Buses will substitute for Long Island Rail Road trains at Ronkonkoma on Saturday and Sunday, June 17-18, in order to allow crews to conduct critical work to advance the LIRR’s Ronkonkoma Branch Double Track Project, which will improve train service and allow greater flexibility to minimize the impact of service disruptions along the branch.

 

The Double Track Project is a $387 million infrastructure project, funded over two capital programs that will add a second track to the 18-mile stretch from Farmingdale to Ronkonkoma by the end of 2018. The work on this weekend calls for switch installation and related track work for the Double Track project.

 

“We are adding a second track between Farmingdale and Ronkonkoma to increase capacity and reduce disruption-related delays,” said LIRR President Patrick Nowakowski. “These are significant long-term benefits for Ronkonkoma Branch customers, but to make them we need to temporarily impact service, and we’ve worked hard to plan this weekend outage so that it will impact the fewest customers possible.”

 

Buses will substitute for trains at Ronkonkoma for 48 hours on Saturday, June 17, and Sunday, June 18. Customers traveling to or from Ronkonkoma should plan for up to an additional 23 minutes of travel time, or should consider using the Port Jefferson Branch or Montauk Branch as alternatives, or take advantage of free parking at Brentwood and Deer Park.

 

Trains will run between Ronkonkoma and Greenport, but customers traveling between points west of Central Islip and Medford, Yaphank, Riverhead, Mattituck, Southold or Greenport will connect between trains and buses at Ronkonkoma and Central Islip. These customers should plan for up to an additional hour of travel time.

 

Details of the planned service change are summarized below. A complete train and bus schedule is available at this link:

 

 

Customers traveling to Ronkonkoma from stations in New York City, Nassau County or western Suffolk County will board their regularly scheduled Ronkonkoma-bound trains and get off at Central Islip to connect with buses traveling to Ronkonkoma. Customers should plan for up to an additional 23 minutes in travel time.

 

Customers traveling to Medford, Yaphank, Riverhead, Mattituck, Southold or Greenport will board their regularly scheduled trains (the 9:12 a.m. or 2:12 p.m. departures from Penn Station), and get off at Central Islip to connect with buses traveling to Ronkonkoma. At Ronkonkoma they will connect with trains making all stops to Greenport. The trains from Ronkonkoma will be timed to meet the buses and will arrive at all stations 23 minutes later than normal.

 

The 4:39 p.m., 5:39 p.m. and 6:39 p.m. trains from Penn Station, which normally travel to Ronkonkoma, will instead terminate at Farmingdale. Customers traveling to Wyandanch, Deer Park, Brentwood, Central Islip or Ronkonkoma should take trains that depart Penn Station at 4:12 p.m., 5:12 p.m., 6:12 p.m. or 7:12 p.m. 

 

 

Customers traveling from Ronkonkoma to points west will find buses to take them to Central Islip for regularly scheduled train service. Buses will depart up to 23 minutes earlier than regularly scheduled trains.

 

Customers traveling from Greenport, Southold, Mattituck, Riverhead, Yaphank or Medford to points west of Ronkonkoma will board trains 32 minutes later than normal schedules. At Ronkonkoma, customers will connect with buses to Central Islip for continuing train service. Upon boarding their station of origin, customers should plan for up to 28 minutes of additional travel time, and will arrive at western terminals one hour later than normal.

 

The trains that normally originate at Ronkonkoma at 10:05 a.m., 11:05 a.m. and 12:05 p.m. will instead originate at Farmingdale, at their usual times. Customers traveling from Central Islip, Brentwood, Deer Park and Wyandanch should take the trains that will originate at Central Islip at 9:47 a.m., 10:47 a.m., 11:47 a.m. or 12:47 p.m. and will make all stops along the branch.

 

The train that normally departs from Ronkonkoma at 11:19 p.m. and is due into Penn Station at 12:44 a.m. will originate at Central Islip at 11:40 p.m., 14 minutes later than normal. It will arrive at Penn Station at 12:59 a.m. Bus connections from Ronkonkoma are adjusted accordingly and listed in the special timetable. Customers on this train traveling to Brooklyn will connect at Jamaica with a train that arrives at Atlantic Terminal 27 minutes later than normal.

 

 

Customers aboard the 11:50 p.m. departure from Far Rockaway, due into Atlantic Terminal at 12:42 a.m. who wish to connect to a Penn Station-bound train will depart Jamaica 13 minutes later than normal and arrive at Penn Station at 1:12 a.m., 28 minutes later than normal.

 

 

Train and bus departure times are available at this link:

 

Information about this change 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.

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.

 

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.