A Look at What the Port Jefferson 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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For today's post, we will take a look at what the Port Jefferson Branch timetable could look like once East Side Access is finished.  For the duration of this post, the term "Port Jefferson Branch" will refer only to the stations along the actual Port Jefferson Branch: Syosset through Port Jefferson.  This timetable isn't the hopelessly long and small printed Port Jefferson Branch timetable that circulates today showing any train that stops between New Hyde Park and Port Jefferson, rather I have made one separate catch-all Mainline timetable that will show every train that makes stops between Hicksville and New Hyde Park.

For today, we will limit our discussion to the Port Jefferson diesels and the trains that begin or end their runs at Huntington.  Many of the trains shown in this timetable make additional stops at stations New Hyde Park trough Hicksville, but you will be able to line up the specific stops at a later time.

The Port Jefferson Branch is the first branch where we will have to deal with some serious capacity constraints both on the Mainline and at Huntington itself.  Only having two tracks on the Mainline suffocates peak hour service, and the lack of train storage space at Huntington makes the only real solution to Mainline capacity issues ("throating" the line so both tracks are used in the peak direction) very difficult, since there is no way to get equipment back up to Huntington during that time.

With such constraints, both peak and reverse peak service inevitably suffers.  I tried my best to keep everything as even and practical as possible, but there are several noticeable gaps that can pop up.  Once you try to balance these trains with the Port Jefferson diesels, the trains from Farmingdale and Ronkonkoma, and the odd Oyster Bay train west of Mineola, it becomes very difficult to make sure each station gets enough service to appropriately serve two Manhattan terminals.

The Port Jefferson Branch has grown leaps and bounds over the last half-century.  Before 1970, the branch was diesel-only and single tracked for practically all of its length.  In 1985, the branch was double-tracked from the area of today's AMOTT interlocking all the way to Huntington, but everything beyond that still remains single-tracked, with the exception of passing sidings at DUKE, FOX, POST, and STONY interlockings.

Today, the Port Jefferson Branch is half-finished.  Huntington is no proper terminal for electric trains, and capacity along the branch is limited due to the single-track, and double-tracking the branch will be difficult due to the large amount of curve related speed restrictions. The LIRR's original plan was to electrify all the way out to Port Jefferson, but time and money got away from them and it was never finished.  In the MTA's 20-Year Capital Needs Assessment the agency wants to expand electrification to "16 stations in Suffolk County," and if I am doing my math the same way the LIRR is, that would eventually include all of the Port Jefferson Branch.  Unfortunately, we are still a number of years away from that eventually happening, as it is still several capital programs off.

The Port Jefferson Branch sees substantial ridership from Huntington, Cold Spring Harbor, and Syosset, as well as the other stations along the Mainline.  The diesel portion of the branch is the busiest segment of diesel territory on the LIRR, with ridership outnumbering that on the Mainline east of Ronkonkoma and the Montauk Branch east of Babylon.  There is still room for improvement, however, because as I said in the Montauk Branch post, people who live along the Port Jefferson Branch drive down to the Mainline stations west of Ronkonkoma and pile onto trains from there because service is more frequent and they have to change trains less often.  Improving service along the Port Jefferson Branch will likely help crowding conditions out of those west of Ronkonkoma stations, but it won't help as much as increased service on the Montauk Branch, as whatever Port Jefferson diesels you add in will have to compete for slots with all the other trains on the Mainline (something Montauk Branch trains don't have to deal with on the south shore.)

The timetables included below show sample service patterns for weekday and weekend Port Jefferson Branch service. Service to both Grand Central, New York Penn, and the secondary terminals are shown. The timetables only show revenue trains, not equipment or deadhead moves.  Due this branch's convenient layout, there are a number of non-revenue trains that operate along the branch, but the massive number of stops would prevent them from getting out of the way in a timely manner. Here are some Key Assumptions and basic Service Guidelines:

Key Assumptions

• Unfortunately, no key assumptions can be made about infrastructure improvements along the Mainline and Port Jefferson Branch.  This notably excludes the Third Mainline Track project and the capacity issues at HUNT.

