Mets-Willets Point Service Starts Monday 3/31

Baseball season returns to Queens again this Monday, March 31, 2014.  As always, the train is the best way to get to the game, and the LIRR will be offering service to Mets-Willets Point for every Mets home game again this year.

Mets-Willets Point Station. (Photo credit: Flickr User thewilltorock)

On event days the LIRR sends a team of conductors over to Mets-Willets Point to get it ready to receive crowds.  At Mets-Willets Point, the LIRR sets up a fare control system at the station.  So if you are traveling to/from Mets-Willets Point on a Port Washington Branch train, you'll get your ticket looked at at the actual station, not on the train.  With many, many people crammed onto these trains, realistically, conductors probably won't be able to lift everyone's ticket before the station, so its just easier to handle everybody's in one place.  There is also a separate line for those goofballs who don't buy a ticket ahead of time, so they could be all sorted out without holding everybody else up.

Many passengers who arrive at Mets-Willets Point have to transfer at Woodside at some point during their trip.  Not a lot of trains make stops at Woodside (during the off-peak period Ronkonkoma and Long Beach trains usually do, but Huntington and Babylon trains usually make Forest Hills and Kew Gardens and skip over Woodside.)  So there are many people who would have to change at Jamaica first. 

The LIRR's tariff (fare) policy also makes a kind concession to Mets-Willets Point customers.  Normally, if you are traveling in one direction and want to change trains to go back in the other direction, you would have to pay what's called the "via" fare (which is the most expensive of the two legs + $1.00 (most times)).  But for customers going to Mets-Willets Point they only have to pay the normal zone 1 from the station they're traveling.  The extra leg to Mets-Willets Point is "on the house."

When you get a ticket via Woodside to Mets-Willets point it also prints another second strip of boxes for the conductors to punch.  This one ticket I found in my drawer from when I took my nephew to a game doesn't seem to have anything punched in that second set of boxes, oddly enough.

As far as traveling via Woodisde works with the peak vs. off peak fares  I'm not quite sure how that works out.  I know the eastbound trains TO the game on weekday evenings are considered peak trains, and for via fares the whole trip is considered peak if any one segment requires a peak ticket, but my initial assumption is that if you're coming from a place like Mineola for an evening weekday game, an off-peak ticket would be good enough (even though you are spending a couple minutes on a peak train).  I've never done it, since commutation tickets are valid to Mets-Willets Point (unlike Belmont Park).  In addition, beginning with the last fare hike, the Family Fare tickets are now valid on all Mets-Willets Point trains (since the family fare tickets are now only not allowed on AM Peak trains).

Last year, there was a quirk in the Port Washington Branch Mets-Willets Point service that would provide half-hourly service to stations on days of Mets Games and only hourly service at all other times on weekends.  Luckily, Port Washington Branch half-hourly service has now been restored, so there shouldn't be that confusion anymore.

For now, you can find a pdf file of this year's Mets game day schedule for your purusal.  Let's hope we're using it all the way into the postseason this year!

Click Here to See the Special Mets-Willets Point Timetable

And, before I forget, be sure to check out this post for information on how to get to Citi Field from any LIRR station, if you're unsure.