Special Yaphank, Riverhead, & Greenport timetable

At Hicksville today, I found a timetable in the rack:
"Special construction schedules effective August 17-30, 2005, Yaphank, Riverhead & Greenport Branch Timetable."
The changes are only Monday to Friday during that period.
Eastbound weekdays, the 9:09 a.m. to Greenport and 1:47 p.m. to Riverhead out of Ronkonkoma are bus.
The 5:17 p.m. Ronkonkoma-Yaphank (extended to Greenport on Fridays) and 6:53 p.m. Ronkonkoma-Greenport are trains.
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Westbound weekdays, 5:30 a.m. out of Greenport is a train (almost 3 hours to Penn Station).
11:42 a.m. from Greenport and 3:16 p.m. from Riverhead are buses.
The 9:55 p.m. from Greenport (2 hours 51 minutes to Penn) are trains.
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Of course, all require transfer at Ronkonkoma. Saturday and Sunday see two roundtrips Ronkonkoma-Greenport.

What sort of construction is being done out there?

Dave Keller

The cover of the timetable says, "To accomodate grade crossing renewal work."
As a car driver, I must say that the LIRR generally keeps its crossings in good shape, usually with a rubber mat. There are few places where there is a hill that would hang-up a low-bed truck, for example, though maybe some readers of this site could name some.

Ocean ave, in East Rockaway, even has the Low boy warning signes, there are a few like that on the Long Beach and Far Rock branches

With the annual scare tatic of "closeing the main from Ronkokoma to Greenport" to save money, why are they evening investing a dime into that branch, am i missing something or does some one higher up not know where the moneys going?

well if they do install cement crossings and CWR east of KO, maby they can rewire the blocks and crossings to increase the speed to 65 or even 80MPH to Yapank as alot of it is streight as an arrow. that would increase the scoots preformance and time to complete a trip.

Waverly Avenue crossing in Holtsville was always a bad spot for low trailers, etc. to bottom out.

The road rose to track level then dropped back down on the other side of the crossing.

Dave Keller

Merrits road crossing is/was pretty bad

You guys should try the Maspeth Ave crossing on the lower Montauk. You need a 4x4 to go over it.

From the MTA website:


Service East of Ronkonkoma Affected Weekdays August 17 - 30
MTA Long Island Rail Road service between Ronkonkoma and Greenport on the Ronkonkoma Branch will be affected by a track work program on weekdays from

August 17 through August 30. The work involves the renewal of grade crossings at Waverly Avenue, Blue Point Road and Wading River Road. Four trains, two eastbound and two westbound, will be canceled between 6:53 AM and 5:17 PM during the work. Bus service will operate in place of these trains as detailed below:

Eastbound
Customers on the 9:02 AM train from Ronkonkoma to Greenport and the 1:42 PM train from Ronkonkoma to Riverhead will board buses at Ronkonkoma to complete their trips.

Westbound
Customers on the 11:42 AM from Greenport to Ronkonkoma and the 3:16 PM from Riverhead to Ronkonkoma will board buses to complete their trips.

Customers should anticipate up to 30 minutes additional travel time.

A special timetable for this work is available at Ronkonkoma Branch stations and at all terminals. For additional travel information, customers can contact the LIRR 24-hour Travel Information Center in Suffolk County at 631-231-LIRR, in Nassau County at 516-822-LIRR or in New York City at 718-217-LIRR. The Travel Information Center’s TDD telephone number for the hearing impaired is 718-558-3022.

On the subject of the crossings that hang up low-bed trucks, wasn't there an accident up near Glen Cove a few years ago where a truck got hung up on the crossing?

Yes, and I believe a Geep plowed right into it.

I thought that was 607 putting her OOS from that day on till it was restored to WM303

Yes that was 607.

Here's how well the Bustitution has been going.

On this past Monday, a busy day for the 11:42 AM out of Greenport, as it is on any SUMMER Monday, the bus got caught in construction traffic on Route 25, and started running behind the adverstised.

We pulled into KO at 1:13, just in time to watch the 1:11 KO to Penn Connecting train LEAVE. The LIRR has told me in the past (needless to say that this is not the first time it happended), that if the Bustitution misses the connection at KO the bus is authorized to run to Hicksville.
However the Bus Driver told me that he neded PRIOR authrorization to do this and the paperwork he has from the LIRR did not give the person to contact if they were running behind.

Grrrrrrrrrrrr, after a call to Dermody's office, the LIRR needless to say blamed the bus company (that they hired). One customer from the Bus had to take a cab inorder to make a flight connection at JFK, and the rest of us were stuck waiting close to hour for the next KO to Penn Train.

The only thing that the rep from dermody's office could do is offer to set up another Bus for any of us who would have rather returned home (a couple of people were going to meetings that they would not not make and had no other reason to be heading into NYC).

Some quick notes.

1. Did any idiot at the LIRR think that a better time for trackwork east of KO might be September instead of August (or even our biggest tourism month October).

2. Since this was a pre-planned Bustitute (in the summer) did those
idiots in the scheduling area THINK that maybe the Bus should
be set to run say 10 minutes earlier than the train (or even 15).

3. Again, since this was pre-planned (as opposed to an emergency)
WHY does the LIRR use one of their competitors (North Fork
Express/Coastal Charter), when they (the Bus Co) have a vested
interest in making the LIRR look bad?


Finally, on Friday my neighbor used the 11:42 Bustitution, again it ran late, BUT the connection was held. The Bus driver announced at KO that everyone should "run for their lives" as the LIRR usually does not hold the connection, and that he (the bus driver) did not know the way to Hicksville. Prior to this when the Bus was on the LIE the driver reminded everyone that his company (North Fork Express) provided better service to NYC from and to the North Fork.


Way to go LIRR!