The LIRR’s new schedules bring little in changes or improvement for summer seasonal service compared to prior years. Considering growth in discretionary, non-commuter ridership during off-peak periods has been the main driver of LIRR’s ridership growth over the last 30 years, one would have hoped that the railroad would mount much more of an effort to further fuel and grow off-peak ridership growth at a time when peak commuter travel looks unlikely to recover anytime soon...
Ultimately, LIRR's slate of summer beach service offerings looks much the same as it has in prior years. Instead of using their completely re-written schedules and new Manhattan terminal to look for ways to strategically grow seasonal ridership, the railroad is not thinking very far outside the box. Which is a shame—Long Island's beaches are some of the best in the world, and they are uniquely well situated and located for easy mass transit access (something that is next to impossible in many other cities around the country). But, unfortunately, the LIRR isn't excited to step up to the plate and offer robust service options to many of these destinations. At a time when people are working from home more, domestic and international travel is either very expensive or very chaotic, many have been flocking to the region's beaches over the last few summers as an easy and affordable getaway.
South Fork
The LIRR’s seasonal service to the Hamptons and Montauk is back—and following LIRR’s total rewrite of their train schedules for East Side Access, the railroad has more or less copy and pasted the same summer service schedules that have been in place since 2013 when the Cannonball train was shifted to NY-Penn Station. The only real change is the early afternoon Friday eastbound train (formerly train 2708, now train 12) departs a little earlier, leaving Jamaica at 1:33p instead of 5:07.
Summer Fridays
Other than that, the summer service offering—like the rest of the LIRR’s service in diesel territory—remains largely unchanged. On Fridays, the LIRR adds the following trains:
- Train 12 (formerly 2708) departs Hunterspoint Avenue at 1:15p, stopping at Jamaica, express to Westhampton, and then all local stops to Montauk
- Cannonball train 16 (formerly 2798) departs NY-Penn Station at 4:07p, runs non-stop to Westhampton, and then stops at Southampton, Bridgehampton, East Hampton, and Montauk only. This train also runs on Thursdays on a slightly different schedule as train 14 (formerly 2710) making the same stops.
- Dual mode train 42, the 5:13p train from NY-Penn Station to Speonk is extended to Montauk as train 20 (formerly 2714). This train stops at Jamaica, Babylon, then all local stops to Montauk. This train also operates on Thursdays May 25, June 15, June 29, August 31, and Monday, July 3.
- Train 24 (formerly 2718) departs Jamaica at 7:19p, express to Patchogue, then Mastic-Shirley and all local stops to Montauk.
- Relief train 66 operates as a shuttle from Babylon to Patchogue, stopping at Bay Shore, Sayville, and Patchogue only. This train runs approximately 15 minutes prior to train 8 (formerly 2706), which on Fridays is renumbered to train 10 (formerly 2796) which runs non-stop from Jamaica to Patchogue. The relief train for former train 2704 earlier in the morning is eliminated, with the new schedules having train 4 originating at Jamaica and stopping at Babylon and Patchogue only before making local stops to Montauk.
.jpg) |
| The Cannonball arrives at Southampton in 2021 (Photo: The LIRR Today) |
With LIRR flooding the Montauk Branch with capacity on Friday afternoons, those extra trains are (a) not being heavily used (they’re still rather busy—just not nearly as busy as we’ve seen in the past) and (b) the extra capacity is not providing the service and capacity at the times people actually want to travel. This means that people travelling mid-week either don’t take the LIRR at all because the service is so poor (and Hampton Jitney is a lot more competitive during off-peak hours) or the trains that are running are jam-packed and there are standees at 1:00p on a Monday or Tuesday.
