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  • South Fork LIRR Commuter Connection Service

  • Discussion of the past and present operations of the Long Island Rail Road.
Discussion of the past and present operations of the Long Island Rail Road.

Moderator: Liquidcamphor

 #1618735  by Jeff Smith
 
https://www.newsday.com/amp/long-island ... s-pv5la0be
Friday trains being added year-round to the South Fork Commuter Connection Service, LIRR says

Friday trains that normally stop running for the summer are being added to the South Fork Commuter Connection Service, as part of a reshuffling of Long Island Rail Road schedules to shift trains to the new Grand Central Madison terminal.

MTA spokesman David Steckel said that as part of the redo, hundreds more daily trains have been added to the schedule throughout the system, and the additional trains for the South Fork are part of that shake-up.
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 #1618765  by checkmatechamp13
 
It's a start, but unfortunately the afternoon round-trip seems to be cancelled. They should really try to integrate the shuttle better with their existing service (ideally, the only shuttles should be existing deadheads between Speonk and Montauk, and everything else should be trains running between Montauk and at least Babylon).
 #1618853  by checkmatechamp13
 
In an era when they should be trying to encourage as much ridership as possible, they shouldn't be designing the schedules to exclude certain ridership groups.

That being said, there are a bunch of bus connections available at Patchogue, and I'm sure there's people from the central and western sections of the island who either commute or are interested in commuting out to the Hamptons. There also shouldn't be this huge midday gap.
 #1618959  by edflyerssn007
 
checkmatechamp13 wrote: Fri Mar 24, 2023 9:00 pm In an era when they should be trying to encourage as much ridership as possible, they shouldn't be designing the schedules to exclude certain ridership groups.

That being said, there are a bunch of bus connections available at Patchogue, and I'm sure there's people from the central and western sections of the island who either commute or are interested in commuting out to the Hamptons. There also shouldn't be this huge midday gap.
They specifically don't want city people filling up the train. Currently they run it as a train with 2 cars and an engine. It's not a higher capacity set as you'd find from up island.

I absolutely wish for increased service from Patchogue going east but there's just not full year demand for it, and certainly less post covid. Maybe this summer we'll see some changes in ridership trends and we'll be able to really get some forward momentum towarss better east end service. Even this service is a solid improvement.
 #1621202  by checkmatechamp13
 
They need to use their fleet more efficiently. They're already using a full locomotive for this service. If they integrated these runs into the general schedule better, they could potentially have bihourly service out to Montauk for the full day, using the existing equipment pool.