.
Service between Huntington and Penn Station will operate hourly instead of the usual 30-minute intervals.

Carle Place and Westbury will be served by buses only.

Mets Fans:

To avoid busing and delays to Mets home games on May 16 & 17, take south shore branches or the Port Washington Branch.
At Woodside, eastbound customers must board trains in the first two cars allweekend.
For direct service to Woodside, use the Babylon or Port Washington branches.
Ronkonkoma trains will not stop at Woodside on the weekend of May 16-17.

Parking at Hicksville Station
The Town of Oyster Bay parking lot on the north side of Hicksville Station will be closed on Saturday, May 16 and Sunday, May 17 to accommodate MTA shuttle buses transporting customers between Hicksville and Mineola. Parking will be available in the Town of Oyster Bay parking garage just east of Hicksville Station.

Travel Tips:

Pick up special weekend timetables for ALL branches dated May 16-17
Allow 60 minutes of additional travel time
Capacity is limited on alternate bus service. Customers are strongly urged to avoid the Ronkonkoma and Port Jefferson Branches during the weekend of May 16-17. Please use the Babylon, Far Rockaway, Hempstead, Long Beach, Montauk, Port Washington, Oyster Bay or West Hempstead Branches to avoid busing and delays during this construction period.
Monitor radio and TV traffic reports for updates
Buy LIRR tickets in advance
Leave bicycles at home. Bikes will not be permitted on buses or trains
Listen for announcements
Call 511 or 718-217-5477 for assistance
Look for LIRR personnel at key locations
Sign up for Customer E-Mail Alerts at http://www.mymtaalerts.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work to complete this infrastructure improvement in the shortest timeframe possible.

Visit mta.info/lirr for more info.

Thanks for the link to that video, Herring.

Here is a link to some photos of the construction posted on the Village of Westbury facebook page. (Unfortunately you DO have to log-in to Facebook to be able to see the photos!!!)
https://www.facebook.com/14916192513145 ... =1&theater

How exactly would the trains from Ronko go down the Central Branch? At what point will they turn around (or reverse) and head on down Central?

They go to the westerly limits of Beth Interlocking, where the crew changes ends.

Photo taken May 14, 2015 at 11AM

Gonna be a heck of a weekend in Westbury. Bad enough that Ellison Ave. is closed; there's no train service and now they're also closing the School St. crossing just east of the station, probably 'til Monday morning. Not sure what work they're doing there. But I am sure Post ave. will be bumper-to-bumper.........

Head-end View wrote:Gonna be a heck of a weekend in Westbury. Bad enough that Ellison Ave. is closed; there's no train service and now they're also closing the School St. crossing just east of the station, probably 'til Monday morning. Not sure what work they're doing there. But I am sure Post ave. will be bumper-to-bumper.........

Oh it is. Post Ave is bumper to bumper the whole way down. Many delays on local NICE Buses.
Speaking of buses, apparently Westbury wasn't even getting many. Stopped by the Westbury station this afternoon and the LIRR personnel told me that the westbound shuttle buses have not been arriving all day at Westbury, the taxis were cleaning up good on stranded passengers, unaware they could just walk a few blocks for the n22 or down to Old Country for the n24.
I was basically told that they were screwing the middle stations (Carle Place & Westbury) and putting most of the buses on the shuttles between Hicksville & Mineola.
At Hicksville there was hodgepodge of MTA and NYC buses there, MCI Coach buses, local transits, even artics!
What a saw today pretty much confirms my opinion on the LIRR's poor treatment of Westbury. I wish someone would look into this. The west end staircase on the south platform has been closed for months already as well.

I was at Westbury noonish and there was a bus.
I wanted to see what they were working on but the stairs were closed. There was a "little giant" crane up there.
Next I went to Carle Place. There was a ballast vacuum working on the south track and more equipment on the north track to the west. There were several people waiting and they asked when the next train was - I said 2 days. I explained that the RR was closed for the weekend to remove the bridge.
I went to Mineola and there was a "convoy" of buses.
Ray

Piney, you've been complaining about the MTA for years on here. Why haven't you looked into other means of getting around if the MTA is as inept as you say they are. The work has to get done and there were public hearings about this. Use a little bit of common sense with this. If it's not one thing it's another with you.