Another growing trend during COVID that has gone totally unaddressed by LIRR is summer wknds bleeding more into workweek (since ppl can work remote Fr/Mo)
— The LIRR Today (@TheLIRRToday) July 5, 2022
Day after a major holiday weekend & LIRR sends 2707 out w/ 4 cars. Brilliant. (they did send a relief, looks just as busy) pic.twitter.com/XFBgKaVyTT
The example diesel branch overhaul schedules I published last year demonstrate LIRR could offer a more robust level of service on summer Fridays (and most of the other days during the week), offering more service spread throughout more of the day, and especially more midday service, with at least bi-hourly service all day (and service approaching hourly to/from Southampton). Offering more service like this—and putting heavier weight on regular/daily trains to operate South Fork service—puts less strain on the diesel fleet pool, meaning there is less impact to other trains on the Port Jefferson and Oyster Bay Branches to divert capacity to the South Fork.
Summer Sundays
The Sunday return schedule also suffers from a similar issue—the service is heavily oriented to those coming back from the South Fork later in the day on Sundays. The extra trains that operate almost all depart in the late afternoon:
- Train 6005 (formerly 8703) departs Montauk at 11:43a, makes local stops to Speonk, and then runs non-stop to Jamaica, arriving there at 2:13p. This train operates both Saturdays and Sundays for an extended season (from the first weekend in May through Thanksgiving)
- Train 6007 (formerly 8705) departs Montauk at 1:17p, makes local stops to Speonk, and then runs non-stop to Jamaica, arriving there at 3:48p.
- Train 6009 (formerly 8707) originates at Southampton at 3:25p, makes local stops to Speonk, and then runs non-stop to Jamaica, arriving there at 5:16p
- Tran 6013 (formerly 8711) departs Montauk at 4:18p, makes local stops to Mastic-Shirley, then Patchogue and non-stop to Jamaica, arriving there at 6:51p.
- Dual Mode train 6017 (formerly 8717) departs Montauk at 6:22p, makes local stops to Westhampton, and then runs non-stop to Jamaica, before continuing to NY-Penn Station, arriving there at 9:11p.
- Train 6021 (formerly train 8721) departs Montauk at 8:22p, makes local stops to Westhampton, and then runs non-stop to Jamaica, arriving there at 10:51p.
This approach has, again, proven highly outdated—and ridership on these westbound trains on Sunday dropping off considerably later into the night has been a trend that has been ongoing since well before the COVID-19 pandemic. With the summer rental market trending more towards weeklong rentals (similar to the Jersey Shore), many more people are spending the entire week on the South Fork instead of just a brief weekend, so they no longer need to wait until the last minute to head back Sunday night.
In recent years, crowding on former train 8703 (now train 6005) was the biggest issue on Sundays, even when it runs with 12 cars—and that train departs before noon. This is really a big sea change—train 8703/6005 didn’t even exist 10 years ago, and it has gone from nothing to being the most crowded train over the whole weekend with 12 packed cars. The new schedules do nothing to address this crowding issue by more evenly distributing service throughout the day.
Saturdays and Sundays year-round
Likely one of the top reasons why this is an issue is the LIRR’s old schedules ran Montauk Branch service on Mondays almost in a uni-directional format. There are three or four trains that run east to Montauk in the morning—and then there is a nearly 10-hour gap in eastbound service to the South Fork between train 6012, which departs Jamaica at 12:13p and train 6014, which departs Jamaica at 9:48p. There used to be no contraflow trains on weekends (except for train 8705/6007 on Sundays), but when train 8703 was added it became the only train to swim upstream, meeting train 8706/6010 at Southampton.
This schedule setup is ok in theory for day trip riders, since you can take a ride eastbound early in the morning and then come back west in the evening, but there are fewer of those people these days and it makes the LIRR completely useless for any sort of intra-Island travel on weekends.
The extreme crowding issues on train 8703/6005 because of the poor westbound service options in the morning often set off a chain of cascading delays with late single-track meets that ripple until mid-afternoon. Train 8703/6005 delays train 8706/6010 at Southampton, which delays train 8705/6007 at Montauk, which delays train 8710/6012 now at Hampton Bays (requiring that train to skip Hampton Bays) unless that train wasn’t delayed by the meet with 8703/6005 at Patchogue first, which delays train 8709/6011 at Montauk, which used to delay a Patchogue shuttle train and then a Babylon train before LIRR gave up on making intra-Island connections work on weekends.
