The Long Island Rail Road would like to remind customers about train service interruptions due to continued work this weekend and next weekend to rebuild the complex of switches at Mineola.

 

“As part of the LIRR Forward plan we are bringing a focus to repairing, replacing or renewing places within our infrastructure that can cause delays,” said LIRR President Phil Eng. “This important work to rebuild these switches will help us reduce delays and improve service. We thank our customers for all of their patience as we do this work.”

 

The work, which took place over the weekends of Sept. 7-8 and Sept. 14-15 will once again require both Main Line tracks to be taken out of service. As a result, train service will be suspended between New Hyde Park and Hicksville on Saturday, Sept. 28. One of two tracks will be available for service on Sunday, Sept. 29. Huntington/Port Jefferson Branch train service on Sunday will operate less frequently than normal.

 

In a continuing effort to coordinate outages for efficiency and to lessen customer disruptions, the final weekend work of the Nassau switch replacement will piggyback onto other work related to the Main Line Expansion Project. LIRR crews will replace the Nassau Boulevard Bridge near the Merillon Ave Station in the Village of Garden City the weekend of Oct. 4-5. As a result, the LIRR Main Line will be taken out of service beginning early Saturday morning on Oct. 5 for a period of approximately 48 hours.

 

On Saturday, September 28^th there will be no train service at New Hyde Park, Merillon Avenue, Carle Place, or Westbury. Oyster Bay trains will terminate and originate at Mineola Station where connecting bus service will take customers to/from Hempstead for train service.  NICE Bus will cross-honor LIRR tickets between Mineola and Hicksville from 12 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 28 until 12 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 29 between Mineola and Hicksville in both directions on N22/N24 routes Mineola customers may also use the Oyster Bay Line.

 

The LIRR advises customer to consider traveling on alternate branches. To help customers travel during the outage, the LIRR is doubling service on the Hempstead Branch. Trains will operate at normal service intervals, but on adjusted schedules, on the Babylon, Far Rockaway, Long Beach, Montauk, Port Washington and West Hempstead Branches, and between Ronkonkoma and Greenport.

 

Weekend parking is free at all stations of the West Hempstead Branch and the Babylon Branch except Amityville and Babylon. On the Hempstead Branch, weekend parking is free at Floral Park and free and plentiful at the north lot of the Country Life Press station. This lot is accessible by car by driving to 7th Street and Franklin Avenue in Garden City and continuing east along 7th Street. Parking in the south side of the lot leads to a 600-foot walk to the Country Life Press station via the sidewalk alongside St. James Street. Hempstead is served by the N27, N48, N49, N70, N71, N72 bus routes. The N40, N41 and N43 routes serve Freeport, while the N80 serves Massapequa and Massapequa Park.

 

On Saturday, customers traveling westbound from all stations east of Hicksville will travel by train to Hicksville, change to a shuttle train to Babylon, then change to a special train from Babylon to Penn Station, stopping at Jamaica for connections to Atlantic Terminal, Brooklyn.

 

Customers traveling eastbound to all stations east of Hicksville will be able to board trains to Babylon for a connecting train to Hicksville, then change again for continuing service.

 

On Sunday, service to/from Huntington will operate hourly instead of half-hourly; service to/from Port Jefferson will operate every two hours instead of every 90 minutes.

 

Special timetables can be found at these links:

 

On Saturday, all Oyster Bay trains will terminate and originate in Mineola.

 

Eastbound customers traveling to all Oyster Bay Branch stations will be able to ride Hempstead Branch trains to Hempstead to transfer to a bus for service to Mineola, where connecting Oyster Bay trains will run every two hours.

 

Westbound customers from all Oyster Bay Branch stations will be able to change at Mineola to NICE Bus routes N40 or N41 for service to Hempstead, then take half-hourly westbound trains from Hempstead to westbound locations.

 

On Sundays, trains will run on adjusted schedules and have affected connections.

 

A special timetable is available at this link.

 

Special Hempstead Branch timetables showing additional service on the branch are available at this link.

 

Service will operate normally on the Port Washington Branch except the train normally departing Penn Station at 11:21 p.m. on Saturdays will depart one minute earlier and will arrive at all stations one minute earlier than normal. A special timetable listing that train is available at this link.

 

Trains on all other branches will operate on adjusted schedules and have affected connections on Saturdays and Sundays. For detailed timetables please click on the link below.