When was the Long Island Rail Road established?
History of the Long Island Rail Road
The LIRR's history stretches back to the Brooklyn and Jamaica Rail Road, incorporated on April 25, 1832 to build a ten-mile line from the East River in Brooklyn through the communities of Brooklyn, Bedford, and East New York to Jamaica. B&J engineer Major D. B. Douglass soon began planning for a continuation, forming part of an 11-hour combination rail and steamship route between New York City and Boston in cooperation with the New York, Providence and Boston Railroad and Boston and Providence Rail Road. The current all-land route (Shore Line) across southern Connecticut was considered impassable at the time due to numerous hills and river valleys. Douglass attracted wealthy New Yorkers and Bostonians, who received a charter for the Long-Island Rail-Road Company on April 24, 1834, with the right "to construct, and during its existence to maintain and continue a rail-road or rail-roads, with a single or double track, and with such appendages as may be deemed necessary for the convenient use of the same, commencing at any eligible point adjoining Southold Bay, in or near the village of Greenport, in the county of Suffolk, and extending from thence, on the most practicable route, through or near the middle of Long-Island, to a point on the water's edge in the village of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings, to be designated by the trustees of that village, and to a point on the water's edge in the village of Williamsburgh, in the said county of Kings, to be designated by the trustees of that village, and in like manner to construct, maintain and continue a branch rail-road from the said main road to Sag Harbor". It was also authorized to unite with the Brooklyn and Jamaica with the consent of that company. Since its plan was not to serve local traffic on Long Island, the LIRR chose not to serve existing communities along the shores of the island, but built straight down the middle of the island, which was largely uninhabited at the time and relatively free of grade crossings. This straight route was the quickest and the easiest to build, compared to the options of being built along the northern coast of Long Island, or being built in a north-central route following the Middle Country Road. The LIRR was organized on June 17, 1835, and Knowles Taylor was elected president.
History of Long Island
In the 19th century, Long Island was still mainly rural and agricultural. Suburbanization started modestly on Long Island when reliable steam ferry service allowed prosperous Wall Streeters to get to new Brooklyn Heights homes in time for dinner. Rural traffic was served by the new Brooklyn and Jamaica Plank road through Jamaica Pass, among others. After the American Civil War, streetcar suburbs sprawled out onto the outwash plain of central and southern Kings County. Trolleys also brought workers from other parts of western Queens to Long Island City jobs.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
Amidst complaints over the way the consolidation was handled, its $3 million cost, and problems caused by Charlick's policies, the LIRR entered receivership in late 1877. It was taken over by Colonel Thomas R. Sharp as receiver, who encouraged settlers to the island and travelers to the beaches, helping to promote the New York, Woodhaven and Rockaway Railroad (opened in 1880, later the Rockaway Beach Branch).
List of presidents and trustees of the Long Island Rail Road
The LIRR was operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad from 1928 to 1949. The people from Smucker and Delatour through Wyer were trustees rather than presidents, as the LIRR was in Chapter 77 bankruptcy.
Long Beach Branch
The Long Beach Branch began as the New York and Long Beach Railroad Company (NY&LB) Company from Lynbrook to Long Beach in 1880. The original southern terminus was along the Atlantic Ocean. The LIRR leased the NY&LB in 1880 and operated it until 1904 when it merged with the LIRR. Five years later, Long Beach station was moved from the ocean front to Reynolds Channel, where it remains today.
History of Long Island
In the 1920s and 1930s, suburbanization reached beyond the western end of the island, and Long Island began the transformation from backwoods and farms to the paradigm of the American suburb. Under its president Robert Moses, the Long Island State Park Commission spanned the island with parkways and state parks. Jones Beach was the most famous, "the crown jewel in Moses' State Park System". Long Island quickly became New York City's retreat – with millions of people going to and from the city to the new state parks. In time, development started to follow the parkways and the railroad lines, with commuter towns springing up first along the railroad, then the roadways: the Southern State Parkway, the Northern State Parkway, and, from the 1960s on, the Long Island Expressway.
Long Island Electric Railway
The Long Island Electric Railway was a streetcar company operating in Brooklyn, Queens, and Nassau County, New York, United States between 1894 and 1926. The company was partially owned by the Long Island Consolidated Electric Companies, a holding company for the Long Island Rail Road and partially by August Belmont and the Interborough Rapid Transit Company. It connected the east end of the Fulton Street El at Crescent Street station in City Line, Brooklyn with Jamaica, Queens, and ran from there to the Nassau County line at Queens Village and to Far Rockaway, Queens via Nassau County. It also had a connection to Belmont Park. The New York and Long Island Traction Company used trackage rights over its line from Crescent Street to Queens Village.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
An additional reason was competition. Long Island Transit Systems, Inc., at the end of 1960 sought permission to operate express bus service via the Long Island Expressway and New York State Route 25 between New York City and Riverhead, where it would continue easterly by arrangement with Sunrise Coach Lines, Inc. to Greenport. At around this time, the LIRR proposed its own bus plan, and in July 1961 the Public Service Commission (PSC) ruled that Long Island Transit's petition was not in the public's best interest. However, it would grant the LIRR’s proposal if the railroad received agreement from local governments along the route by January 18, 1962. On January 17, 1962, the PSC authorized service as far as Southold and an extension to Greenport was granted later on. The buses first ran on Monday, February 19, 1962, with the desire to triple passenger service in Central Suffolk and the North Fork. Because of its popularity, another bus route was initiated on the South Shore from Amityville to Montauk after approval from the PSC on May 10, 1963. This route ran along Montauk Highway from Shirley to the Shinnecock Canal. Six round trips a day would supplement rail service, and four new air-conditioned buses were ordered. Bus service began on this route on June 8, 1963.
