Long Island Rail Road

The Long Island Rail Road, or LIRR, is a railroad in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of New York, stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County on Long Island. The railroad currently operates a public commuter rail service, with its freight operations contracted to the New York and Atlantic Railway. With an average weekday ridership of 354,800 passengers in 2016, it is the busiest commuter railroad in North America. It is also one of the world's few commuter systems that run 24/7 year-round. It is publicly owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which refers to it as MTA Long Island Rail Road. In, the system had a ridership of, or about per weekday as of.
The LIRR logo combines the circular MTA logo with the text Long Island Rail Road, and appears on the sides of trains. The LIRR is one of two commuter rail systems owned by the MTA, the other being the Metro-North Railroad in the northern suburbs of the New York area. Established in 1834 and having operated continuously since then, it is the oldest railroad in the United States still operating under its original name and charter. The railroad has been headquartered in the headhouse of Jamaica Station, the second busiest station in the system, since 1913.
There are 126 stations and more than of track on its two main lines running the full length of the island and eight major branches, with the passenger railroad system totaling., the LIRR's budget for expenditures was $1.6 billion plus $450 million for debt service, which it supports through the collection of fares along with dedicated taxes and other MTA revenue.

History

The Long Island Rail Road Company was chartered in 1834 to provide a daily service between New York City and Boston via a ferry connection between its Greenport, New York, terminal on Long Island's North Fork and Stonington, Connecticut. This service was superseded in 1849 by the land route through Connecticut that became part of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. The LIRR refocused its attentions towards serving Long Island, in competition with other railroads on the island. In the 1870s, railroad president Conrad Poppenhusen and his successor, Austin Corbin acquired all the railroads and consolidated them into the LIRR.
The LIRR was unprofitable for much of its history. In 1900, the Pennsylvania Railroad bought a controlling interest as part of its plan for direct access to Manhattan, which began on September 8, 1910. The wealthy PRR subsidized the LIRR during the first half of the new century, allowing expansion and modernization. Electric operation began in 1905.
After World War II, the railroad industry's downturn and dwindling profits caused the PRR to stop subsidizing the LIRR, and the LIRR went into receivership in 1949. The State of New York, realizing how important the railroad was to Long Island's future, began to subsidize the railroad in the 1950s and continued doing so into the 1960s. In June 1965, the state finalized an agreement to buy the LIRR from the PRR for $65 million. The LIRR was placed under the control of a new Metropolitan Commuter Transit Authority. The MCTA was rebranded the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in 1968 when it incorporated several other New York City-area transit agencies. With MTA subsidies the LIRR modernized further, continuing to be the busiest commuter railroad in the United States. The company was officially converted to a subsidiary public benefit corporation in 1980.
The LIRR is one of the few railroads that have survived as intact companies from their original charters to the present.

21st century expansions

East Side Access

The East Side Access project built a LIRR spur to Grand Central Terminal that will run in part via the lower level of the existing 63rd Street Tunnel. The East Side Access project added a new eight-track terminal called Grand Central Madison underneath the existing Grand Central Terminal. The project was first proposed in the 1968 Program for Action, but due to various funding shortfalls, construction did not start until 2007., the project was expected to cost $11.1 billion and was tentatively scheduled to start service in December 2022. It opened on January 25, 2023, with limited shuttle service between Jamaica and Grand Central. Full service to Grand Central began on February 27, 2023.
Several "readiness projects" were also completed to increase peak-hour capacity across the LIRR system in preparation for expanded peak-hour service after the completion of East Side Access. The LIRR constructed a new platform for Atlantic Terminal-bound trains at Jamaica station, converting most Atlantic Branch service between these two stations into a high-frequency shuttle. The LIRR also installed a new storage track east of Massapequa and extended one east of Great Neck station, in addition to expanding the train yard at Ronkonkoma. An expansion of the yard at Port Washington was also proposed, but as of 2022, the MTA has not come to an agreement with the Town of North Hempstead, resulting in the project being postponed indefinitely.
There are also plans to build a new station in the Queens neighborhood of Sunnyside, in between the New York terminals and the Woodside station, serving as a rail hub for all LIRR branches and potentially some Amtrak, Metro North and New Jersey Transit trains, as well. The Sunnyside station is to be built after the completion of East Side Access, due to current capacity constraints.

