The or '''LIRR''' (often referred to as the "L-I-double-R") is a that has failed passage as of April, 2006.
The LIRR has three major terminals and one minor terminal in
New York City - The major terminals are located at
Jamaica Station ,
Pennsylvania Station in
Manhattan , and the
Atlantic Terminal located at the intersections of
Flatbush Avenue and
Atlantic Avenue in
Brooklyn . The minor terminal is at
Long Island City in
Queens . The
Hunterspoint Avenue station, just east of Long Island City, is served by roughly 8 westbound trains and 12 eastbound trains per weekday. Five of those trains in each direction continue with passengers to/originate from Long Island City. All those trains, however continue to the yard at Long Island City.
A fourth major terminal is currently under construction. In 2011–2012 the LIRR intends to initiate service to
Grand Central Terminal via the
East Side Access project. When the train of the
New York City Subway was routed beneath the
East River from Queens to Manhattan via the
63rd Street Tunnel , provisions were made for this LIRR route. Work to be done includes tunneling beneath Manhattan from 63rd Street and the East River across to
Park Avenue and then south to Grand Central Terminal, as well as tunneling from the LIRR Main Line near
Amtrak 's
Sunnyside Yard in Queens to the East River.
There is also a major station and transfer point in
Jamaica , Queens, where the railroad's headquarters are located. (The parent MTA is headquartered in Manhattan.)
Jamaica Station encompasses eight tracks and six platforms, plus yard and bypass tracks. At Jamaica, passengers can transfer between all western branches and all but one eastern branch (the Port Washington Branch). In fact, frequent riders of the LIRR use the phrase "change at Jamaica" often. Transfer is also made for separate facilities for two different subway lines, many bus lines, and the
AirTrain automated electric rail system to
JFK International Airport . Jamaica is also the terminus for most trains going to Oyster Bay or Montauk, some Port Jefferson trains also end at Jamaica.
There are eleven branches on the LIRR. The longest two being the Main Line and the Montauk which "give birth" to six of the remaining nine branches. The Main Line and Montauk Branch each extend to points a few miles short of the end of each of Long Island's "forks," long peninsulas separated by
Shelter Island Sound . The line to the north fork, with limited service east of the prime commuter zone, ends at
Greenport and the line to the south fork, with both commuter service and extensive seasonal excursion traffic, ends at
Montauk .
There are six subsidiary branches terminating in
Nassau County, New York , at
Port Washington ,
Oyster Bay ,
Hempstead ,
West Hempstead ,
Long Beach and
Far Rockaway . This latter terminal actually loops back to, and terminates in New York City, but the remainder of the branch is in Nassau. In addition to the two major branches, there is one subsidiary branch in
Suffolk County, New York , to
Port Jefferson .
From the early 1970s through the early 2000s, the LIRR's fleet was dominated by the electric
Multiple Unit M1/M3 Cars , built by
Budd . Diesel-hauled trains through the late 1990s were operated using 1950s-era equipment (the P72/PT75 series) built by
Pullman-Standard .
In the late 1990s,
Kawasaki -built double-decker passenger cars hauled by
General Electric dual-mode diesel/electric locomotives replaced the 1950s-era equipment, allowing diesel trains to access
Pennsylvania Station (New York City) for the first time, as diesel operations are prohibited in the
East River Tunnels leading to Penn Station. These trains also have the distinction of being the only double-decker commuter trains currently in use in the
New York City area. They were also the first trains to actually have computer voices (complete with LED displays) announcing the stations as the commutes went on.
Beginning in the early 2000s, the M1 cars were mostly replaced by the new
Bombardier -built
M7 electric
Multiple Unit s, which also have computer voices announcing the stations.
The LIRR's history stretches back to 1832 and the
Brooklyn And Jamaica Railroad , which built a ten mile (16 km) stretch of track between Brooklyn and Jamaica. The Long Island Rail Road itself was founded in 1834, leasing the track laid down by the B&J and building its own.