Railroad electrification in the United States
The Long Island Rail Road's electrification was initiated in the first decade of the 20th century while it was owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad, which was building tunnels under the Hudson River and East River to gain access to Manhattan. The first segment of the LIRR to be electrified was the trackage between the Atlantic Avenue terminal in Brooklyn and Jamaica station. Electrification extended east of Jamaica to the Belmont Park station in 1905. In 1910, the opening of Pennsylvania Station (New York City) ushered in electric service between that station and Jamaica. The LIRR's Port Washington Branch was rebuilt and electrified by 1918. By 1934, LIRR branches to Mineola, Hempstead, West Hempstead, Far Rockaway, Long Beach, and Babylon were electrified. In 1970, electrification was extended to Hicksville, and to Huntington on the Port Jefferson Branch. In 1987, electrification of the Main Line between Hicksville and Ronkonkoma was completed, resulting in greatly increased service.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
A group of College Point and Whitestone citizens, feeling they had been tricked by the LIRR, convinced wealthy residents of College Point and Whitestone, including Conrad Poppenhusen, to buy out the stock of the old Flushing and Woodside Railroad and set out to complete the line. The construction of the line was done under the name of the Flushing and North Side Railroad, which was incorporated in 1868. This company had the right to build a line from Long Island City to Flushing and beyond to Roslyn, with a branch from Flushing to Whitestone. The group gained control of the unfinished Flushing and Woodside Railroad, and opened its line to Flushing, paralleling the LIRR from Long Island City to Woodside, in 1868 and to College Point and Whitestone in August 1869. This new line attracted most of the traffic from the older New York and Flushing, and the LIRR wanted to get rid of its Flushing branch. In 1869, the state legislature authorized the Flushing and North Side to buy the New York and Flushing east of the LIRR crossing at Winfield; connections were built by the Flushing and North Side at Woodside/Winfield and Flushing to connect its lines. The Haberman to Winfield portion of the New York and Flushing line was abandoned and a new right-of-way through Woodside was built. The New York and Flushing continued to own the line west of Winfield, and the Hunter's Point to Haberman portion soon became the South Side Railroad's access to Long Island City. The Flushing and Woodside was merged into the Flushing and North Side in 1871, and its line was abandoned in favor of the ex-New York and Flushing line. The line was extended to Whitestone Landing in 1883 by the Whitestone and Westchester Railroad Company, having been consolidated with the Flushing, North Shore and Central Railroad in 1874, before it was built.
Soon after it sold the New York and Flushing to the Flushing and North Side, the LIRR decided to enter the Flushing business again, and chartered the Newtown and Flushing Railroad ("White Line") on March 8, 1871. It opened on November 10, 1873, paralleling the Flushing and North Side to the south and beginning a rate war.
The first major competitor to the LIRR, the South Side Railroad (SSRLI), was incorporated on March 23, 1860 to build from Brooklyn to Islip. An 1867 supplement to its charter authorized an extension to East Hampton. The company was partially owned by Willet Charlick, brother of the LIRR's Oliver Charlick. On October 28, 1867, it opened for service from Jamaica east to Babylon, and it opened to Sayville in December 1868, and to Patchogue in April 1869. Its Far Rockaway Branch opened in 1869 and it was extended by the Rockaway Railway to Seaside in 1872 and to the Neptune House at Beach 116th Street in 1875.
Long Island Rail Road
In May 1997, freight service was franchised on a 20-year term to the New York and Atlantic Railway (NYAR), a short line railroad owned by the Anacostia and Pacific Company. It has its own equipment and crews, but uses the rail facilities of the LIRR. To the east, freight service operates to the end of the West Hempstead Branch, to Huntington on the Port Jefferson Branch, to Bridgehampton on the Montauk Branch, and to Riverhead on the Main Line. On the western end it provides service on the surviving freight-only tracks of the LIRR: the Bay Ridge and Bushwick branches; the "Lower Montauk" between Jamaica and Long Island City; and to an interchange connection at Fresh Pond Junction in Queens with the CSX, Canadian Pacific, and Providence and Worcester railroads.
Long Island
From the 1920s to the 1940s, Long Island began the transformation from backwoods and farms as developers created numerous suburbs. Numerous branches of the LIRR already enabled commuting from the suburbs to Manhattan. Robert Moses engineered various automobile parkway projects to span the island, and developed beaches and state parks for the enjoyment of residents and visitors from the city. Gradually, development also followed these parkways, with various communities springing up along the more traveled routes.
History of Long Island
When racing was banned on public roads, one of the Vanderbilts opened the Long Island Motor Parkway in 1908 from Kissena (Queens) to Lake Ronkonkoma. This limited access motor highway was one of the first in the world.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
Corbin attempted to buy the East River Ferry Company, which by then operated lines from Long Island City to James Slip, East 7th Street (abandoned within two years), and the East 34th Street (Manhattan) Pier, in December 1886, but was outbid by the Vanderbilts. (The ferry company was bought by the newly formed Metropolitan Ferry Company in July 1887.) Due to the slowness of the James Slip line, the LIRR began operating its own "Annex" line for businessmen to Pine Street (a block from Wall Street in the Financial District) at a loss in June 1887. The LIRR acquired the ferry company in March 1892 and began operating the boats itself.
Manhattan Beach Branch
The Eastern Railroad of Long Island was organized on November 28, 1878, to build a line from East New York on the NY&MB east via Woodhaven, Clarenceville, Jamaica, Springfield, Woodsburgh, Valley Stream, East Rockaway, Christian Hook, Freeport, Merrick, and South Oyster Bay to Babylon in competition with the LIRR's Southern Railroad Division. Corbin, who owned a summer house near Babylon, put up the money to build the road, which was also planned to cross the South Bay near Amityville to Fire Island.
