High-platform ridership threshold

In Philadelphia, SEPTA has announced that a relocated station at Conshohocken (Manayunk-Norristown) will have high platforms as part of a long-term program. This is expected to attract 500 riders a day, and it reminded me of the LIRR adoption of high platforms systemwide. I know that a number of stations were eliminated at that time because of insufficient ridership, and it occurred to me to wonder: on the LIRR, would 500 riders a day have made the cut?

Absolutely. 500 riders a day is very good ridership, even for the LIRR and Metro-North.

I don’t have any numbers to point to, but I seem to recall that the average daily ridership for the five stations closed when the bilevels came around was in the single- and very low double-digits.

EC90 and EL:
The five LIRR Diesel territory stations closed back in 1998 were: (Miles from LIC - LIRR ETT)
Mill Neck (Oyster Bay Branch-31.1) between Locust Valley (29.1) and Oyster Bay (32.9)
Holtsville (Main Line) 3 1/2 miles E of Ronkonkoma (48.3) at Mile 51.8
Center Moriches (66.3), Quogue (77.0) and Southampton Campus-LIU (formerly Southampton College-85.0)
on the Montauk Branch - all were lower ridership stations that did not justify the expense of constructing
high-level platforms for the new C3 equipment and/or had alternative stations within reasonable distance...

As example in the case of Quogue the local Village of Quogue gave the LIRR a very hard time concerning
parking at and around the station area which was one incentive to close the station then...

There were stations that "barely made the cut" such as Bellport (57.8) and were saved through local effort -
The Village of Bellport petitioned the LIRR to keep Bellport Station - a two car platform was built and to this
day no ticket vending machines are available at this Montauk Branch "Exception" station...

Comparing Conshohocken with these former stations is quite different - 500 riders/day is good patronage
for many stations on the LIRR - I would not be surprised if Ronkonkoma-Greenport "Scoot" ridership turns
out to be less than that daily to Medford, Yaphank, Riverhead, Mattituck, Southold and Greenport...MACTRAXX

Given the length of LIRR trains throughout the day I didn't think 500 a day sounded like much; good to know that Conshohocken measures up in importance. The news release mentioned the new ("civilian") construction in progress in the station area which began almost as soon as the station improvements were announced.

In the days when I lived in and frequented New York I found it an interesting mental exercise to look at the master Solari departure board over the LIRR ticket windows showing all the stations in alphabetical order (unique in the U. S.?) and the next two departures shown (with the track number for the first, when posted), and figure out what station name had been deleted from the blank space between two remaining stations. Quogue was an easy one ...

Quogue and Mill Neck petitioned to have theirs removed, this way Quogue wouldn't have to send the local cop every time a train pulled in. For Southampton LIU it was a rude surprise and they howled when they found out. Usually it was low ridership but during the beginning of the semester, holidays, Thursday and Sunday evenings it could be heavy. But the college was on a countdown to failure and I'm not sure what's happening out there since Stony Brook took it over, so no new need for a station as of yet.

Why would Quogue have needed to have a cop at the station?

Most likely he was being used as a flagman at the crossing?

MACTRAXX wrote: ↑Sat Nov 11, 2023 9:39 pm The five LIRR Diesel territory stations closed back in 1998l were lower ridership stations that did not justify the expense of constructing high-level platforms for the new C3 equipment and/or had alternative stations within reasonable distance...

The western local stops on the Montauk Branch between LIC and Jamaica were also axed on 3/16/98. With
the exception of the elevated station at Richmond Hill, none had a platform.

Metro-North is all high level except the hikers' stops and intermediate stations on the Waterbury Branch and the West-of-Hudson lines (Port Jervis has a full single car high platform, there are some mini-highs for ADA).

Does this mean ridership would increase because people would no longer have to walk up train stairs? Notwithstansing they still had to walk up stairs to a platform.All of the stations closed on LIRR had limited service years prior which had an impact on ridership.Another reason to install platforms could possibly be to decrease the amount of Train crew needed for getting traps

No. That's presumably why those stations didn't make the cut; raising platforms would have shortened dwell time without increasing ridership.

Could a single door mini-high have cut it for low density stops?

That’s what some crews do westbound at Glen St and Bellport.
Key open one door. It works fine that way too.
However making even less of a platform wouldn’t really Make sense unless you’re doing a non ADA compliant Wooden deck with stairs.

MACTRAXX wrote: ↑Sat Nov 11, 2023 9:39 pm
Comparing Conshohocken with these former stations is quite different - 500 riders/day is good patronage
for many stations on the LIRR - I would not be surprised if Ronkonkoma-Greenport "Scoot" ridership turns
out to be less than that daily to Medford, Yaphank, Riverhead, Mattituck, Southold and Greenport...MACTRAXX

Latest info I could find for ridership levels. This is listed as the 2013 counts.

Medford
Level 5. 42 passenger trips/weekday (includes eastbound/westbound trips)

Yaphank
Level 5. 30 passenger trips/weekday (includes eastbound/westbound trips)

Riverhead
Level 5. 75 passenger trips/weekday (includes eastbound/westbound trips)

Mattituck
Level 5. 15 passenger trips/weekday (includes eastbound/westbound trips)

Southold
Level 5. 10 passenger trips/weekday (includes eastbound/westbound trips)

Greenport
Level 5. 21 passenger trips/weekday (includes eastbound/westbound trips)

Gamer: Thanks - The Ronkonkoma-Greenport "Scoot" ridership probably has not changed much since 2013...

R36: There were only two trains each way scheduled over the Lower Montauk Branch to LIC during the 1990s
on weekdays as follows for the record - from a LIRR City Terminal Zone TT:
AM Peak westbound: Train #507 from Oyster Bay ran nonstop between Jamaica and Long Island City -
8:11 AM Jamaica - 8:34 AM LI City.
Train #41 from Patchogue made the local stops:
8:15 AM Jamaica; 8:21 Richmond Hill; 8:26 Glendale; 8:30 Fresh Pond; 8:33 Haberman; 8:36 Penny Bridge;
8:43 AM Long Island City.
PM Peak eastbound - two Oyster Bay trains #560 and #562 ran about 30 minutes apart:
#560 - Leave LI City 4:52 PM; Penny Bridge 4:59; Haberman 5:01; Fresh Pond 5:06; Jamaica-Arrive 5:16 PM
(no Glendale or Richmond Hill stop on #560)
#562 - Leave LI City 5:22 PM; Penny Bridge 5:28; Haberman 5:30; Fresh Pond 5:35; Glendale 5:38;
Richmond Hill 5:42; Arrive Jamaica 5:50 PM.

It would be interesting to see the Lower Montauk ridership level before service ended to the intermediate
stations between Jamaica and LIC back in March 1998...MACTRAXX

The MTA has this data.
The numbers were substantially less than what we have East of KO.

Closing a station is always a political decision.