To ensure continued safety of motorists and train passengers alike, Long Island Rail Road workers will renew the railroad crossing at Silvermere Road in Greenport on Wednesday, May 17, between 6 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. The work will include a rehabilitation of the asphalt railroad crossing surface, as well as the tracks, including the steel rails and adjacent wooden ties, and the compacted stone bedding the ties rest in, which is known as ballast.

 

To enable the work, the Ronkonkoma Branch’s track east of Riverhead will be taken out of service, and buses will substitute for portions of the two Ronkonkoma Branch trains scheduled to travel east of Riverhead, and Silvermere Road will be closed at the location of the railroad crossing.

 

This work is being done in careful coordination with local elected officials and public agencies.

 

“We always seek to minimize that our necessary track work has on our customers,” said LIRR President Patrick Nowakowski. “In this case, because of the higher volume of ridership that takes place on the North Fork during weekends, the lowest volume of travel is actually mid-week.”

 

 

The LIRR advises customers traveling to or from Mattituck, Southold or Greenport to plan for additional travel time and to be prepared to transfer between trains and buses at Riverhead. Details of the substitute bus service plan are below.

 

 

The 10:44 a.m. departure from Ronkonkoma, due into Greenport at 12:08 p.m., will terminate at Riverhead at its usual time of 11:28 p.m. Customers seeking to travel to Mattituck, Southold or Greenport will transfer to vans at Riverhead for continuing service. Customers should plan for up to 10 minutes of additional travel time. A special timetable is available here: http://web.mta.info/lirr/Timetable/Branch2/RonkonkomaBranch.pdf

 

 

The 12:42 p.m. departure from Greenport, due into Ronkonkoma at 2:06 p.m., will originate at Riverhead at its usual time of 1:21 p.m. Customers traveling from Greenport, Southold or Mattituck will find buses departing up to 12 minutes before regularly scheduled train departure times. Customers traveling from Greenport will find a bus departing at a 12:30 p.m.  The bus will stop at Southold at 12:41 p.m. and Mattituck at 12:55 a.m., and will connect with the regularly scheduled train at Riverhead for continuing service. A special timetable is available here: http://web.mta.info/lirr/Timetable/Branch2/RonkonkomaBranch.pdf

 

Motorists seeking to access destinations south of the railroad crossing are advised that the roadway will be closed between 6 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. Residents wishing to travel during this period should plan ahead and pre-park their cars to the north of the crossing in advance of the closure. Pedestrian travel around the crossing will be permitted throughout the work outage.

 

The LIRR encourages customers to sign up for train service updates. Information about this service change and all planned service changes is available via many channels.

Email and text message service updates – Customers are encouraged to sign up to receive the alerts by visiting MyMTAAlerts.com. To avoid unwanted messages, a user can tailor the messages to the specific branch, and the specific times of day.

MTA.info – The rail tab of the “Service Status” box at the left side of www.MTA.infois always the definitive source for the latest status for each branch, updated every minute. In addition, customers can visit www.mta.info/lirrto see special service notices in the upper center of the page.

@LIRR on Twitter – Twitter users can follow @LIRR to receive updates of a similar nature to the email and text alerts, shortened to fit Twitter’s format.

LIRR Train Time app – Customers who use the LIRR Train Time app will see up-to-the-minute status for each upcoming train at each station. As a caution, trains that start out their trips on time may experience delays en route.

 

The above communications channels can be accessed while at home or on the go. For customers who are located at stations, the LIRR will post the latest service updates on digital signs at station platforms and will make audio announcements over public address systems, and on-board announcements made by train crews.

 

For those who prefer the telephone, information is available from the LIRR’s Customer Service Center by calling 511, the New York State Travel Information Line, and saying: “Long Island Rail Road” Those who are deaf or hard of hearing can use their preferred service provider for the free 711 relay to reach the LIRR at 511.