Hempstead Branch
The Central Railroad of Long Island opened from Flushing east to Hempstead Crossing and south to Hempstead on January 8, 1873; the main line east from Hempstead Crossing opened later that year on May 26. CRRLI extended their line east to Bethpage, Farmingdale, and Babylon resulting in the creation of their own Hempstead Branch running parallel to the one owed by the LIRR. The Central Railroad's successor, the Flushing, North Shore and Central Railroad, was leased to the LIRR on May 3, 1876, and in June a connection at Hempstead Crossing was built, allowing trains from Mineola to use the ex-Central's Hempstead Branch; the original LIRR Hempstead Branch was abandoned south of Hempstead Crossing.
The old Central main line through Hempstead was named the Central Branch by the LIRR, while the line from Mineola on the LIRR's Main Line south past Hempstead Crossing to Hempstead was the Hempstead Branch. The New York Bay Extension Railroad opened the current West Hempstead Branch in 1893, resulting in a realignment of the Hempstead Branch from Hempstead Crossing south to Meadow Street to better connect to the new line.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
The Long Island Rail Road is a railroad owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in the U.S. state of New York. It is the oldest United States railroad still operating under its original name and charter. It consolidated several other companies in the late 19th century. The Pennsylvania Railroad owned the Long Island Rail Road for the majority of the 20th century and sold it to the State in 1966.
IND Rockaway Line
The line was built in 1880 as the New York, Woodhaven and Rockaway Railroad. Incorporated in 1877, the line was built to better serve the beach resorts in the Rockaways, cutting travel times by 30 minutes over the existing South Side Railroad route. Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) trains began using the branch that year by operating over its Montauk Division. The railroad was sold to the LIRR in 1887, and trains using the branch began serving Far Rockaway via a new connection to the old Far Rockaway Branch. The line south of Woodhaven Junction was electrified in 1905. The wooden trestle through Jamaica Bay was subjected to numerous fires, and when combined, they took a severe toll on it. A fire on May 7, 1950, cut service on the middle of the line, but as the LIRR was bankrupt, it did not seek to restore service on the line. Service to Far Rockaway and Rockaway Park ran through Valley Stream. Service on the Rockaway Beach Branch terminated at Hamilton Beach.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
A big grade-elimination project was started on the Bay Ridge Branch in 1906 and was completed by 1915. Later electrification included the Montauk Division from Jamaica out to Babylon in 1925 and the Bay Ridge Branch (for New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad freight off the 1916 Hell Gate Bridge) in 1927. The PRR began directly operating the LIRR under lease on October 1, 1928.
Atlantic Avenue Railroad
The Brooklyn Central Railroad was incorporated on August 31, 1859 to take over the Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad, then operated by the Long Island Rail Road as a steam-powered line, for a horse car service once the LIRR completed their new line to Long Island City. This happened soon after the LIRR was authorized to abandon service through the Cobble Hill Tunnel to South Ferry in Brooklyn in exchange for ending steam power in the Brooklyn city limits. The city authorized them on June 6 to lay tracks on Atlantic Avenue west of Boerum Place (where the Brooklyn and Jamaica passed through the Cobble Hill Tunnel); east of there, they would use the Brooklyn and Jamaica trackage. They were also granted on November 28, 1859 the right to build along Furman Street, the waterfront street from Atlantic Avenue north to Old Fulton Street, connecting the South Ferry (Atlantic Avenue) to the Wall Street Ferry (Montague Street) and Fulton Ferry (Old Fulton Street).
History of the Long Island Rail Road
But the most notable line built by Frank Sherman Benson was the Montauk Extension Railroad from Amagansett, NY east to Fort Pond Bay in Montauk. Austin Corbin purchased land in Montauk with a plan was to build a deep water port at Fort Pond Bay, where trans-Atlantic passengers could disembark and travel into New York at "a mile a minute" (100 km/h) and thus save a day in travel time. Arthur W. Benson, president of Brooklyn Gas and Light Company and founder of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, had acquired 10,000 acres (40 km²) of land at auction by court order pursuant to an action in partition in 1879 for $151. In 1882 Benson purchased 1,100 acres of land at Napeague sold Corbin's real estate company right-of-way through Montauk to Fort Pond Bay. By 1895 Corbin had acquired a further 4,000 acres (16 km²) from the Estate of Arthur W. Benson. The plans for Montauk Extension Railroad from Amagansett to Fort Pond Bay were signed by Frank Sherman Benson and are on file at the County Center in Riverhead. It was incorporated May 25, 1893 and opened in 1895.