The original plan was not as a local service to serve
Long Island , but rather a quicker route from
Boston to New York. Trains would run from Boston to
Stonington, Connecticut , where the passengers would cross by ferry to Long Island. They would then ride on the LIRR to Fulton Street in Brooklyn, and finally cross by ferry to New York. The reason for this rather complicated plan was the impossibility, at the time, of building a railroad through southern
Connecticut .
The LIRR thus built its original tracks running straight down the middle of the island, which was largely uninhabited at the time, rather than serving the existing Long Island communities. This route was chosen as the most direct way to travel to New York.
,
1844 ]]
The Island-long route was completed in 1844 and at first was highly successful.
In 1849 the
New York And New Haven Railroad opened through the 'impassable' country of southern Connecticut, and a direct overland route from New York to Boston now existed. The LIRR's reason for existence was gone.
The only remaining business was to serve Long Island itself, something the railroad was not built to do. Efforts were made to build branches to the small Long Island communities. In 1850 only one such branch existed, but more were built, as well as a number of other railroad companies' branches.
In 1860, the City of Brooklyn banned the use of steam engines in populated areas. The Long Island Rail Road reduced service to Brooklyn, eliminating the track between the current Flatbush Avenue terminal and the then Fulton Street terminal. Service between Jamaica Station and Flatbush Avenue was by horse drawn cars. The Long Island Rail Road built the route from Jamaica Station via Woodside Station to the Long Island City terminal where ferry connections to Manhattan could be made. This route was entirely within Queens County, and avoided the Brooklyn law. Since that time, the routes to Brooklyn have always been considered secondary.
The combination of the loss of the New York to Boston traffic and all the competing railroads made for harsh financial times for both the LIRR and the newer roads. In 1876, the LIRR was bought out by the owner of one of the competing roads, but the Long Island Rail Road name was used for the merged company. Even consolidation could not prevent another receivership in 1879, however.
Austin Corbin brought the various lines out of bankruptcy in 1880 under the LIRR umbrella and immediately made it profitable. Corbin set his sights on extending the rail from
Bridgehampton, New York to
Montauk, New York , which was occupied by
Montaukett Native Americans , who occupied nearly 10,000 acres (40 km²) there. Corbin's plan was to build a deep water port in Montauk where trans-Atlantic passengers could disembark and travel into New York at "a mile a minute" (100 km/h) and thus save a day in travel time.
Arthur Benson , president of Brooklyn Gas & Light Company and founder of
Bensonhurst, Brooklyn , had acquired 10,000 acres of land in Montauk in 1879 for US$151,000, at what is now considered a suspect auction of land held by the U.S. government in trust for the
Montaukett tribe. Benson proceeded to relocate what was left of the Montaukett tribe from Indian Field to East Hampton, thus clearing the way for Corbin's plans to extend the LIRR to the end of the island. In 1882 Benson sold Corbin's real estate company right-of-way through Montauk for Corbin's planned railroad extension. By 1895 Corbin had acquired a further 4,000 acres from Benson.
Corbin was successful in lobbying Congress to establish a duty-free port at Fort Pond Bay, despite objections from the
United States Army Corps Of Engineers about the suitability of the bay for a port. By the spring of 1896 the bill seemed headed for passage. On
June 4 ,
1896 , Corbin was thrown from his carriage while traveling with friends on a fishing expedition on his 24,000 acre nature preserve in New Hampshire. Corbin's dream of a port at Montauk died with him. More than 1,000 acres (4 km²) that Corbin bought were eventually sold to the U.S. Government for
Camp Wikoff where
Theodore Roosevelt and his
Rough Riders were quarantined after returning from the
Spanish-American War . The Pennsylvania Railroad purchased the LIRR in 1901 and focused their attention on an East River tunnel and access to Manhattan rather than a port to Europe from the tip of Long Island.
]]
In 1901, the
Pennsylvania Railroad acquired the Long Island Rail Road and went about an extensive program of improvements. The PRR had long desired a terminal on Manhattan Island itself, instead of in
Jersey City . The PRR built a grand station,
Pennsylvania Station , with tracks oriented approximately east-west, and dug two sets of tunnels, one under the
Hudson River to connect the new station with the Pennsylvania Railroad network, and another set under the
East River to connect with the Long Island Rail Road.
