Weekend Oyster Bay trains eliminated
Beginning with the September 3 timetable change, the LIRR says it will eliminate at least four weekend Oyster Bay Branch trains, reducing service to bi-hourly service levels all day. Presently, some additional trains operate during higher volume periods on weekends to provide hourly service between 7:00a and 10:00a and between 4:00p and 8:00p on Saturdays and Sundays.The LIRR has not specifically said which trains will be getting the axe, but presumably it will be trains 6503 and 6559 in the westbound direction (the 7:00a and 5:00p trains from Oyster Bay to Jamaica) as well as trains 6554 and 6558 in the eastbound direction (the 5:50p and 7:50p trains from Jamaica to Oyster Bay). Trains 6560 and 6562 will likely move up an hour earlier to maintain the bi-hourly spacing.
 |
| An empty Oyster Bay station is about to get even emptier on weekends (Photo: The LIRR Today) |
The cuts the LIRR is planning on implementing are a fair bit worse than the '"doomsday budget" cuts of 2009-2010. During the financial crisis, the LIRR never eliminated the extra weekend evening trains (which are much more important, since there tends to be higher variability in occasional riders' return trips from the city), yet despite a continued period of pronounced economic growth, these trains are getting the axe in 2019.
These four trains combined carry roughly 300 passengers each weekend day (train 6500 carries an additional 60 passengers), but the reduction in service makes the service less usable to riders overall, especially occasional riders who have more variability in their travel plans. As the LIRR saw when it eliminated half-hourly off-peak service on the Port Washington Branch, people don't just shift to other trains earlier or later, more people opt not to take the train at all, and overall ridership declines.
| Train | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|
| 6503 | 60 | 40 |
| 6559 | 120 | 70 |
| 6554 | 70 | 70 |
| 6558 | 50 | 60 |
| Total | 300 | 240 |
The LIRR's service on the Oyster Bay Branch is extraordinarily inefficient—under the current schedule, weekend trains have nearly two hour turnaround times in Jamaica (a train arriving Jamaica at 8:57a goes to the yard and doesn't make its next trip until 10:50a), which means the trains the LIRR's sparse diesel equipment resources, and the crews are sitting around doing nothing for significant stretches of time.
The real travesty with the LIRR's move here is that while reducing service will save about $143k per year (assuming 111.4 days in a typical weekend year), the LIRR could save nearly as much money by increasing service to operate every 90-minutes... While it would not be hourly at those higher volume periods, consistent service every 90 minutes all day would still preserve and increase flexibility for riders, helping grow ridership, not diminish what little there is now.
See the example below. The LIRR's planned elimination represents a 20% savings over what they spend on providing weekend service now (and this would require starting service 1 hour later, and ending service earlier, further diminishing its usability). But if they ran 90-minute service, they could maintain the current span of service and still achieve 86% of the likely savings from eliminating the service (click to enlarge):
Increasing service to every 90-minutes would cost only $175 more per weekend day than reducing service to bi-hourly. That's a pretty trivial sum...at current off-peak fares, LIRR would only have to attract 9 marginal round-trip riders to break-even, which would be a slam dunk with more trains.
The fact that the LIRR would rather get out the axe, cut service, and make an already underused line even less usable instead of using a tiny bit of common sense and thinking how they could use their existing resources more efficiently is cause for great concern, and certainly casts doubt over whether railroad officials are really putting effort into improving service...
Midday Speonk service reduced
Also as part of the same round of service reductions, the LIRR will be cutting a seasonal midday Speonk train that currently operates Monday-Friday from May to Columbus Day to instead operate on Fridays only during those months.The LIRR has not said what train specifically will be cut, but it will likely be train 2736 (the 12:46p train from Jamaica to Speonk) or train 2745 (the 3:05p train from Speonk to Jamaica), or likely both, as the same crew operates both trains. These two trains were added on a seasonal basis in 2013.