Bi-hourly service within reach
With the completion of the Speonk to Montauk Signalization project in 2017, the LIRR now has the ability to run trains more easily on the South Fork, and a lot more flexibility to do so—but it has never really overhauled its schedules to take full advantage of the signalization.
LIRR now has the infrastructure available on the South Fork to run at least bi-hourly service to/from Montauk, in both directions, all day long. To keep the equipment utilization tight, trains would have to meet at Hampton Bays and short-turn at Jamaica—this would require only 3 diesel sets, which is the same as the railroad uses during winter weekends today (and one less than the 4 sets used between May and Thanksgiving). LIRR would need to build a second platform at Hampton Bays to make the most of this service plan (since one train has to be limited to 5 cars to meet at Hampton Bays), but this is still manageable without it.
Bi-hourly service in both directions would be transformational for weekend and off-peak service on the South Fork (and the LIRR could do even better on weekdays if they put their minds to it). Not only would it give people the flexibility to come and go as they please, it would make service much more predictable, flexible, and reliable since the railroad would not be subject to large surges of people at any one time. More even and consistent service would encourage people to spread out their travel over the course of the day. It would also make the train a viable option for local, intermediate travel along the South Fork, and provide an alternative to driving on heavily congested local roads.
Voting with feet
The LIRR's reputation for sloppy, overcrowded, and delayed trains to and from the South Fork is clearly spreading around, as ridership has been trailing off over the last decade. After many years of overcrowding and delays, people are giving up on the LIRR and finding other ways to the South Fork (e.g. Hampton Jitney, renting cars, etc.).
Even pre-pandemic, weekend ridership on LIRR's trains to and from the South Fork has been heading in the wrong direction, with ridership falling 25% from the 2013 peak of 254,000 summer weekend travelers to just about 191,000 in 2019. After seeing a steady and promising upward trend, LIRR was unable to quickly address the issues that arose and now ridership (albeit slightly pandemic-suppressed) is now down well below 2005 levels. Despite virtually everything being back open for business in summer 2021 and again in 2022, the LIRR has not come close to matching its pre-pandemic ridership figures, even in the summer months.
 |
| Note: 2014 ridership figures were abnormally low due to the LIRR strike threat coming around the busiest weekends of July, worse than usual weather, and some really big service screw-ups on holiday weekends that left many riders stranded. |
This is one of the clearest examples out there that bad service, constant delays and overcrowding, etc. has a real and measurable impact on ridership. And that addressing these recurring screw-ups and providing more reliable and consistent service can reverse this decline and grow ridership.
North Fork
The LIRR's new schedules bring similarly few changes to service on the North Fork. Long forgotten and overlooked, the Ronkonkoma to Greenport segment of the Main Line sees roughly the same service as it did before and during the pandemic. With the MTA diverting money allocated to the Ronkonkoma to Yaphank signalization project and agreeing to very restrictive scheduling measures to get out of installing full PTC to Greenport, the LIRR's options for improving service in the line's present state is very limited.
With the lack of signalization and PTC exemption restrictions, the LIRR can basically schedule only one train at a time in the entire segment between Ronkonkoma and Greenport. On most days, this is all LIRR offers, with a single, 2-car scoot set shuttling between Ronkonkoma and Greenport all day.
.jpg) |
| Riverhead gets one additional weekday train in the new schedules (Photo: The LIRR Today) |
The LIRR originally planned to shift the PM Peak Greenport train quite a bit earlier as well (having the connection leave NY-Penn Station at 5:04p instead of 5:41p in the original schedules), but that was changed in one of the many rounds of tweaks over the course of the spring, and the connections now depart NY-Penn Station at 5:37p and NY-Grand Central at 5:39p.
