Daylight Saving Time Begins Sunday, 3/9/2014

Daylight Saving Time begins at 2:00am tomorrow morning, Sunday March 9th, 2014.  We "spring ahead" (even though it's still clearly winter!), one hour as 1:590am becomes 3:00am and an hour of sleep vanishes.

The LIRR, being the only commuter railroad in North America who operates through the night, is the only one really effected by the time change.  Trains that already in motion when the time change occurs will just continue their trip until they arrive at their destination, operating one hour later at the stops after the time change.

Trains that depart their terminals in the 2:00am hour (which vanishes), will also operate one hour later.  So train 6006 to Babylon and 8004 to Ronkonkoma (and their connections) will depart New York Penn at 3:40am and 3:54am, respectively, and operate one hour later at each of their stops.  Trains 6804 and 8804 will depart Jamaica and Valley Stream approximately one hour later after receiving their connections.  Train 6404, which normally departs at 3:04am, will operate immediately after the time change as usual. (so it will operate before 6804 and 8804, instead of behind those trains).

All remaining trains in the morning (beginning with train 6806 at 4:05am) will operate as scheduled.

To recap eastbound trains, trains will operate as follows from New York Penn:

• Train 6004 will depart Penn Station at 1:42am EST, making all stops.  The train will depart Jamaica at 3:05am EDT and make stops one hour later than normal.
• Train 6602 to Port Jefferson will leave Jamaica at 3:10am EDT, after receiving its connection from 6004, making stops one hour later than scheduled.
• Train 8802 to Far Rockaway will depart Valley Stream 3:22am EDT, after receiving connection from 6004, making stops one hour later than scheduled.
• Train 6404 to Port Washington will depart at 3:04am EDT and make stops as normally scheduled.
• Train 6006 to Babylon will leave Penn Station at 3:40am EDT making stops one hour later than scheduled.
• Train 8004 to Ronkonkoma will leave Penn Station 3:54am EDT making stops one hour later than normal.
• Train 6804 to Long Beach will depart Jamaica 4:15am EDT after receiving its connection from 8004 and will then operate one hour later than normal at its stops.
• Train 8804 to Far Rockaway will depart Valley Stream at 4:32 am EDT after receiving its connection from 6804, and operate one hour later than normal at its stops.
•  Train 6806 to Long Beach will depart Penn Station at 4:05am EDT and make stops normally to Long Beach.
• Train service resumes to normal from this point.

Westbound trains in their runs will continue to their final terminal, operating one hour than later than scheduled at the remainder of their stops.

The two trains that originate at eastern terminals, trains 6403 from Port Washington and 8003 from Ronkonkoma, will originate one hour later than normal, at 3:10am EDT and 3:13am EDT, respectively.

In conjunction with the Mainline Concrete Tie program that is ongoing this weekend, the bus for train 6703 will leave Hillside at 3:02am and arrive Jamaica at 3:10am EDT, connecting to train 6003. The bus for train 6705 will leave Bellerose at 3:12am EDT and arrive Jamaica at 3:42am, connecting to train 7605.

Additionally, train 6601 from Port Jefferson to Jamaica is subject to delay, as train 6602 will be arriving at Port Jefferson one hour later than usual.  Train 6602 will arrive Port Jefferson at 4:36am EDT and turn in the station as fast as they can for train 6601, which is scheduled to depart at 4:44am EDT, eight minutes later.

In the end, every train that was scheduled to run will run at some point, and all the equipment will be where it needs to be when the sun rises on Sunday Morning.

And like I said above, (and like I said last year), Daylight Saving Time problem is a problem pretty unique to the LIRR.  The vast majority of transit agencies across the country do not operate 24 hours a day.  Most transit agencies conclude service for the day around midnight or 1am, then start running trains again the next morning around 4-5am.  So most agencies wouldn't have any trouble with Daylight Saving Time.  To my knowledge, NJTransit doesn't have a single 2am departure and I don't think Metro-North has either (they might have trains in motion when the change goes into effect, but they're mainly just discharging passengers at that point.)

Amtrak, however, operates trains all over the country, and many of them operate overnight.  But Amtrak's whole Daylight Saving Time plan makes a lot less sense than the LIRR's.  Here's what Amtrak does: in the spring when the clocks move forward an hour all of their trains instantly become an hour late and they try to make up the time en route.  However, they're policy for the fall when we have the 1am hour twice is just plain silly.  When your train is going along its merry way and suddenly the clocks change, your Amtrak train then advances to the next station and then waits a whole extra hour until it's scheduled departure time.  And I've even heard one or two wise tales that some people will stop the train exactly where it is when the time change goes into effect.  So if you're in the middle of a tunnel when the clocks change they bring the train to a halt and wait in that position until the bonus hour of time passes.  Maybe it's just me, but I don't think that makes a whole lot of sense.

But anyways, if you still have any clocks in your house that need to be set forward, make sure you remember to set those ahead, and if you're going to be out late at night and wanting to take the LIRR, keep in mind the schedule changes above so you don't get caught off-guard coming home!