Long Island Rail Road
The LIRR Police Department, founded in 1868, was absorbed along with the Metro-North Railroad Police to form the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police Department (MTA Police) in 1998.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
On October 19, 1926, the portion of the line between Valley Stream and Franklin Avenue in Garden City was electrified and it was inaugurated with a special train. New through service running between Valley Stream and Mineola began on the West Hempstead Branch the next day. The freight sidings, however, were not electrified until 1927 and 1928.The connection to the Oyster Bay Branch was severed in 1928, while the portions of the line between Mineola and Country Life Press and between Country Life Press and West Hempstead were taken out of revenue passenger service in June 1935 due to the costly grade crossing elimination improvements imposed upon the LIRR by the Interstate Commerce Commission, as well as the New York Public Service Commission. This meant that no more through service between Valley Stream and Mineola could operate. It was anticipated that the Oyster Bay Branch would be electrified next, and in November 1928, railroad officials investigated the possibility. However, due to high costs, with the electrification of the branch necessitating grade-crossing elimination, the plan was shelved.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
The PRR was looking to rid itself of the money-losing LIRR, its most costly subsidiary, but no one was willing to buy it. Various plans, including turning it into a monorail or abandoning the eastern extremities and turning the rest into part of the New York City Subway, had been proposed. On January 20, 1965, the state of New York decided to buy the LIRR. Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller set in motion work that was need to draft the enabling legislation, to determine a realistic value for the property. The Pennsylvania Railroad submitted a very high initial estimate, and the result of negotiations was a direct payment of $65 million and a similar amount of relief for unpaid taxes. In return, all shares of stock were surrendered to the State along with the property, rolling stock, and infrastructure. The Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Authority (now the MTA) was formed to buy and operate the LIRR. However, trimming the LIRR from its system did not provide the relief the PRR sought; after the 1968 merger into Penn Central Transportation it was bankrupt in 1970.The MCTA set out to improve the LIRR by instituting massive capital improvements in the form of a strengthened electric traction substation system, accelerated track improvements, and new rolling stock.
Oyster Bay Branch
The first phase of what is now known as the Oyster Bay Branch opened on January 23, 1865. The line was built by the Glen Cove Branch Rail Road, a subsidiary of the Long Island Rail Road, and extended to Glen Head. On May 16, 1867 the railway was extended to Glen Cove (now known as Glen Street). and on April 19, 1869 the line was extended further to Locust Valley.
Bushwick Branch
The Bushwick Branch dates back to the South Side Railroad of Long Island. The South Side had been chartered on March 23, 1860 to build a railroad from Jamaica, Queens, all the way to Islip along the south shore of Long Island. The South Side sought to build a line west of Jamaica to the East River so its passengers could connect to ferries that would take them into Manhattan.
Long Island Rail Road
They spin off eight minor branches. For scheduling and advertising purposes some of these branches are divided into sections such as the case with the Montauk Branch, which is known as the Babylon Branch service in the electrified portion of the line between Jamaica and Babylon, while the diesel service beyond Babylon to Montauk is referred to as the Montauk Branch service. All branches except the Port Washington Branch pass through Jamaica; the trackage west of Jamaica (except the Port Washington Branch) is known as the City Terminal Zone. The City Terminal Zone includes portions of the Main Line, Atlantic, and Montauk Branches, as well as the Amtrak-owned East River Tunnels (Northeast Corridor) to Penn Station.The railroad has dropped a number of branches due to lack of ridership over the years. Part of the Rockaway Beach Branch became part of the IND Rockaway Line of the New York City Subway, while others were downgraded to freight branches, and the rest abandoned entirely. Additionally, the Long Island Railroad operated trains over portions of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit (BRT) elevated and subway lines until 1917.
Garden City–Mitchel Field Secondary
In 1876 the CRRLI, in conjuncture with other competing railroads on Long Island, was absorbed by the Long Island Rail Road and its president Conrad Poppenhausen. Poppenhausen, and his later successor Austin Corbin, would merge the Central into the LIRR system. The Central between Flushing and the National Rifle Range in Queens, later to become the Creedmoor Rifle Range and later Creedmoor State Hospital, was deemed redundant and abandoned after the railroads merger in 1879, although its tracks remained in place until about World War I. The portion of rail between Creedmoor and Floral Park was eventually downgraded to a secondary freight track, known as the Creedmoor Branch, that for the most of the 20th century would service Creedmoor State Hospital with daily coal deliveries. The portion of trackage from Floral Park to Babylon became known as the Central Branch of the LIRR. A connection was made west of Floral Park allowing the railroad to access the LIRR mainline which would afford the branch its connection to Long Island City and the LIRR's connecting hub Jamaica station.
Babylon station
Babylon station originally opened as a South Side Railroad of Long Island depot on October 28, 1867. It was briefly renamed Seaside station in the summer of 1868, but resumed its original name of Babylon station in 1869. The Central Railroad of Long Island had once planned an extension to the Great South Bay and Fire Island which was never built, and a horse car and later trolley line was provided by the Babylon Rail Road company as a substitute. The CRRLI abandoned their own depot in 1874, and began to share it with SSRLI. From that point on the original SSRLI depot contained the name "Babylon & Fire Island" posted on one side. The second depot opened on July 2, 1881, and contained three tracks with two low-level side platforms and two high island platforms, as well as a pedestrian bridge and a REA Express freight house. Electrification came to the station in May 1925, and the station became the terminus of the newly established Babylon Branch. It was razed in 1963 as part of the grade elimination project that was taking place along the entire Babylon Branch during the post-war era. The new elevated third station opened on September 9, 1964. East of the station, a train washing canopy existed in West Islip until 2005. In June 2010, the Long Island Rail Road broke ground on a new environmentally friendly train wash canopy, since Ronkonkoma station had the only train wash on the east end. This new train wash is able to recycle water already used using filters and is capable of washing up to 180 electric multiple unit cars a day (equivalent to 15 twelve-car trains, 18 ten-car trains, about 22 eight-car trains, or 30 six-car trains.)