Summer Fridays
On Summer Fridays, LIRR is continuing the practice of offering a second eastbound train to Greenport in the afternoon (extending the short-turn train that ends in Riverhead) and using that opportunity to swap out the equipment. Similar to years past, the LIRR sends a second set of equipment to operate the second train to Greenport, and then the crews swap equipment sets in Greenport—the old set that has been running all week returns to Jamaica to be refuled, serviced, etc. and is then sent back out into the pool, and the new set returns to Ronkonkoma where it serves as the shuttle set until the following Friday.
 |
| The new Greenport scoot equipment set is swapped in Greenport on Friday afternoons (Photo: The LIRR Today) |
The LIRR could offer these riders an express ride by having that train stop in Jamaica and collect passengers there instead of running empty to Ronkonkoma. This would give riders a slightly faster but more direct ride, eliminate a second transfer for those coming from Brooklyn or NY-Grand Central, and keep another 200-300 people off of train 1954, which is always busy on Fridays (and especially ahead of holiday weekends). Shifting the midday Greenport train so much earlier even means that the original Greenport scoot set could run all the way to Long Island City and offer a second direct option for passengers later in the rush hour:
The LIRR's new schedules on the North Fork actually represent a decrease in service over prior years. Two ancillary trains—former trains 200 and 255 have been eliminated as passenger service options, but they still run empty as non-passenger equipment trains 3900 and 3955. Because the Greenport scoot equipment and crews are based out of Ronkonkoma, every morning the trainset and equipment run from Ronkonkoma eastbound to Greenport in the middle of the night before representing train 201/903 out of Greenport. In 2017, the LIRR converted this to a passenger train in the summer months, dubbing it a revival of the "fisherman's special" that it used to run. Without any connections further up Island or all intermediate stops, it was hardly ever used (I rode it once, so I know at least someone used it), but it didn't cost LIRR anything to offer it as an option. Train 255 was the second half of the equipment swap operation—after both train sets arrived at Greenport, the extra crew would take the old set back to Jamaica. The train would make local stops to Ronkonkoma and then run non-stop to Ronkonkoma. I took this train several times and it was popular with Shelter Island residents and was quite well used (for a Greenport train that left at almost 9:00p) each time I rode it and it is bad to see the option eliminated. Under the new schedules, the last westbound shuttle to Ronkonkoma is moved earlier by about an hour to offer a similarly timed train, but there is now no later option on Friday nights if you want to spend the evening out in Greenport and return back west.
This is just another example of the Manhattan and Ronkonkoma Railroad showing no interest in doing anything more than the bare minimum to sustain service east of Ronkonkoma.
Summer Weekends
The one bit of good news is that the two additional weekend round-trips on the North Fork are back. These additional trains were also added in 2017 as part of the slate of Greenport service improvements and have helped fuel significant ridership growth on the North Fork—with total ridership nearly doubling between 2016 and 2019. The new half-hourly Ronkonkoma service also means that these trains line up with connections better.
Overall, this is still a far cry from the hourly shuttle service LIRR should be striving towards, which would really be transformational and have the opportunity to ease crippling traffic congestion on the North Fork.
Long Beach
With pandemic capacity restrictions lifted, the City of Long Beach and LIRR are back in full swing for this summer. The MTA's Long Beach getaway package offers round-trip rail transportation and beach admission for $26.75 from zone 1 or $23.75 from zone 3, which is a roughly $8.75 savings over buying everything individually. Unfortunately, the LIRR's beach packages are still not offered to or from stations on Long Island.
.jpg) |
| Train 6816 was the only weekend flyer (Photo: The LIRR Today) |
The Long Beach Branch is really at the point where it could sustain half-hourly service during off-peak times, at least in the summer, fall, and holiday months (e.g. from Easter to MLK Day). Pre-pandemic, off-season ridership during off-peak hours is roughly double what's seen on the Far Rockaway and Hempstead Branches, which also have hourly service (see comment LB23 on page 100 of my public comments on LIRR's draft schedules). Long Beach itself is a significant driver of demand, and it could likely see a lot of ridership growth if there was more off-peak service available.