In April 1905,
Ralph Peters was elected president of the railroad.
Due to a fatal accident caused by decreased visibility from smoke and steam in the tunnels near
Grand Central Terminal , New York City passed laws in 1910 forbidding the operation of steam-powered trains within city limits. Thus, an ambitious program of
Electrification was initiated, culminating in a large portion of the LIRR's network being electrified via a
Third Rail Direct Current system. This electrification is still in use today.
Advertisment showing architect's model of the final plan for the
Madison Square Garden complex.]]
Rail service -- and in particular passenger rail service -- declined dramatically after the
Second World War as they faced competition with the rise of the automobile and improved air travel. Passenger rail travel was very vulnerable because government regulations required certain levels of service even if unprofitable. The Pennsylvania Railroad struggled to find new avenues for cash including the infamous 1964 demolition of New York's beloved
Penn Station to make way for the Penn Plaza office towers and a new home for
Madison Square Garden , with a new train terminal under the complex of buildings.
The Pennsylvania expressed a desire to rid itself of the LIRR, which had been undergoing a painful restructuring under bankruptcy. Assuming the possibility of the worst, complete abandonment of the LIRR system, the State of New York studied alternatives and reported that the loss of the LIRR would require an unacceptable wave of highway building as a replacement. In 1966, New York State acquired all of the capital stock of the Long Island Rail Road.
Trimming the LIRR from its system did not provide the relief the PRR sought and, on
February 1 ,
1968 the Pennsyvania merged with the
New York Central Railroad to form the ''Pennsylvania New York Central Transportation Company'', popularly known as the
Penn Central . As a condition for approval of the merger, the
Interstate Commerce Commission required the railroad to include the
New York, New Haven And Hartford Railroad in its system on
January 1 ,
1969 . The new company was no more financially viable than it components, and In 1970, the Penn Central declared
Bankruptcy .
In 1966 the State of New York purchased the Long Island Rail Road from the Pennsylvania Railroad by acquisition of all of its capital stock, though the Pennsylvania road continued management until, in 1968, the LIRR was handed over to the newly formed Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Authority (MCTA) to oversee its operation. This in turn became the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), created to oversee the LIRR and other New York State transit facilities, though each retained separate corporate existence and management. This created rivalries between the LIRR and its sister
Metro North with charges that the latter was better run. In 2003 the MTA announced plans to restructure its component agencies, including combining the LIRR and Metro North into a new agency to be known as MTA Rail, which would end the LIRR's corporate existence after almost two centuries. However, the change would require state legislation which has been introduced each year but has so far failed passage.
One of the most popular decisions by
New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller after the 1966 takeover was replacing the entire electric passenger fleet with
Budd Company M1 and M3 cars. The decision was to haunt the LIRR in the 1990s as the entire fleet began to break down all at once and there was no plan to provide a less expensive phasing in of replacement cars.
Shortly after 2000, LIRR began replacing its electric fleet with new generation Bombadier M7 cars.
The LIRR remodeled its lower level concourse of
Penn Station in the 1990s, increasing the ceiling height and making it less dreary, as well as opening two new entrance/exit corridors spanning various tracks and lengthening some platforms. Citing costs, the LIRR has refused to join
New Jersey Transit at the proposed "new" Penn Station one block west across
Eighth Avenue at the
James Farley Post Office Building at what is to be called the "Moynihan Station."
Jamaica Station is currently undergoing massive changes as a result of 2002 construction of the
AirTrain JFK connecting the LIRR at the station to
John F. Kennedy International Airport .
There are currently proposals to build two new tunnels under the
East River . One tunnel would connect the LIRR to the new
World Trade Center Transportation Hub . The other tunnel (the
East Side Access ) would connect the LIRR to
Grand Central Terminal .
