Main Line track numbers changing with first new interlocking cutover

Work is continuing to move forward on the Main Line Grade Crossing Elimination project (the $2.6 billion effort to eliminate 7 grade crossings and add a third track between Floral Park and Hicksville).  Over the weekend of February 27 and 28, the project team and railroad crews are cutting over the first new interlocking completed as part of the project.

The new switches at NASSAU 1, seen from the east end 
of GC-Merillon Avenue station (Photo: The LIRR Today)

The new interlocking is a new NASSAU 1, now located between GC-Merillon Avenue and Mineola stations and is replacing the old NASSAU 1 which was previously located further to the west between New Hyde Park and GC-Merillon Avenue stations.  Trains will begin using the new interlocking straight away, and the railroad actually has four Saturday double track outages scheduled for March and early April to remove the old NASSAU 1 switches. 

Along with the new interlocking cutover, the LIRR is changing up the track designations along the entire corridor to their new post-third track numbers.  As part of the change, the north track (current westbound track and future westbound local track) will be renumbered from track 1 to track 3.  The current eastbound track serving the south platforms will be renumbered from track 2 to track 1 (and will ultimately become become the new center express track).  Along much of the corridor, and through all five intermediate stations, the new third track will be installed to the south of the existing two tracks—this will likely be designated as the new track 2.

This would stay consistent with the track numbering convention used elsewhere on the LIRR and on most of the other legacy railroads in North America, where the innermost express tracks are numbered starting at 1, and then numbers count upwards with odd numbered tracks headed to the city and even numbered tracks heading away from the city.

Given that the LIRR is building a nonstandard third track as part of this project (and not maintaining an even number of tracks for equal bi-directional service), it is a bit awkward as the center track will be used for service in both directions over the course of the day.  The other option would have been to number the tracks 1-2-4 from north to south...this makes a bit more sense to me as it would make the westbound platform track number 1 (the same as it is now, so most riders don't have to make any adjustments) and the eastbound platform track number 4.  The scheme the railroad is going with has the westbound platform numbered as track 3, which is a higher number than the eastbound platform (track 2), which is nonstandard from the rest of the system.

At GC-Merillon Avenue, the new third track has been
installed under the temporary eastbound platform
(Photo: The LIRR Today)

For the time being, passengers will continue to board eastbound trains from temporary platforms next to what will now be called track 1 (the center express track).  Once the third track is cut into service and the temporary platforms are removed, riders will board trains from the new permanent platforms being built a couple feet to the south at on the new "track 2".  At GC-Merillon Avenue, the first segmetns of the new third track have already been laid, and can be seen beneath the temporary eastbound platform.  This temporary platform (which has since been built up to a full 12 cars) will likely remain in this place until the final weeks of the project when the new track is nearly ready to be placed into service.

NASSAU 1's new home

The new NASSAU 1 interlocking has been built almost a mile and a half further east than its current location, and this change was made as part of some unfortunate changes made to the project during the latest round planning process.  As part of the many concessions the MTA made to push the reinvigorated project through the review process, the agency made the massively damaging decision to eliminate the island platform originally planned for Mineola station.  This would have allowed trains on all three tracks to make station stops at Mineola—the gateway to Long Island's second and third largest job centers—between the county seat and the greater Nassau HUB area, there are a combined 125,000 jobs here.

But in order to avoid having to take slithers of property from residences at the west end of the station, the MTA abandoned the island platform and instead have center express track bypass through the station without a platform to save space, effectively demoting Mineola to a local station, the same as other stops along the corridor with a fraction of the ridership and transit-accessible jobs. 

In addition, the project design also now includes another huge flaw just to the east of Mineola at NASSAU 2 interlocking—while the Oyster Bay Branch currently has a double track set of diverging switches for trains heading onto or off of the Main Line, the new layout will have both Oyster Bay Branch tracks merge into the westbound local track just east of the station.  This means that eastbound trains headed for the Oyster Bay Branch will now need to switch tracks at this new NASSAU 1 interlocking, run in the opposite direction against the flow of traffic through Mineola station—and then diverge on a 15 mi/hr switch.  While this is something that I will discuss further in the coming weeks, this will likely spell big operational headaches on the Main Line after the project is finished.  For an eastbound train to head to the Oyster Bay Branch, all westbound local traffic on the Main Line will have to come to a halt for several minutes for the train to switch to the opposite track, make a station stop at Mineola, and then diverge at 15 mi/hr onto the Oyster Bay Branch (during the morning rush hour, all trains on the center express track will have to come to a halt too).

NASSAU 1 is currently located west of
GC-Merillon Avenue (Photo: The LIRR Today)

In a longshot attempt to mitigate these inevitable headaches, the new design moved NASSAU 1 interlocking and NASSAU 3 interlocking (which is currently just west of Carle Place station) closer to Mineola, so that Oyster Bay trains are running against the current of traffic for a shorter distance, and so express trains can switch to the local tracks to make station stops at Mineola for intra-Island passengers (this is never going to actually happen, and the intra-Island market will likely suffer considerably as a result).

The new interlocking is located between the area around Whitehall Boulevard and Herricks Road and contains four crossovers, which would allow trains on any track to reach any other track.  The original design called for No. 20 turnouts at this interlocking, which would mean trains have to slow down to 50 mi/hr to change tracks here.