Willets Point platforms

Caught a MoW train at Willets Point today. Look carefully at the right (south) platform (unused since the end of the World's Fair in October 1965). It appears the platforms are being dismantled. Further west, it appears the platform has been stripped to steel framing.

The LIRR has been saying for quite a while now that they want to rebuild the platform down to tracks 3 and 4 and make them usable again. Perhaps this is the start of that work?

I'm going to further append my previous post with a link from the Capital Program Dashboard: http://web.mta.info/capitaldashboard/al ... f&PLTYPE=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; According to this, MWP will be getting "trac k and signal improvements to facilitate operations at the center platform, new passenger elevators for wheelchair access to the LIRR platform, new tactile-warning strips on platforms, platform/canopy extens ions, pre-fabricated platform shelters and drainage improvements at track level."

The opposite is being done, those are all newly installed.

When where the staircases removed? I assume some years after the World's Fair.

Most of the staircases were still in place until about 5 years ago. They were all badly rusted.

Does LIRR have a service plan for the new platforms? As in are they planning to run some event-only trains and terminate service at the station?

Given the imminent redevelopment of the Willets Point area, renovating the LIRR station at WP makes sense…

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/24/nyreg ... f=nyregion

It is easy to drive past Willets Point, the 62-acre tangle of auto shops, car parts and grease-covered mechanics tinkering with automobiles, that sits hard by the Unisphere of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. Passing by is far easier than driving through: The streets that cross each other at odd angles here in the glossy shadow of Citi Field look as if they had been blasted by land mines. They are pooled with dark, oil-slicked water or rutted with knee-deep holes that suck in a car’s tires. The chalkboard scrape of chassis meeting pavement sounds through the air here with the regularity of a bell tolling the hour.

Renovation announced for Willets Point Station, with new staircases, elevator and 12-car platforms, to be completed 2016.

The MTA Long Island Rail Road’s Mets-Willets Point Station, the destination for U.S. Open tennis and New York Mets baseball, will be fully accessible to the disabled for the first time in 2016 as part of a $9.7 million station renovation.

The renovation plan calls for the installation of an elevator that will lift those with mobility impairments from the LIRR platform up to the New York City Parks Department passarelle that leads to Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, the Billie Jean King Tennis Center and Citi Field, home of the Mets and, on occasion, other events. Other ADA enhancements include the installation of tactile warning strips at the edges of the platform and the construction of new staircases with fully compliant guardrails and handrails.

Look at Google Maps. It looks like they have made progress extending the south platform.

How are the renovations going?

LRail wrote:How are the renovations going?

Haven't even started for the current passenger platform. The 12 car platform between yard tracks 3 and 4 was completed a while ago and is used by M of E to clean the trains. They are in the process of installing canopies on that platform.

If they could spend $4 million for Belmont Park for essentially one day a year, $10 million for Mets-Willets Point seems quite justified.

How are the renovations progressing? Any pics?

Nothing has changed with the passenger platform since the last time you asked. I doubt they would start any work in the middle of the baseball season either.