Long Island Railroad (LIRR) Schedule Goes Back to Normal

Update:
Jamaica station is still not operational and most trains will not stop there. Therefor it is important for commuters to use stations farther east on Long Island. If you want to go to Oyster Bay for example, you would go from Pensylvania Station via Mineola. And if you usually use the Port Jefferson line, you can switch trains in Hicksville and Huntington.

Trains to West Hempstead will go to the Valley Stream station and then continue with shuttle buses. Traffic on the Speonk, Patchogue and Montauk will be redirected via Babylon station.


The Long Island Railroad (LIRR) train schedule was somewhat unscheduled today. As the New York Times reported that the service went back to a somewhat normal schedule after the the Long Island Rail Road started to move trains again from Pennsylvania Station.

Around 3 PM five trains left the station, including cars to Babylon, Huntington and Ronkonkoma, while still thousands are waiting to catch the next train.

The problem started to arise after a switching tower caught fire. As a result, the railroad was not able to control the switches which make it possible to change tracks. Traffic going to and leaving New York City is affected from this. For several hour almost all traffic was suspended.

Luckily the fire was under control fairly quickly and nobody was injured. There are no real alternatives for evening commuters. If you need to get out of New York tor want to head into the City tonight, your best be is probably to ask a friend with a car for a ride. But as probably a lot of people are trying to do that, you should expect some delays and let your boss or your spouse know in advance what is going on.

Things like this can happen, but the LIRR is usually very reliable and carries about 250,000 people safely to and from New York City.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, MTA, reports the following schedule for the Long Island Rail Road:

Babylon, Delays
Far Rockaway, Delays
Hempstead, Delays
Long Beach, Delays
Montauk, Delays
Oyster Bay, Delays
Port Jefferson, Delays
Port Washington, Good Service
Ronkonkoma, Delays
West Hempstead, Delays

The LIRR schedule should go back to normal shortly.

In the meantime people are tweeting about the LIRR delays:

amilya: "Thank you to all the very nice ppl on today's LIRR train. All who rally together to take bus and cab back to where we started Luv NYC".

You can get updates on service changes and the LIRR schedule here.