Evergreen Branch
After Corbin purchased the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) in December 1880, the line was consolidated within the LIRR. Corbin, after the line's acquisition, was one of the tax directors of the G&ER. On May 1, 1882, the NY&MB was acquired by the New York, Brooklyn and Manhattan Beach Railroad (NYB&MB), transferring the lease of the G&ER's property. On that date, the NYB&MB leased its property and subleased the G&ER to the LIRR for 99 years. In February 1883, the Long Island City & Manhattan Beach Railroad Company was organized to build a standard-gauge line to connect the Brooklyn & Montauk Railroad with the Manhattan Beach Branch. The new line ran between from Cooper Avenue Junction to the Montauk Division at Fresh Pond, opening on June 2, 1883. Starting with the 1883 season, direct service to Manhattan Beach from Greenpoint was ended in favor of direct service from Long Island City as service to Greenpoint was still narrow-gauge. In order to maintain service to Greenpoint, a shuttle was operated to connect with the Manhattan Beach trains at Cooper Avenue Junction in Bushwick. Since it was no longer the main line, the line to Greenpoint became known as the Greenpoint Division. During the 1883 season, Long Island City and Greenpoint each received 25 trains on weekdays. Even with the high level of service to Greenpoint, the expensive ferry service was abandoned, requiring passengers to walk five blocks for the East 10th Street and East 23rd Street Ferries. In 1884, the LIRR contracted out work to rebuild the line as a standard-gauge line, requiring the complete rebuilding of the roadbed between Greenpoint and Cooper Avenue. The line was completely rebuilt the following year between Greenpoint to Cooper Avenue to allow standard gauge trains to use the line. This allowed for freight to serve the line, beginning its transition from a passenger line to a freight line.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
The LIRR bought the steamboat "Cleopatra" from Cornelius Vanderbilt, then known for his ferry empire, to cover the Long Island Sound crossing, and began operating to Stonington, Connecticut on August 10. Vanderbilt was elected to the LIRR board of directors on November 26. The opening of the Cobble Hill Tunnel along the Brooklyn and Jamaica west of downtown Brooklyn on December 3, 1844 decreased the grade to the waterfront and allowed locomotives to run through to South Ferry, eliminating a horse car transfer. The LIRR began operating the "Worcester" and "New Haven" steamboats in 1845, and established a second route to Boston via steamboat to Allyn's Point and the Norwich and Worcester Railroad and Boston and Worcester Railroad. But competition from the Hartford and New Haven Railroad (completed 1844) and steamboats from New York caused the LIRR to sell the "Worcester" and "Cleopatra" to the N&W in July 1846, and the early 1847 completion of the Fall River Line cut into profits enough that the "New Haven" was sold to Jacob Vanderbilt, ending Boston express service.
Long Island Rail Road
The LIRR logo combines the circular MTA logo with the text "Long Island Rail Road", and appears on the sides of trains. The LIRR is one of two commuter rail systems owned by the MTA, the other being the Metro-North Railroad in the northern suburbs of the New York area. Established in 1834 and having operated continuously since then, it is one of the oldest railroads in the United States still operating under its original name and charter.
Montauk Branch
The South Side Railroad of Long Island built the line from Bushwick, Brooklyn to Patchogue in the 1860s, and completed the new line to Long Island City in 1870. With the reorganization of the South Side as the Southern Railroad of Long Island in 1874 and its lease by the LIRR in 1876, this line became the Southern Railroad Division, Southern Railroad of Long Island Division, or simply Southern Division. Effective Sunday, June 25, 1876, all Southern Division passenger trains were rerouted to use the LIRR main line from Berlin Junction (west of Jamaica) to Rockaway Junction, and the LIRR's Rockaway Branch to Springfield Junction, where it crossed the Southern. This change resulted in the closure of the Southern's Berlin, Beaver Street (Jamaica), Locust Avenue, and Springfield stations. The old line between Jamaica and Springfield, which became freight-only, was renamed the Old Southern Road. The Southern was reorganized as the Brooklyn and Montauk Railroad in 1879, and on March 14, 1880, the name was changed from the Southern Division to the Montauk Division. Thus the old South Side Railroad, except between Jamaica and Springfield Junction, was now the Montauk Division.
Main Line (Long Island Rail Road)
The Main Line opened beyond Jamaica to Hicksville on March 1, 1837; shortly afterwards, the Panic of 1837 severely curtailed construction. Construction on the line to Greenport resumed in 1840. It was extended to Farmingdale on October 15, 1841, Deer Park on March 14, 1842, Brentwood on June 24, 1842, Central Islip on July 14, 1842 and Yaphank on June 26, 1844. An opening excursion to Greenport was operated on July 27, 1844, and revenue service began over the full line on July 29.
Medford, New York
The Long Island Rail Road established the Medford Station in 1843 in a flat wilderness in the Long Island Central Pine Barrens. The station connected to the Patchogue Stage Road between Patchogue and Port Jefferson, and a post office was established.
Long Island Motor Parkway
William Kissam Vanderbilt II, the great-grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, was an auto-racing enthusiast and created the Vanderbilt Cup, the first major road racing competition, in 1904. He ran the races on local roads in Nassau County during the first decade of the 20th century, but the deaths of two spectators and injury to many others showed the need to eliminate racing on residential streets. Vanderbilt responded by establishing a company to build a graded, banked and grade-separated highway suitable for racing that was also free of the horse manure dust often churned up by motor cars. The resulting Long Island Motor Parkway, with its banked turns, guard rails, reinforced concrete roadbed, and controlled access, was the first limited-access roadway in the world.
The road was originally planned to stretch for in and out of New York City as far as Riverhead, the county seat of Suffolk County, and point of division for the north and south forks of Long Island. Only (from Queens in New York City to Lake Ronkonkoma) were constructed, at a cost of $6 million. Construction began in June 1908 (a year after the Bronx River Parkway). On October 10, 1908, a section opened as far as modern Bethpage, making it the first highway. It hosted races in 1908 and on the full road in 1909 and 1910, but an accident in the latter year's Vanderbilt Cup, killing two riding mechanics with additional injuries, caused the New York Legislature to ban racing except on race tracks, ending its career as a racing road.