All branches (except Port Washington) pass through
Jamaica Station . West of
Woodside , all lines share track. This track leading into the city is known as the "City Terminal Zone",
"The Montauk" or "Montauk Line" is the longest LIRR branch, extending 115 miles (185 km) east from Long Island City to
Montauk, New York .
The westernmost portion of the Montauk Branch in Queens, known as the "Old Montauk" or "Lower Montauk" runs mostly at street level with grade crossings from Long Island City to a connection with the Atlantic Branch west of Jamaica Station. This portion of the line sees only two regular passenger trains on weekdays only, which make no stops on the Old Montauk itself. Five intermediate stations in Queens (Richmond Hill, Glendale, Fresh Pond, Haberman, and Penny Bridge) were abandoned in 1998 as uneconomical when all platforms on the railroad were raised to floor-level loading for the new double decker trains.
The portion from Jamaica to
Babylon Station has been electrified since 1925, and is the busiest single commuter railroad branch in the U.S. From Babylon east to Montauk, diesel-electric or hybrid electric-diesel-electic locomotives haul trains of passenger coaches.
The Montauk Line has heavy ridership and frequent service as far as
Patchogue and
Speonk . In the summer, with travelers going out to
The Hamptons ,
Fire Island and other beaches, additional service is operated to the far eastern terminal at Montauk. The Montauk Branch, along with the parallel Atlantic Branch, spawns three subsidiary brances, accessed through the Valley Interlocking at
Valley Stream, New York , being the West Hempstead and Far Rockaway Branches just east of Valley Stream, and the Long Beach Branch, which continues to parallel the Montauk Branch through Lynbrook station, and then curves south to the Atlantic Ocean at Long Beach.
The electrified portion of the Montauk Branch ends at Babylon Station (the electric service to Babylon is often identifed as a separate service as the "Babylon Branch"). Some of the Montauk's
Diesel trains begin or end their runs at Babylon station, connecting to or from electric trains there. Other Montauk diesel trains operate into New York City, ending their runs either at
Jamaica Station , Hunterspoint Avenue,
Long Island City or
New York Penn Station . Terminal stations in diesel territory, east of Babylon, include Patchogue and Speonk. The Montauk Branch is double tracked from Long Island City, all the way through Babylon, combining to a single line at the former site of Bayport station. Most Montauk Branch diesel trains operate west to NYC via the Montauk Branch, though a handful of trains operate via the diesel-only Central Branch joining the Main Line east of
Bethpage Station.
Looking back in time, the Montauk Branch was once connected to the Main Line, via a branch which ran from Manorville (Main) to Eastport (Montauk). This branch was abandoned in 1949.
Also, at one time, the Montauk Branch also ran from Bridgehampton, north into Sag Harbor. In early times, the 'Scoot' ran frequently between Greenport on the North Fork, 'around the horn' at the Manorville-Eastport line, and east to Sag Harbor. In their day, both of those villages were very busy, bustling ports. The tracks to Sag Harbor were removed from service in 1940.
The Montauk is also home to the only tower in North America that uses "hooping" train operations, located at Patchogue. "Hooping" is the transfer of instuctions to both the engineer and conductor by attaching the folded orders to the "hoop," a rod several feet long with a loop at the end that is passed from the ground to a moving train by catching the loop on one's arm. Plans are underway to suspend hooping by mid-May 2006.
The Montauk Branch enjoys frequent service and has heavy ridership because it serves the suburban communities on
Nassau County 's and westernmost
Suffolk County 's south shore.
The Montauk Branch is grade-separated on embankments or elevated structures from Lynbrook Station to Babylon Station, the only LIRR branch east of New York City to have no road crossings at grade.
The
Southampton College stop was demolished in 1998, along with other lightly used stations in the system. In 2004, the stop was temporarily reinstated, complete with a steel walkway over
Sunrise Highway to the
Shinnecock Hills Golf Club , during the
U.S. Open (golf) tournmanet. At the conclusion of the tournament it was dismantled.