But like most things with the LIRR's new schedules, they are ultimately very disappointing. The railroad is not offering half-hourly service on the Long Beach Branch—and they are actually cutting back the seasonal express service from the 4 round-trips that LIRR was offering before and during most of the pandemic to just one extra round-trip, which departs earlier and also stops at Jamaica.
This joins the very long list of puzzling and plain nonsensical changes in the new schedules. Off-peak and non-work travel demand is quite heavily tilted towards NY-Penn Station, which would lead a logical-thinking person to say that branches with only hourly service, or certainly the most heavily used branches, should be given priority at NY-Penn Station. But instead, LIRR has demoted the Long Beach Branch to NY-Grand Central on weekends, and sending Far Rockaway trains (which are used by half as many people) to NY-Penn Station instead...
LIRR should be seriously looking at offering half-hourly off-peak service on the Long Beach Branch, and if not, swapping the rest of the weekend Long Beach trains back to NY-Penn Station.
If the LIRR uses their brain and puts some effort into improving Long Beach service, it could be a significant win for both the railroad and the City of Long Beach. Long Beach is the easiest ocean beach in the region to access using mass transit from Midtown—a direct train from NY-Penn Station to Long Beach can do the trip in 49 minutes, while it takes 52 minutes to get from Herald Square to Coney Island on the D, 50 minutes on the N, 50 minutes on the Q, and 59 minutes on the F and it takes at least 65 minutes to get to the Rockaways on the A (and that's under normal circumstances, there's almost always some sort of weekend delay or construction disrupting one or more of those routes). Even the Seastreak ferry takes 55 minutes to Sandy Hook.
But instead, LIRR has turned what should be a 49 minute trip into a 61 minute trip from NY-Penn Station (and up to a 74 minute trip going back) on weekends in the new schedules, and is continuing to hold our regional economy back with a complete lack of imagination.
Jones Beach
Jones Beach on the South Shore is another popular summer beach destination, and with no beach access fee it is slightly more affordable from New York City than Long Beach (the MTA's rail fare package plus NICE Bus voucher is $21.50, just $1 more than the normal round-trip off-peak fare). Riders can take the LIRR to Freeport station and connect to the n88X bus to Jones Beach.
The n88 is back this year, rebranded as the n88X to match NICE's other limited-stop routes. Weekday service is the same as most years prior, with hourly service from Freeport to Jones Beach and back. Buses stop at the West Bathouse, the Central Mall, and the East Bathouse (and then usually loop back for a second round of stops at each before returning to Freeport).
New this year: on weekends, n88X bus service operates half-hourly between Freeport and Jones Beach, but one trip per hour is additionally extended to Hempstead to offer more connections to the rest of the network. In the MTA Long Island Bus days, there would be a N87 bus that ran from Jones Beach to Hicksville via Wantagh, which was a nice option for intra-Island travelers to ride to Jones Beach (since you could take any Main Line train to Hicksville and get the bus south from there), but this provides additional transfer opportunities to and from the rest of the NICE network at Hempstead.
.JPG) |
| The n88X departs from the north bus bays at Freeport, all the way at the east end of the platform (The LIRR Today) |
(trains in green are extra summer Freeport trains for Montauk connections. LIRR bills these as extra options for Jones Beach travelers—though note that only one of them actually connects to a n88X bus at Freeport)
NICE's website says that they may briefly hold buses at Freeport at the supervisor's discretion, but with no firm, written policy to hold buses for connections you can't rely on that. Needless to say, LIRR and NICE bus should be making more of an effort to time connections at Freeport so riders can easily transfer from one service to the other. In this case, the burden should be on NICE to line up with train times—with a <20 minute trip to Jones Beach and them using 2 or 3 buses most of the day, they have quite a bit of flexibility to line up schedules at Freeport.
No comments:
Post a Comment