Long Island
In the 19th century, Long Island was still mainly rural and devoted to agriculture. The predecessor to the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) began service in 1836 from the South Ferry in Brooklyn, through the remainder of Brooklyn, to Jamaica in Queens. The line was completed to the east end of Long Island in 1844 (as part of a plan for transportation to Boston). Competing railroads (soon absorbed by the LIRR) were built along the south shore to accommodate travellers from those more populated areas. For the century from 1830 until 1930, total population roughly doubled every twenty years, with more dense development in areas near Manhattan. Several cities were incorporated, such as the 'City of Brooklyn' in Kings County, and Long Island City in Queens.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
The original Road n' Rail buses were operated under contract with the LIRR, by Huntington Coach Corporation. In June 1973, the Metropolitan Suburban Bus Authority (MSBA) became the owner of LIRR Road n' Rail, and the "Town of Huntington" took over Huntington Coach routes as Huntington Area Rapid Transit (HART).The bus route primarily traveled along New York State Route 25 Jericho Turnpike. There were six bus trips each way weekdays, and four on the weekends.
South Side Railroad of Long Island
The Hempstead and Rockaway Railroad was incorporated in April 1868 to build from Valley Stream on the South Side to Hempstead. The New York and Hempstead Plains Railroad was incorporated March 1, 1870 to build from Bay Ridge east to Hempstead, and on August 10, 1871 the two companies merged to form the New York and Hempstead Railroad. The line opened on September 28, 1872, and was leased to the South Side on May 10, 1873.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
Corbin was however able to acquire control of the LIRR in 1880, and brought it out of bankruptcy, becoming its president in 1881. Once Corbin had control of the LIRR, it was decided to standard gauge the Manhattan Beach Line and connect it with both the LIRR's Atlantic Branch and Lower Montauk Branch. This was completed in 1883, and this meant that Greenpoint segment was no longer necessary, and the portion west of South Side Crossing to Greenpoint was abandoned and torn up around 1890. The LIRR leased the NY&MB in 1882, not merging it until 1925. Under Corbin's entire 16-year control, the LIRR continuously paid dividends to its stockholders.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
Corbin began planning for direct access to Manhattan by the late 1880s, considering plans to extend the Atlantic Branch under the East River in a tunnel and north to Grand Central Terminal (this was later built as part of the New York City Subway, now the IRT Lexington Avenue Line and IRT Eastern Parkway Line), or to cross the East River on a bridge from Long Island City to near 37th Street and again run to Grand Central. The Pennsylvania Railroad simultaneously began planning access across the Hudson River to Manhattan, and LIRR president William H. Baldwin, Jr. started negotiating in 1900 to enter the PRR terminal. That year the PRR paid $6 million for a controlling interest in the LIRR, and soon incorporated the companies to build the New York Tunnel Extension from New Jersey through Manhattan to Long Island City. Simultaneously, the new Sunnyside Yard at Long Island City was built to provide a place to turn New Jersey trains. The new Pennsylvania Station opened on September 8, 1910, serving only LIRR trains for over two months before the New Jersey side was completed.
Main Line (Long Island Rail Road)
The Main Line is a rail line owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. It begins as a two-track line at the Long Island City station in Long Island City, Queens, and runs along the middle of Long Island about 95 miles (153 km) to the Greenport station in Greenport, Suffolk County. A mile east of the Long Island City station (east of Hunterspoint Avenue), the four tracks of the East River Tunnels join the two tracks from Long Island City; most Main Line trains use those tunnels rather than running to or from Long Island City.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
On May 13, 1899, the LIRR bought the Montauk Steamboat Company, which had competed with its own steamboats for connecting freight and passenger service. Routes operated under LIRR control included New York-Greenport and connections from the eastern terminals to New London and Block Island. Most of the lines ran until the 1910s, when they were abandoned due to competition from highways and the U.S. Navy Department prohibiting operation through Plum Gut (to Block Island) in 1917; the New London connection continued until 1927.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
On March 16, 1998, the LIRR closed ten stops with low ridership rather than modify them for access for people with disabilities and to accommodate the new double-decker trains. Five stations were on the Lower Montauk Branch (Glendale, Penny Bridge, Haberman, Fresh Pond and Richmond Hill), and five others were in Nassau and Suffolk Counties (Holtsville, Mill Neck, Center Moriches, Quogue, and Southampton Campus). The stations in Nassau and Suffolk had between 12 and 20 passengers per day, while the stations on the Lower Montauk had daily ridership between 1 and 5 passengers. Trains to Long Island City continued to operate via the Lower Montauk, but instead bypassed the stations. The trains to Long Island City ran via the Lower Montauk until November 12, 2012, when the Lower Montauk was leased to and controlled by the New York and Atlantic Railway, which from then on has used the line exclusively for freight operation. In order to keep the Lower Montauk in service, the LIRR would have had to install the expensive Positive Train Control systems along the entire length of the Lower Montauk for just one train a day. As a result, the LIRR decided that it was not worth the expense and just shifted the one passenger and couple deadhead trains to the Mainline instead. The NY&A downgraded the branch to a secondary track.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
The first electrification was on the Atlantic Branch and Rockaway Beach Branch from Downtown Brooklyn to Jamaica and Rockaway Park, completed on July 26, 1905 (and eliminating the "rapid transit" service from 1877). When the IRT expanded its service from Bowling Green to Atlantic Avenue, the usage of the Atlantic Branch went up. By the 1910 opening of Penn Station, most of the lines in New York City had gained third rail, and the New York City-area electrification program was complete in 1913, with the Montauk Division as the only major holdout.
