Railroad Forums 

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

Moderator: Liquidcamphor

 #1584305  by 4behind2
 
Which is why the "compromise" was instituted between Congressman Robert Mrazek who represented much of the North Shore communities where electrification wasn't coming to and for $20 million gave the carrier the first set of dual mode trainsets. The rest is history.
 #1584349  by photobug56
 
Ridership east of Huntington suffers badly from the horrible service. Again, a 90 minute trip covering 40 miles in one case. Having to wait for hours for the next train for students at Stony Brook is another. LIRR's attitude re stations doesn't help. My station got a rebuilt station building. Great. Usually empty, partially because LIRR employees like to lock it up when it should be open. There are 2 shelters on the platform - one about 100 feet west of any commuters, the other tiny, falling apart. There are 2 displays - and if you are in the middle of the platform they are not readable. Sometimes you can actually here the automatic wrong information on the remains of the sound system. There is no canopy or weather protection on the platform, morning trains are usually late, the platform is falling apart, the bridge rusting away. Oh, and this station is busy and crowded in rush hour. When the train finally shows up (pre pandemic), it can be very hard to find a seat. And you feel very lucky if the train makes it into Penn without breaking down, let alone less than 5 minutes late. There is only one rush hour inbound direct to Penn, and the 2 evening EB trains leave NYP before most people get out of work.
 #1584363  by njtmnrrbuff
 
While the majority of the Huntington bound trains run express in Queens, they still make many stops once in Nassau County. People traveling on those who connect to a train to Pt. Jeff at Huntington certainly have a longer ride than they should. I feel for those students attending the university at Stony Brook who have a very long ride to and from the city. I've never stepped off the train in Stony Brook or at any intermediate station in diesel territory on the Pt. Jefferson Line but I plan to soon. Thankfully Ronkonkoma is about 8 miles from Stony Brook and I'm sure that there are many students living at Stony Brook who have cars and drive to Ronkonkoma for a faster and more direct ride into the city. On weekends, the ride from NYP-Stony Brook is almost two hours whereas NYP-Ronkonkoma is an hour and twenty minutes. It's probably about a twenty minute drive from Ronkonkoma Station to SUNY Stony Brook so either way, people who have cars or can get a ride likely will drive from Stony Brook over to Ronkonkoma.
 #1584365  by 4behind2
 
SUNY Stony Brook students are big users of the carrier, so much so that many late week westbound afternoon trains are standing room only after picking them up. They are more spread out returning to campus on various trains. The bulk of them utilize Stony Brook station as its an easy walk from campus.

All of this is off topic, of course.
 #1584377  by njtmnrrbuff
 
Personally, I think there is very limited things that you can comment on in this thread without going off topic. If the route into and out of GCT from Long Island will have LIRR crew members, then the service should be operated by LIRR. New York & Atlantic Crew members have nothing to do with the LIRR East Side Access. NY&A is strictly in the freight business, not passenger.
 #1584379  by photobug56
 
4behind2 wrote: Sun Nov 07, 2021 10:36 am SUNY Stony Brook students are big users of the carrier, so much so that many late week westbound afternoon trains are standing room only after picking them up. They are more spread out returning to campus on various trains. The bulk of them utilize Stony Brook station as its an easy walk from campus.

All of this is off topic, of course.
What started it is that people going to or from stations east of Huntington on the PJ like need good ESA access but LIRR refuses to say how these passengers will connect to ESA trains.
 #1584403  by photobug56
 
When exactly did they provide this semi answer? And will it be cross platform, up and over, etc.? Will we get the time savings that electric line riders get, or will we have to up and over and wait 20 minutes, then find they've changed tracks, and it ends up taking longer to get to GCT? The up and over's can take a very long time for passengers who have accessibility issues. And changes at Huntington are at best, slow, at worst, painful. So, I still don't have a VIABLE answer, and I've been asking them for a full 25 years.
 #1584468  by photobug56
 
No, still waiting for those all important details, not traditional LIRR BS. We get promises of a 40 minute a day savings in our commutes, but no one says who actually gets those savings. And I'm sure that our esteemed new governor has no idea this is even a question. Nor any of the other candidates.
 #1584522  by Commuter X
 
I read somewhere that a trip from Jamaica -> NYC Penn takes 20 mins
A scheduled trip from Jamaica -> NYC GCT is supposed to take 28 mins

A trip on the 1/2/3 and the S may be able to get you from NYC Penn -> NYC GCT in fewer than 8 mins

With remote work, now the norm, time will tell if ---
Trains will be less crowded (I don't believe it)
Cut commutes by 40 mins a day (I don't believe it)
Our quality of life will improve (Really ....)