Service Guidelines

• During rush hours, service is provided as frequently as track space on the Mainline allows.  Diesel service from Port Jefferson is sustained at close to half-hourly headways for much of the morning rush hour.  Of the eight diesel trains from Port Jefferson, one will terminate at Huntington, three trains operate with Dual Mode equipment to New York (one more than today), and the remainder travel to either Hunterspoint Avenue or Long Island City in Queens.
• Due to the nature of turning trains at Huntington, electric service out of Huntington is concentrated at the beginning and end of the rush hours, when electric equipment can be brought in the reverse-peak direction to represent westbound trains.
• In the PM Peak, diesel service to Port Jefferson is provided roughly every half hour for most of the PM peak period, with service trailing off towards the end of the rush with less equipment available.
• Sustaining reasonable levels of electric service to Huntington in the beginning of the rush hour is difficult due to the fact that there is no place to put trains once they arrive in Huntington.  More frequent service is provided towards the end of the rush hour where turning trains is possible, however there are gaps in service that arise.
• During the weekday off-peak period and all day on weekends, service to and from Port Jefferson is provided on 90-minute headways, with trains running between Hunterspoint Avenue and Port Jefferson.  Trains stop at Hicksville, Huntington, Greenlawn, then all stops to Port Jefferson.
• Huntington is served twice an hour during all off-peak times, with trains from Manhattan arriving and departing roughly every half hour.  This is an improvement over today's schedules, which see several hour-long gaps in off-peak service during the day.  These trains alternate Manhattan terminals and make certain stops along the Mainline west of Hicksville.
• It is impossible to sustain acceptable levels of reverse-peak service along the Port Jefferson branch with the current capacity constraints.  In the AM peak period, I have implemented several short diesel scoots that turn at Hicksville so the limited slots on the Mainline between Queens Village and Hicksville can be used as efficiently as possible.  When push comes to shove, using track slots to return diesel equipment to terminals is more preferred, since there is substantially less diesel equipment than electric available.

Link to Port Jefferson Branch Timetable

The Mainline, under current conditions, is extremely inflexible in both directions during the rush hour.  Trying to sustain reasonable service levels is difficult, especially at the peak of the peak period.  Huntington has a double-whammy of capacity constraints which essentially makes it impossible to expand the current number of trains that depart or arrive Huntington during the peak of the peak period, so the current service levels seen at Huntington today will have to be split between the two Manhattan terminals, making things difficult for passengers.   A third Mainline track is badly needed, and having it would allow for far more robust and consistent peak and reverse-peak service.

The way I have the timetables set up can be a little deceiving, since you cannot tell whether or not a train makes any local stops along the Mainline at this point.  In a few days when I finish putting together the messy Mainline timetable, you will be able to see, but in most cases, with the exception of Port Jefferson diesels which have 20 minute running times between Jamaica and Hicksville, that all trains make at least one stop along the Mainline west of Hicksville at some point.  In the AM peak, I set up all the trains from the eastern terminals first, without adding any stops on New Hyde Park through Hicksville segment, and then I just went back through the timetables afterwards and added a stop or two to various trains, so no one train would be making all six stops along the Mainline.

Like I did to a smaller extent on the Babylon Branch timetable seen earlier in the week, I worked to group station stops by ridership instead of location.  A train that makes stops at six small stations can have the same number of riders onboard as a train that makes a stop at two big stations.  Load balancing is incredibly important on the Mainline and Port Jefferson Branch, so any little bit of smart stop distribution helps.

Reverse peak service is very difficult to maintain due to the fact that there is so little room on the Mainline.  Equipment constraints and lack of passing sidings along the Port Jefferson Branch also creates some trouble with reverse-peak service, though running trains with more leisurely running times can make some reverse-peak service possible east of Huntington.  However, providing acceptable levels of service in general along the Mainline is extremely difficult given the current situation, but there is only so much you can do before you start having a bad shortage of trains in the peak direction.

Like the Babylon Branch timetable, the different nuances and exceptions are too numerous to explain in detail here, but I will be very willing to answer any questions or explain anything that is confusing about the sample timetable in either the comments below or by e-mail (you can send comments to mail@thelirrtoday.com).  In a few days I will continue with a look at the "Ronkonkoma Branch" timetable for service between Greenport and Hicksville, and then finally the large Mainline timetable, for service between Hicksville and New Hyde Park.  Until then, stay tuned!


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