Springfield Junction (Long Island Rail Road)
The junction's location was set in 1871, when the LIRR's Rockaway Branch (now the Montauk Branch) was built, crossing the South Side Railroad of Long Island (now the Atlantic Branch). With the consolidation of the South Side into the LIRR system in 1876, all South Side passenger trains were rerouted to use the LIRR main line through Jamaica to Rockaway Junction and the LIRR's Rockaway Branch to this crossing, where a connecting track was built. This change took effect Sunday, June 25, 1876. A new Atlantic Division track opened alongside the Montauk Division east of the junction in 1906, changing the junction into a connecting track between the two lines. That connection was later removed on September 10, 1923.
Long Island Rail Road
The LIRR was unprofitable for much of its history. In 1900, the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) bought a controlling interest as part of its plan for direct access to Manhattan which began on September 8, 1910. The wealthy PRR subsidized the LIRR during the first half of the new century, allowing expansion and modernization. Electric operation began in 1905.
New York, Providence and Boston Railroad
The New York and Stonington Railroad was chartered in Connecticut in May 1832 and the New York, Providence and Boston Railroad in Rhode Island in June of that year to fix the problem. On July 1, 1833 they consolidated to form a new New York, Providence and Boston Railroad. Ground was broken by the subsidiary Providence and Stonington Railroad at Stonington, Connecticut on August 14, 1833. On November 17, 1837 the line opened between Stonington and a pier at South Providence, about 1 mile downriver from the city center. At Stonington docks connected to steamboats to New York City through Long Island Sound, and later to the Long Island Rail Road at Greenport, New York, opened July 29, 1844. At Providence, a short car float across the Providence River led to the docks of the Boston and Providence Railroad at India Point in Providence, where travelers could continue on to Boston.
Bay Ridge Branch
An extension from New Utrecht east and northeast to New Lots opened in 1877, and at the same time the New York and Manhattan Beach Railway opened the line from New Lots north to East New York. An extension north from East New York to Cooper Avenue (and then northwest to Greenpoint, later the Evergreen Branch) opened in 1878, and the Long Island City and Manhattan Beach Railroad (incorporated February 24, 1883, merged with the New York and Manhattan Beach and New York, Bay Ridge and Jamaica into the New York, Brooklyn and Manhattan Beach Railway August 27, 1885) built from Cooper Avenue north to the Montauk Branch at Glendale in 1883.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
Having been sold to Austin Corbin in November 1876, the line was reorganized as the New York and Manhattan Beach Railway with the purpose of building a line from Long Island City to Manhattan Beach. Originally conceived as a freight railroad, the line then became a passenger railroad serving the Manhattan Beach Hotel that was being built by Corbin on the east end of Coney Island. The railroad was rebuilt as a narrow gauge 3 feet line instead of the standard 4 feet 8.5 inches. The newly built branch to Manhattan Beach branched from the main Bay Ridge line at Manhattan Beach Junction, and then it paralleled the Brooklyn, Flatbush and Coney Island Railroad, today's BMT Brighton Line, to its east. The line was extended up to Atlantic Avenue after a deal was made with the Brooklyn and Rockaway Beach Railroad, which allowed Corbin to built the new line along the right-of-way of the other road. The new line was inaugurated on July 19, 1877, with 13 trains running from both Bay Ridge and East New York to Manhattan Beach.
Port Washington Branch
By 1874, all branches of the Flushing and North Side Railroad, including the Main Line to Great Neck were incorporated into the Flushing, North Shore and Central Railroad, which included the Central Railroad of Long Island. Two years later, it would become part of the Long Island Rail Road, which closed the line east of Flushing in 1881 and reopened it a year later as subsidiary known as the Long Island City and Flushing Railroad. The LIC&F was merged with the LIRR on April 2, 1889. 
Despite a failed attempt to extend the line from Great Neck to Roslyn in 1882, wealthy Port Washington residents persuaded the LIRR to bring the terminus to their hometown in 1895. This required the construction of the Manhasset Viaduct over the marshes at the southern end of Manhasset Bay, which was authorized by an LIRR subsidiary called the Great Neck and Port Washington Railroad. According to Manhasset's website, "in 1897, a contract was given to the Carnegie Steel Company and a subsidiary, the King Iron Company, undertook the job of constructing the bridge." The trestle bridge cost about $60,000, and the first train to cross it was on June 23, 1898. The GN&PW was disestablished as a subsidiary in 1902, and that segment simply became part of the Port Washington Branch.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
In August 1954, the state of New York passed legislation that took the LIRR out of bankruptcy and designated it as a Railroad Redevelopment Corporation, and over 12 years, $60 million was provided to improve the LIRR. This improvement focused on the western electric territory. This was complemented by tax abatements for the LIRR and the PRR. It was then promised by the PRR that it would reinvest profits into the LIRR's improvement program. At this time, 220 new Pullman Standard coaches were ordered in order to replace older cars from before World War I, which were then scrapped. About 700 of the older cars were rebuilt with improved heating and ventilation, new floors, new seating, and new lighting. Many grade crossings were eliminated and heavily travelled lines were refurbished.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
Charlick also rebuilt the wharf at Greenport in 1870, and operated a new Boston route via New London, the New London Northern Railroad, and the newly opened Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad from September 1872 to 1875.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority
In February 1965, New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller suggested that the New York State Legislature create an authority to purchase, operate, and modernize the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR). The LIRR, then a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), had been operating under bankruptcy protection since 1949. The proposed authority would also have the power to make contracts or arrangements with other commuter-railroad operators in the New York City area. On May 21, 1965, the legislature chartered the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Authority (MCTA) to take over the operations of the LIRR. Governor Rockefeller appointed his top aide, Dr. William J. Ronan, as chairman and chief executive officer of the MCTA. In June 1965, the state finalized an agreement to buy the LIRR from the PRR for $65 million. The MCTA made a down payment of $10 million for the LIRR in December 1965, and it had completed the rest of the payment by the next month.
