No LIRR train service between Jamaica and Hicksville this weekend due to signal work
There will be no train service between Jamaica and Hicksville this weekend due to scheduled signal work, the Long Island Rail Road said. Shown is the LIRR station in Jamaica. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
Due to scheduled signal work this weekend there will be no train service between Jamaica and Hicksville on Saturday and Sunday, the Long Island Rail Road announced Thursday.
Buses will replace trains on the Hempstead Branch.
On the Oyster Bay Branch, buses will replace trains between East Williston and Jamaica, the LIRR said. Special weekend timetables will be in effect for all branches.
The LIRR is urging riders to avoid the Hempstead, Huntington / Port Jefferson, Ronkonkoma and Oyster Bay branches because of all the weekend work.
Officials are asking riders to use the Babylon, Montauk and Port Washington branches instead.
The temporary service changes and disruptions are scheduled to begin at 12:15 a.m. Saturday — and the LIRR says service will not resume until 2:30 a.m. Monday.
The work involved crews commissioning new switches and signals between the Elmont-UBS Arena and Bellerose, those new switches to allow westbound Hempstead Branch trains to stop at the arena station on event days, the railroad said. The LIRR says new service is expected to kick off with a New York Islanders hockey game Nov. 7.
To perform the work, crews must shut down all four tracks between Jamaica and Floral Park — and three tracks between Floral Park and Hicksville, the railroad said.
On the LIRR website, the railroad said it would use the shutdown "to finish installation of long-lasting concrete ties" near Mineola.
For more information go to https://new.mta.info/article/hicksville-jamaica-service-change-2022 or use the railroad's TrainTime app, where you can chat with a live agent from 6 a.m.-10 p.m. daily.
John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”
