Late Friday Links 3/28

I have been very busy this week, so there haven't been many posts.  I expect to get back into a more reliable posting routine towards the end of next week.  Anyways, here are some Late Friday LIRR Links to start off your weekend:

• Trolleys on their way to the East End?
• There are talks among officials on the east end of implementing a trolley system on the LIRR's East End.  The article said that "Mr. Bellone said that the county could use the Long Island Rail Road’s current lines as a starting point to build “a transportation system that connects off that — essentially, a rapid trolley system [that] could bring people to the places they need to be.”"  Trolleys themselves have relatively low speeds so you won't necessarily be able to improve trip times between the East End communities, and capacity will still be somewhat limited unless a second track or more passing sidings are added. In my opinion, the east end communities on Suffolk County should be using the LIRR as their anchor, with frequent bus or trolley service connecting the train stations to the surrounding communities. As demand increases, the LIRR might become interested in increasing service on the East End and/or doing track upgrades to make travel times faster, but I don't think this is the direction to go in in the meantime.
• LIRR engineer awarded for heroism
• From the Newsday article: "The MTA on Monday honored Long Island Rail Road engineer Joseph Moscato, 64, who helped save a woman from a burning vehicle earlier this month.  Moscato, a Centereach resident and 14-year LIRR engineer, received an award at a meeting of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s LIRR committee for his actions on March 8 when he came upon the accident on Route 347 near Townline Road in Hauppauge.Moscato, a longtime volunteer firefighter in Babylon and Centereach who was off-duty from his LIRR job, retrieved a fire extinguisher from his car and used it to push back the flames.""
• LIRR lot parking permits on sale Tuesday morning in Bellmore
• New parking regulations go into effect at Merrick station this Tuesday, April 1.  Residents will need a parking permit to part at most lots, and those parking permits are available for sale to residents now.  (The permits cost $3).  This was approved by the Town of Hempstead earlier in February.
• Even more LIRR Links

There is a ton of trackwork going on this weekend, and if you look at the All Timetables page on the MTA's website you'll see a ton of different special schedules posted there.  Specifically, here's what's going on this weekend:

• From Fri, March 28, 10:27pm to Mon, March 31, 2:56am buses will replace trains for westbound service at Queens Village, Hollis, and Hillside for the Mainline Concrete Tie Replacement Project. Running times for select Patchogue trains, and their Babylon Connections, are also being adjusted to accommodate connections.
• On Sat, March 29, from 1:03am to 5:35am, buses will replace four early morning trains between Great Neck and Port Washington due to Sperry Rail Testing.  
• On Sat, March 29, from 1:30am to 1:30pm the single Hempstead Branch track will be out of service from GARDEN to Hempstead for concrete tie installation prep work from 1:30 AM on Saturday, March 29, through 1:30 PM on Saturday, March 29th.
• On Saturday and Sunday, March 29 and 30, from 3:32am – 4:37am each morning there will be no train movement through HAROLD Interlocking to allow Engineering forces to pull high tension cables across the interlocking. As a result, two eastbound trains from Penn Station will have their schedules adjusted up to 24 minutes later and two connecting trains in Jamaica will have their schedules adjusted up to 28 minutes later.

Have a good weekend!