Commuter X
 #1584523  by freightguy
 
Commuter X wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 3:57 pm I read somewhere that a trip from Jamaica -> NYC Penn takes 20 mins
A scheduled trip from Jamaica -> NYC GCT is supposed to take 28 mins

Probably because of the curves vs the relatively straight shot through East River tunnels and having to divert at the interlockings to head Northwest

A trip on the 1/2/3 and the S may be able to get you from NYC Penn -> NYC GCT in fewer than 8 mins

I have done this commute during the height of rush hour the past few days and couldn't agree more. My sense is they're factoring the overnight wait times. Also the new platforms are 15 stories below Manhattan and it's a long slog to the street level. Call me crazy but the subway routing might be quicker to 42nd street level vs LIRR direct to GCT. I think the key here is a one seat ride just like the Ronkonkoma electrification.

With remote work, now the norm, time will tell if ---
Trains will be less crowded (I don't believe it)
Cut commutes by 40 mins a day (I don't believe it)
Our quality of life will improve (Really ....)

Commuter X
 #1584528  by photobug56
 
Commuter X wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 3:57 pm I read somewhere that a trip from Jamaica -> NYC Penn takes 20 mins
A scheduled trip from Jamaica -> NYC GCT is supposed to take 28 mins

A trip on the 1/2/3 and the S may be able to get you from NYC Penn -> NYC GCT in fewer than 8 mins

With remote work, now the norm, time will tell if ---
Trains will be less crowded (I don't believe it)
Cut commutes by 40 mins a day (I don't believe it)
Our quality of life will improve (Really ....)

Commuter X
Arrive at Penn at 7:25 AM via the nearly always late PJ train actually due at 7:20. Depending on what car and track, may take 2 to 10 minutes to get to IRT station. Arrive there and check departure boards. Maybe you see an uptown train on local, or express. Rush like crazy to get up the right stairs, and then nothing. Phantom train. Or on the wrong track. You see an uptown train (that was not on the display) on the other track but there's no way to get to it on time. And then you wait. Maybe a minute, maybe 20 minutes, and finally an overstuffed something comes in. And sits there for a while. Finally, you're up to Times Square, and a few minutes later you are in the new and improved Shuttle area. Now here there is real improvement - unless something breaks. But hopefully you'll soon be on a shuttle train, that hopefully soon heads to GCT, and you've arrived. Of course you need to make your way up and out, maybe to the ML building or somewhere else. Now on a good day the shuttle rebuild (albeit with run down R62's) will be a few minutes faster. But overall, you probably still average over 20 minutes getting from NYP to GCT.

Same on your reverse commute, but a bit faster usually because at TS, you have one downtown platform, and whichever gets a train first will, on most days, get you to NYP sooner. Overall for the day, figure

Now a point you made - they are giving 27 or 28 minutes to get from Jamaica to GCT, 7 to 8 minutes slower. So their claim that you would save 40 minutes with ESA already is absurd. Let's try 40 minus 15 or so, netting 25 minutes. And this is just for electric train riders.

Now if you are in diesel country, and IF you just have a run across the platform twice per day, now if you are lucky you are down to 20 minutes savings daily. But if it's up and over, or there is no direct connection and you have to wait, there easily goes another 10 minutes. So now down to 10 for many. If things are working well.

Most days, though, if you don't need to get on the subway from GCT to go somewhere else, you will save the subway fare. About what, $110 per month these days?

I do wonder, now that we have the Jamaica GCT timing, where that 40 minutes savings is supposed to come from.
 #1584532  by njtmnrrbuff
 
The trip from the time that you get off your LIRR train at NYP to heading to the immediate block around GCT boils down to many variables. They include walking along the LIRR platform to the nearest stairway, escalator, or elevator which you would take to get up to the station level. Depending on which end of the LIRR train you get off at at NYP, it could be some time before you are closest to the LIRR concourse closest to the 7th Ave side. This applies to if you decide to sit toward the front of your LIRR train when heading westbound into NYP. You would be dropped off closer to 8th Ave which means to get to the 7th Ave trains, the walk would be equaled to one full block.
When heading from Long Island into NYC Penn Station and you want to travel to GCT, then you would want to sit as close to the back of your train as possible. By doing this, that would reduce your steps from your LIRR train at NYP to the 7th Ave subway which you would want to take to 42nd St-Times Sq so that way you can connect easily to the Shuttle train to GCT. Give or take, by doing this, I think your trip would probably take 20 minutes if you don't rush. I think overall, the 40 minutes of saving of taking LIRR to GCT over LIRR to Penn Station is very overstated.
 #1584539  by photobug56
 
Pretty sure that we don't disagree. I'd note that in Penn, you never know what track you'll come in on. 20 or 21 are great for getting the 1,2,3. But if you come in on 16, not so great.

And since we don't know what LIRR will do with diesel passengers going to GCT, we don't know how much of a time penalty there will be. But I think it's safe to say that the 40 minutes bit looks a lot like a fantasy. Though for those who no longer need a subway connection some money will be saved, and the commute will be easier for some.