MTA Long Island Rail Road is advising customers that the railroad will conduct cyclical track safety tests between Port Washington and Great Neck on Saturday, January 19. The Sperry Rail Car, a bright yellow vehicle fitted with ultrasonic and induction test equipment, is designed to detect internal rail defects not readily visible to the eye. Any defects that are found will be corrected immediately by a crew of LIRR track maintenance workers.

 

“We are increasing our use of advanced technology to identify defects in track before they have a chance to fail and cause train delays; we are making repairs in a proactive manner, rather than reactive,” said LIRR President Phil Eng. “We’ve doubled the frequency of these ultrasonic and induction tests to four times a year, from two, which we expect will reduce the number of instances of broken rails and ensuing delayed trains.”

 

As a result of Saturday’s tests, Port Washington Branch trains will operate hourly instead of every 30 minutes between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m., and buses and vans will substitute for trains at Port Washington, Manhasset and Plandome between 1 a.m. and 5 p.m.

 

Special timetables are available at this link:

 

 

Passengers boarding at Port Washington, Plandome and Manhasset will be able to board buses or vans to connect with trains at Great Neck, where train service will resume at regularly scheduled times. The buses or vans will depart up to 25 minutes earlier than normally scheduled trains.

 

Trains departing Great Neck at the regularly scheduled time of :52 minutes past the hour will make all stops to Woodside and Penn Station.

 

 

Trains making all stops through Great Neck will depart Penn Station at 12:17 a.m., 1:17 a.m., 3:04 a.m., and :18 minutes after the hour from 5:18 through 4:18 p.m., when regularly scheduled departures resume at :18 and :48 minutes past the hour.

 

Customers looking to travel to Manhasset, Plandome or Port Washington will be able to connect with buses and vans at Great Neck, and will arrive at their final destinations up to 25 minutes later than normal.

 

 

Information about the service changes noted in this press release and all planned service changes is available through the LIRR’s real-time service information sources:

 

Email and text message service updates – Customers are urged 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.

 

MYmta app – Customers who use the new, comprehensive MYmta app will see real-time travel information for LIRR and connecting services all in one place. As a caution, trains that start out their trips on time may experience delays en route. The LIRR Train Time app also remains available for customers to access LIRR train information.
 

MTA.info – The rail tab of the “Service Status” box at the left side of www.MTA.info is always the definitive source for the latest status for each branch, updated every minute. In addition, customers can visit www.mta.info/lirr to 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.

 

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.