All 11 LIRR Branches Change Schedules on November 9 — Check Your Train Before Next Monday
A construction wave rewrites the Long Island Rail Road's timetables on every branch starting Monday, November 9: midday and weekend departure times move, some trains leave earlier, and the MTA says rush hour is untouched.
The region's biggest commute is about to change its timetable — all of it, at once. All 11 branches of the Long Island Rail Road run on new schedules beginning Monday, November 9, the MTA says, in a wave of construction-related service changes that moves departure times on many midday weekday and weekend trains. Some trains will leave earlier than they do now. The authority's assurance, and the one that matters most to the morning crowd, is that rush-hour trains will not be affected. Election Day, Tuesday November 3, is not affected either — the new schedules land the Monday after.
The branch-by-branch changes are the kind that strand riders by two minutes at a time. On the Hempstead Branch, the 6:34 a.m. train from Westbury to Penn Station will no longer stop at Elmont-UBS Arena. On the Montauk Branch, the 5:47 a.m. train from Speonk to Long Island City will start instead at Hampton Bays at 5:30 a.m., giving Hampton Bays and Westhampton riders an additional morning option, and a direct train between New York City and Montauk is now available year-round. The Port Jefferson Branch gains a weekend local departing Hicksville at 4:33 p.m., with the return from Penn Station at 10:02 p.m. On the Ronkonkoma Branch, the 6:27 a.m. train to Grand Central leaves two minutes earlier, and midday weekday service east of Ronkonkoma resumes on November 23.
Closer to the city, the 7:18 p.m. train from Grand Central to Long Beach departs one minute earlier and adds a stop at Kew Gardens, and midday weekday service between Jamaica and Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn returns to its regular frequency of one train every 20 minutes. The Babylon Branch changes in stages: weekend service changes begin Saturday, November 14, a special midday weekday schedule runs November 9 to 20 for track work between Amityville and Lindenhurst, and the new midday weekday schedule takes effect Monday, November 23, restoring direct service from stations east of Massapequa to Grand Central with two local trains per hour between Manhattan and Babylon.
The LIRR is the busiest commuter railroad in North America, and the MTA says the work behind the changes is the standing kind: maintaining aging rail infrastructure, improving service reliability and making stations more accessible to passengers with disabilities. None of that helps a rider standing on a platform watching a train leave two minutes before the old timetable said it would. The authority's advice is the practical kind: check the TrainTime app or the schedule for your branch before traveling — before Monday, November 9, not on it.