Main Line projects

In 2012, the LIRR started adding a second track along the formerly single-tracked section of the Main Line between Farmingdale and Ronkonkoma stations to increase track capacity and allow for enhanced service options. The project was completed in September 2018.
As part of the preparations for East Side Access's opening, the LIRR also widened the two-track sections of the Main Line between Floral Park and Hicksville stations to three tracks, in addition to eliminating each of the grade crossings and rebuilding all of the stations along this stretch of the Main Line. Work on the third-track project started in September 2018. The project was completed in 2022, in time for the opening of East Side Access.
The larger Belmont Park Redevelopment Project called for a new Elmont station between the Queens Village and Bellerose stations on the Main Line, to better serve the new UBS Arena in the Nassau County neighborhood of Elmont. It was the first new station built by the LIRR in nearly 50 years; the last new station added was the former Southampton College station on the Montauk Branch, which opened in 1976 and closed in 1998, due to low ridership and the high cost of installing high-level platforms for the then-new C3 railcars. Elmont's eastbound platform officially opened in November 2021, while the westbound platform opened in October 2022.

Major stations

The LIRR operates out of four western terminals in New York City. These terminals are:

Pennsylvania Station, in Midtown Manhattan, is the busiest of the western terminals, serving almost 500 daily trains. It is reached via the Amtrak-owned East River Tunnels from the Main Line at Harold Interlocking in Long Island City. The New York City Subway's 34th Street–Penn Station and 34th Street–Penn Station stations are adjacent to the terminal. It also connects LIRR with Amtrak and NJ Transit trains.
is located under Grand Central Terminal and was built as part of the East Side Access project. Service to the new terminal began on January 25, 2023. Provision was made for this route on the lower level of the 63rd Street Tunnel under the East River, which carries the New York City Subway's IND 63rd Street Line on its upper level. The East Side Access project is expected to reduce congestion while increasing the number of trains during peak hours. It serves as the primary terminal for the Hempstead Branch and serves all other electrified branches.
Atlantic Terminal, formerly known as Flatbush Avenue, in Downtown Brooklyn serves the West Hempstead Branch, with limited service on other branches during the weekday peak. Other trains run as shuttles to Jamaica. It is next to the New York City Subway's Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center station complex, providing easy access to Lower Manhattan. With the opening of East Side Access, service between Atlantic Terminal and Jamaica is served mostly by shuttles.
- certain rush-hour trains run to one of two stations in Long Island City, Queens: the Long Island City station on the East River, which is the oldest western terminal of the LIRR, or the station, which is 0.6 miles to the east. From Hunterspoint Avenue, the Hunters Point Avenue subway station can be reached. The Long Island City station is near the Vernon Boulevard–Jackson Avenue subway station, also served by the, and the Long Island City station also connects to the NYC Ferry's East River Ferry to Midtown or Lower Manhattan.

In addition, the Jamaica station is a major hub station and transfer point in Jamaica, Queens. It has ten tracks and six platforms, plus yard and bypass tracks. Passengers can transfer between trains on all LIRR lines except the Port Washington Branch. The sixth platform opened in February 2020, and exclusively serves Atlantic Branch shuttle trains to Brooklyn. Transfer is also made to separate facilities for three subway services at the Sutphin Boulevard–Archer Avenue–JFK Airport station, a number of bus routes, and the AirTrain automated people mover to JFK Airport. The railroad's headquarters are next to the station.

Passenger lines and services

The Long Island Rail Road system has eleven passenger branches, three of which are main trunk lines:

Main Line, running along the middle of the island, between Long Island City and Greenport, via Jamaica.
Montauk Branch, running along the southern edge of the island, between Long Island City and Montauk, via Jamaica.
Atlantic Branch, running mostly in New York City to the south of both the Main Line and Montauk Branch, between Atlantic Terminal and Valley Stream, via Jamaica.

There are eight minor branches. For scheduling and advertising purposes some of these branches are divided into sections; this is the case with the Montauk Branch, which is known as the Babylon Branch service in the electrified portion of the line between Jamaica and Babylon, while the diesel service beyond Babylon to Montauk is referred to as Montauk Branch service. All branches except the Port Washington Branch pass through Jamaica; the trackage west of Jamaica is known as the City Terminal Zone. The City Terminal Zone includes portions of the Main Line, Atlantic, and Montauk Branches, as well as the Amtrak-owned East River Tunnels to Penn Station.