The Montauk station was initially near the center of a sleepy fishing village at the north end of Fort Pond (where Austin Corbin built a pier in his unsuccessful effort to have trans-Atlantic ships dock there.) The
Great Hurricane Of 1938 devasted the terminus area and even tore up sections of the roadbed. The population center then moved two miles to the south away from the station.
The Main Line, also known as the
Ronkonkoma , begins in
Long Island City and runs seemingly directly across the middle of
Long Island before turning North and terminating in
Greenport approximately 95 miles (153 km) from its starting point. Along the way, the Main Line spawns five of the remaining ten branches. These branches, in order from west to east, are:
- Port Washington (at Harold Interlocking in Sunnyside, Queens)
- Hempstead (at Queens Interlocking along the Queens/Nassau County border)
- Oyster Bay (at Nassau Interlocking in Mineola)
- Port Jefferson (at Divide Interlocking in Hicksville)
- Central (at Beth Interlocking just east of Bethpage Station)
The Main Line's electric service ends at Ronkonkoma . Several daily diesel trains connect with electric trains at Ronkonkoma, two in each direction extending to the end of the branch at Greenport . Service is light, however. The railroad has tried to discontinue service east of Ronkonkoma on several occasions, citing low ridership. New York State , however, has not granted this request, and will most likely continue to do so, as Long Island's population continues to grow eastward.
This branch provides frequent electric service to
Huntington , with some diesel service continuing to Port Jefferson. The heaviest traffic tends to be to the Stony Brook station where
State University Of New York At Stony Brook is located. This line formerly extended to
Wading River , and was once slated continue eastward and rejoin the Main Line at
Riverhead . The line east of
Port Jefferson was abandoned in 1938. The right-of-way is now used for the
Long Island Power Authority 's power lines. There are occasional plans to electrify this line past Huntington, at least to
Northport , which will probably be undertaken in conjunction with the construction of a planned new yard for the branch.
This branch is electric and branches off the Main Line at Queens Interlocking, just east of Queens Village Station. It continues east to Hempstead through
Garden City . This is what remains of what was called the Central branch, which once ran through to
Bethpage , meeting up with the Main Line near the area where the current Central Branch cuts off towards Babylon. The former Central trackage ran through what is today Eisenhower Park, and portions of the trackage had still been in use up into the 1990s to carry freight into the Garden City and Uniondale areas, also known as Mitchell Field in the past. LIRR still uses a small portion of this line today, east of Hempstead, as a place to store equipment, and each year the
Ringling Brothers & Barnum And Bailey Circus train uses this, the Garden City Secondary, to reach the
Nassau Coliseum .
This electric branch splits off from the
Montauk Branch at
Valley Stream to West Hempstead. A stop at St. Albans, in Queens, is shown on West Hempstead Branch customer timetables, but is actually on the Montauk Branch with more Babylon branch trains serving it than West Hempstead.
During off peak hours, this line mostly runs one train per hour from Brooklyn to West Hempstead.
See Also: Atlantic Avenue Branch
The Atlantic Branch begins at the second major City Terminal, Flatbush Avenue in
Brooklyn and runs 16 miles (26 km) through Kings, under
Atlantic Avenue, Queens and enters Nassau County ending at Valley Interlocking in
Valley Stream . The Flatbush Avenue station is undergoing a
$93 Million facelift and will eventually be renamed Atlantic Avenue Terminal.
See Also: Far Rockaway Branch
This electric branch which begins in Nassau County at Valley Interlocking in
Valley Stream proceeds east and actually ends in
Queens at the
Far Rockaway station. This two-track branch provides round-the-clock service in both directions to Flatbush Avenue / Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn, with transfers at Jamaica (on most non-rush-hour trains) for
Penn Station . During rush hour, express service bypasses Jamaica station.
The Far Rockaway Branch had originally been part of a loop that travelled along the existing route, continuing through the
Rockaway Peninsula and heading on a trestle across
Jamaica Bay through Queens where it reconnected with other branches. Frequent fires and maintenance problems led the LIRR to abandon the Queens portion of the route, which was acquired by the city to become the
IND Rockaway Line , providing service on the train and Rockaway Park Shuttle.
