A Look at What the Hempstead Branch Timetable Could Look Like

This post was published in 2014 and was a discussion on a series of concept timetables for East Side Access developed by The LIRR Today.  The LIRR published a proposed service plan and draft timetables in 2022.  Read about the proposed East Side Access service plan here. 

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From the West Hempstead Branch's eastern terminal, we hop a couple of blocks down Fulton Street to the east and north a little bit to get to the eastern terminal of another LIRR Branch, the Hempstead Branch. The Hempstead Branch, unlike its West prepended counterpart, sees hourly off-peak service, trains on weekends, and more riders for its merits.  Hempstead, the branch's eastern terminal, is also right across the street from the Hempstead Transit Center, one of NICE's main bus terminals, serving 19 different bus routes.  Quite a few people, upon arrival by bus at the Hempstead Transit Center, don't cross the street and hop onto the LIRR for a fast trip into the city, but rather just transfer over to another bus to Jamaica where they can catch the subway (all for their $2.50 fare or $112 unlimited MetroCard).

Those that do hop on to the train (and there are many that do) take a trip up through Garden City (and stop at no less than three train stations in Garden City), before pulling through Stewart Manor and meeting the LIRR's Mainline in Floral Park.

From Garden City station-west, the Hempstead Branch runs pretty darn close to the Mainline.  Stewart Manor is only about a half mile south of New Hyde Park, and Nassau Boulevard is less than a mile south of Merillon Avenue.  In both these cases, the Hemsptead Branch stations are not two minutes further along either New Hyde Park Road or Nassau Boulevard.  This slightly southern alignment that is almost redundant through the Village of Garden City used to be the main east-west route for the Central Railroad of Long Island and would be the route many Ronkonkoma trains might eventually take if the LIRR were ever to reactivate the defunct portion of the Central Branch.

The LIRR could work to use this moderately close spacing of stations to their advantage.  New Hyde Park and Merillon Avenue lie along the incredibly busy Mainline.  These stations are slighted on service today (and rightfully so, they're screwing themselves over by holding down vitally needed infrastructure expansions), and in the Mainline timetable I'm going to put out next week, it doesn't get much better for them.  My hope is that increasing service along the Hempstead Branch (where there is capacity), will hopefully work to drive riders away from New Hyde Park and Merillon Avenue and to Stewart Manor and Nassau Boulevard.  There are likely going to be parking issues at the Hempstead Branch stations, and hopefully Garden City will be able to get off their high horse and do something about it (or the LIRR could build a really hideous parking deck up and over the current stations, on their own property if the village doesn't cooperate), but the capacity just isn't there on the Mainline to give any decent amounts of service at New Hyde Park and Merillon Avenue (especially Merillon Avenue).

To get on to the actual timetable, the linked .pdf file below is a sample weekday and weekend set of Hempstead Branch timetables that include service to Grand Central Terminal. Peak, off-peak, reverse-peak, and special/event trains are all included.

The timetables only show revenue trains, not equipment or deadhead moves. I have planned out each deadhead move, equipment rotation, etc., as I was doing this project, and I have most of those moves handwritten down on paper, but I have yet to insert all of them into the actual excel timetables. Nonetheless, I tried whenever possible to minimize the amount of deadheading, since it is essentially wasted crew and equipment hours, but in some cases, it was unavoidable.

Just like the other timetable posts, here are some "Key Assumptions" and "Service Guidelines" which I built the timetables on:

Key Assumptions

• The current infrastructure on the branch will remain the same or similar to what it is now.
• While not critical, a reincarnation of the former PARK interlocking to include crossovers either directly east or directly west of Floral Park station would help.

Service Guidelines

• During peak hours, service is provided on a clockface schedule with 20-minute headways.  Train service is provided to Penn Station, Grand Central, and Atlantic Terminal by a structure similar to that used on the Far Rockaway Branch, but there is a minimum of one train per hour to each terminal in this case.
• Hollis and Queens Village stations will no longer be served by daytime trains to/from Hempstead.  These stations are only served by Hempstead Branch trains in the late-night hours.  Instead, train service at these stations will be provided by new trains that operate to/from Belmont Park.
• During the off-peak hours, service is provided hourly on the branch at Bellerose and east of Floral Park.  Trains operate from Hempstead to/from Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn.  Additional Mainline trains to/from Grand Central stop at Floral Park to supplement service at that station.
• During the weekday reverse-peak period, additional trains are run in the reverse-peak direction from Grand Central to provide service on 30-minute headways during reverse-peak times.  The increased reverse-peak headways cut down empty equipment moves (much like I have them do on the Far Rockaway Branch) and cycle off trains from the rest of the system.  These trains are also targeted at commuters holding jobs on Long Island and connect onwards to NICE buses at the Hempstead Transit Center.