Eliminating train 2736 would create a more than 5-hour gap in eastbound service between train 2706 (which arrives Speonk at 1:05p) and train 2738 (which doesn't arrive Speonk until 6:10p). This is egregiously in excess of the LIRR's own Title VI service standards, which state that stations classified as "Level 4" stations (the category Bellport, Mastic-Shirley, and Speonk all fall into) should receive service no less than every 120 minutes during off-peak periods. The LIRR was already failing to meet this standard with the 3 hour, 10 minute gap in service between trains 2736 and 2738, but now they are planning on having the gap between trains more than double the maximum vehicle headway. Eliminating this train would also leave a 2-hour gap in service between Babylon and Patchogue, which is also a failure of the LIRR's service standards (Patchogue with 1,191 weekday riders in 2014 is a "Level 3" station which should have a maximum vehicle headway of no more than 90 minutes).
The LIRR is referring to these changes as "service adjustments within guidelines", but that seems to be completely false (unless they quietly changed the guidelines from what they have posted on their website, without public input).
During the summer months, westbound train 2745 takes the place of a Patchogue-to-Babylon shuttle train 2773, which runs empty as equipment to Babylon instead. Eliminating train 2745 Mondays through Thursdays would not result in a reduction of service between Patchogue and Babylon (though it would add a transfer at Babylon for those riders), but it would represent a cut in service at Speonk, leaving a nearly 5 hour gap in service between train 2709 (which departs Speonk at 4:14p) and train 2747 (which departs Speonk at 9:07p). This is again a clear failure to meet the maximum vehicle headway guidelines.
Speonk Dual Mode service reduced
Also on the chopping block is the one of the two PM Peak dual mode one-seat ride trains to Speonk. From September, the LIRR will be reverting back to the schedule that was in place prior to the expansion in dual mode service in February 2018. As a result, train 2742 (the 6:27p train from NY-Penn Station to Speonk) will no longer originate in NY-Penn Station. Instead, riders will have to board an electric train between there and Babylon, where they will have to transfer to a shuttle train to continue their trip east of Babylon. |
| Train 2742 pulling into NY-Penn Station on its first day of dual mode service in February 2018 (The LIRR Today) |
This change would reduce the number of one-seat rides provided to the diesel branches from five to four. The LIRR is moving further away form its yet-unfulfilled commitment from the 1990's to operate 11 dual mode round-trips per day once the full fleet was up and running (then-LIRR president Thomas Prendergast committed in a Newsday interview to nine daily round-trips by the spring of 2000, with further increases from there).
While there will likely be no additional travel time on paper, the LIRR's increased tendency to not hold all scheduled connections lately could mean LIRR riders turn up ready for their new transfer in Babylon only to find their connection has gone, and they have to wait for the next scheduled train an hour later.
Weekend Port Jefferson Dual Mode trains cut permanently
Also on the dual mode chopping block is the two weekend Port Jefferson dual mode round-trips that the LIRR introduced in November 2018. The LIRR quietly cut these trips in May with the start of the summer season (as the LIRR continues to do nothing to address the problems with its diesel fleet). The LIRR said they were suspended "as a result of Main Line Third Track weekend construction work", which is plainly not credible, as the dual mode trains took the place of an electric MU train, so there was no change in the number of revenue trains operating between Floral Park and Hicksville at all...But weekend riders who had hoped their one-seat rides would come back after the summer season is over are out of luck, as the LIRR is planning on eliminating these one-seat rides permanently.
All of these service reductions hit diesel branch riders where they hurt the most: making off-peak service even less frequent, and making bothersome transfers even more common, and undo a lot of the (relatively nominal) progress the LIRR has made on the diesel branches in recent months. As the LIRR continues to do nothing to address the capacity and reliability problems with its diesel fleet, one wonders what the true intent of these changes are. LIRR Forward, or LIRR Reverse...?
No comments:
Post a Comment