This electric LIRR branch is born at Valley Interlocking in
Valley Stream . It then splits at
Lynbrook , and heads south to
Long Beach .
See Also: Port Washington Branch
This is the only LIRR branch which does not stop at or have connecting service in Jamaica. It splits off the Main Line at Woodside and runs through northeastern Queens at
Shea Stadium and into the northwestern corner of
Nassau County . It is electric and has heavy ridership and frequent service.
The Port Washington Branch often has massive delays during rush hour because of single-tracking east of
Great Neck station. The line is double-tracked (one track in each direction) for most of its length, but the
Manhasset and
Plandome stations have one track and platform. This causes issues during two-way rush hour operations, especially if a train leaves late from Port Washington. A second track cannot be added through Manhasset and Plandome due to the proximity of businesses to the narrow right-of-way in Plandome.
To eliminate as many delays as possible on the heavily-used line, most peak hour trains are either local from Penn Station to Great Neck (making all stops in between the two) or express from Penn Station to Port Washington (making stops only at Great Neck, Manhasset, Plandome, and Port Washington).
Moderately used diesel branch extending from Nassau Interlocking (Mineola) to Oyster Bay. Stops at East Williston, Albertson, Roslyn, Greenvale, Glen Head, Sea Cliff, Glen Street, Glen Cove, Locust Valley, and
Oyster Bay .
In addition to service cuts, several of the more lightly used branches were threatened with abandonment in 2006. The threats included the Oyster Bay Branch, the Main Line between Ronkonkoma and Greenport, and the West Hempstead Branch. The service cuts were intended to reduce opposition to a fare increase or encourage the state to provide more money (which it ultimately did). All of the threatened lines have had considerable capital investment in recent years to "bring them up to a good state of repair." The LIRR was originally chartered with the specific purpose of service to Greenport, and the land under the Main Line tracks would revert to heirs of the original owners if that service were abandoned. In addition, a large portion of the threatened Main Line east of Ronkonkoma has been slated for electrification by 2016 as part of LIRR forward planning.
The 2005-2009 capital program of the MTA provides for a third Main Line track from Bellerose to
Mineola , with the intent of extending it to Hicksville.
A second track between
Farmingdale and
Ronkonkoma on the Main Line is also planned, which would greatly increase capacity. Ronkonkoma already suffers from overcrowding, and locals have called for additional service east of Ronkonkoma. The capital program also provides for a landfill in
Yaphank (east of Ronkonkoma) to be capped and set aside for this future railroad purpose. This may involve extending electrification, building parking structures, or a building a yard needed for Main Line storage. (The current yard in Ronkonkoma already operates at capacity.)
The Long Island Rail Road and other railroads that became part of the system have always had freight service, though this has diminished over the years. The process of shedding freight service accelerated with the acquisition of the railroad by the
State Of New York .
In recent years there has been some appreciation of the need for better railroad freight service in
New York City and on
Long Island . Both areas are primarily served by trucking for freight haulage, an irony in a region with the most extensive rail transit service in the Americas.
Freight service is now operated on lease by the
New York And Atlantic Railway , a short line railroad owned by the
Anacostia And Pacific Company . It has its own equipment and crews, but uses the rail facilities of the LIRR. To the east, freight service operates to the ends of the West Hempstead, Port Jefferson and Montauk branches, and to Southold on the Mainline. On the western end it provides service on the surviving freight-only tracks of the LIRR: the Bay Ridge and Bushwick branches; the nearly freight-only "Lower Montauk"; and to connections with national railroads.
On . Several passengers overpowered Ferguson while he was attempting to reload for the second time and held him for police.
Ferguson was convicted of shooting 25 LIRR passengers, 6 of whom died. Colin Ferguson was sentenced to 312 and 2/3 years to life by Judge
Donald E. Belfi . This propelled
Carolyn McCarthy , whose husband was killed and son seriously injured, to successfully run for the
United States House Of Representatives on a
Gun Control platform.