Link to Hempstead Branch Timetable

Knowing that train service during the peak periods to New Hyde Park and Merillon Avenue would be unfortunately sporadic, I tried to keep service on the Hempstead Branch consistent and frequent to the point where it can become a pretty good alternative to catching the train at Merillon Avenue and New Hyde Park.  Service at 20 minute headways comes close to what the Far Rockaway Branch sees, and keeping service at these levels should be able to encourage growth along a branch that while not overflowing with capacity, has a nice yard, a four-track terminal and not too many competing trains.


Service is set up during the peak periods to run on a clockface schedule, with departures to/from branch stations every 20 minutes. One train an hour is a Flyer that operates directly to either Penn Station or Grand Central, speeding the commutes of those wishing to go there.

During the off-peak periods, trains will operate to/from Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn.  I'm not letting go of direct trains to Brooklyn just yet, and if you'll read on a little further, I'll try to make some sense of my rational.

I have the off-peak Hempstead and Belmont Park Branch Timetables set up in a way that allows both branches to operate using one track between QUEENS and HALL.   As it is now, almost all off-peak trains can operate using only track 4 (the eastbound local track) on the mainline.  While a move like this allows for more space for the mainline (in the hope that they will be able to take extra advantage of that space when the third track gets built), it also removes the clumsy crossover move today's Hempstead Branch trains have to undertake at QUEENS interlocking to serve Queens Village and Hollis, since their westbound platforms are all the way up on track 3.

There are a couple instances where westbound trains from Hempstead run west on track 2, but since those trains no longer have to worry about stopping at Queens Village or Hollis, it doesn't matter where they run.

Keeping trains in both directions on track 4 between QUEENS and HALL will allow the trains to stay on the south side of the Right of Way, and when they come to Jamaica, they can shift over to tracks 10 and 11 (the freight tracks) without having to trip over any other trains.  And now that they're on tracks 10 and 11, they're right in line to platform at the new platform F at Jamaica.  And from there, they're one step away from the portals Atlantic Avenue Tunnels and their route to Atlantic Terminal. 

In this way, Hempstead and Belmont Park trains stay entirely to the south of any of the trains on the Mainline and operate from Atlantic Terminal to either Belmont Park or Hempstead without ever crossing paths with any other train.  This achieves the LIRR's goal to allow more fluid operations through JAY and HALL interlockings while still preserving through service from Long Island to Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn. 

If they really wanted to get an A+ for creativity, they could add in a small flyover track from the Atlantic Branch up to track 11 at Jamaica and Far Rockaway trains can hop up to the new platform F and stay clear of all of the New York trains as well.  The track diagram at the right demonstrates what I'm talking about.

So getting from Mainline 4 down to Jamaica Station track 10 would be really easy, and having all trains operate on the one eastbound track, Hempstead and Belmont Park trains will not have to crossover the Mainline and impede the flow of trains through there.

While the LIRR should be sure to avoid simplification, this service layout allows for the LIRR to move their Brooklyn trains over to the new Platform F (and thus allowing them to clean up JAY and HALL), so it can go along with the plans they already have in motion.  Though, instead of ending Brooklyn runs at a signal at the east end of Platform F, we can have them continue further east to Long Island, while still not doing anything to put them in the way of other trains.  Unlike today's layout (which is pretty good already), setting up service this way will allow for Huntington trains to/from New York to never have to cross paths at any time with a Hempstead or Belmont Park train to/from Brooklyn.  It keeps the Brooklyn service separate, which is fine, but still allows it to retain its connections to the east.


I thank everyone who has commented on the setup of the other timetables thus far, and comments are still very welcome and much appreciated. Thoughts, suggestions, corrections, etc., are all fine. You can leave a comment by accessing the comment form below (by signing in with a username or just leaving your name and e-mail), or e-mail me at mail@thelirrtoday.com. Your feedback is appreciated.

View an index of all of the other sample timetables, the posts about those timetables, and revision history, right here.