Atlantic Avenue Railroad
The Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad was the first railroad on Long Island, incorporated on April 25, 1832 to build from the East River in Brooklyn to Jamaica. The Long Island Rail Road was chartered in 1834 to extend the line east to Greenport. When the Brooklyn and Jamaica was completed on April 18, 1836, its line was operated by the LIRR under lease. The original line ran from South Ferry on the Brooklyn waterfront east to a depot at the current 158th Street in Jamaica, with a ferry connection to lower Manhattan at South Ferry.
South Side Railroad of Long Island
However, the LIRR entered receivership in late 1877, and the Southern was reorganized on November 20, 1879 as the Brooklyn and Montauk Railroad, immediately re-leased to the LIRR. The Brooklyn and Montauk opened an extension from Patchogue to Eastport to connect to the LIRR's Sag Harbor Branch in 1881, and on October 5, 1889 it was merged into the LIRR.
Miller Place, New York
In 1895 the hamlet became home to a station of the Long Island Rail Road, which was located near the present-day intersection of Sylvan and Echo avenues. It transported people to stops westward to Port Jefferson and New York City or eastward to Wading River. After the station was destroyed in a 1902 fire, a new one was built the next year. However, this building was destroyed in 1930 by another fire, and the eastern railroad lines were soon abandoned. In 2013 an agreement was signed between local politicians and the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA), which currently manages the strip on which the railroad operated, to convert this land into a public bicycle trail.
New Hyde Park station
The Long Island Rail Road was built through the area in 1837, although no station was built until 1845. It was originally named "Hyde Park" station, and was rebuilt in 1870. Despite Hyde Park changing its name to "New Hyde Park" in March 1871 in order to avoid confusion with another Hyde Park in Dutchess County, the LIRR kept the original name of the station until September 1904. The 1870-built station was located along the eastbound tracks with an open wooden shelter shed along the westbound tracks. This station contained elaborate gingerbread woodwork, similar to that of Yaphank station during the same period. In 1947, the station house was rebuilt again with a smaller and less elaborate brick structure, and relocated along the westbound tracks, with a matching brick open shelter along the eastbound tracks. Sometime during the 1960s, high-level platforms were added to the station, with a white stucco wall between the platforms and station house containing a blue sign with white lettering reading "LONG ISLAND RAIL ROAD" on top and "NEW HYDE PARK VILLAGE" on the bottom. This was replaced between 2002 and 2003 with the retro-classic structure seen today.
Long Beach, Washington
Long Beach began when Henry Harrison Tinker bought a land claim from Charles E. Reed in 1880. He platted the town and called it "Tinkerville." Long Beach was officially incorporated on January 18, 1922. From 1889 to 1930, a narrow gauge railroad called the Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company ran up the whole peninsula.
Ron Ziel
History of the Long Island Rail Road
Transportation in New York (state)
The Long Island Rail Road is the busiest commuter railroad system in North America, carrying an average of 282,400 customers each weekday on 728 daily trains. Chartered on April 24, 1834, it is also the oldest railroad still operating under its original name.
White Line (Long Island Rail Road)
The White Line was a short-lived branch of the Long Island Rail Road in western Queens County, New York. Officially known as the Newtown and Flushing Railroad, the line was chartered in 1871, but was only in service from 1873 to 1876.
Long Island Rail Road rolling stock
The "Hicksville" was acquired by the B & J in 1836 from a canal building concern "Proprietors Of Locks And Canals", based in Lowell, Massachusetts. This company is still in existence. According to Robert Stephenson Company records, in the year 1831, the firm of "Locks And Canals" purchased two locomotives new from the Robert Stephenson Company (order # 8 and 17) in England. It is likely the B & J purchased one of those two engines, second hand, from Locks And Canals in 1836, and renamed it the "Hicksville" (after Valentine Hicks, second President of the LIRR, and founder of Hicksville, NY). It is also likely, that at some point prior to its re- sale to the B & J, the engine in question was modified to Stephenson's famous 2-2-2 wheel arrangement.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
A number of new extensions and branches were built under his ownership. The New York and Long Beach Railroad opened in 1880, from Lynbrook south to Long Beach, and it was operated by the LIRR. The Long Beach Marine Railway built a line on Long Beach to Point Lookout in 1881 and was bought by the LIRR in 1886, only to be torn up in 1895.
Central Railroad of Long Island
During the winter of 1871–1872, Stewart and Poppenhusen decided to extend the CRRLI southeast from Farmingdale to Babylon, and then to Fire Island. In order to build this, the Central Extension Railroad Company, a subsidiary was created in 1871. In January 1872, the map of the Babylon Extension was released, with the route crossing pine barrens in a straight line to West Babylon, where it crossed the tracks of the South Side Railroad and went to terminate at the dock of Babylon, where boats left for Fire Island. The contract was given to Thomas Wellwood & Company for $20,000 for every mile of track built. In March 1872, all of the grading for the railroad was complete. On March 22, 1872, the extensive cut at Rocky Hill was completed, and bridges were ready to be installed throughout Queens. The grading for the work on the Babylon extension finished in March 1872. In April and May 1872, track was laid quickly, with only five miles of track left to be laid at the end of May. In May 1872, the Bethpage Branch was surveyed to cross the LIRR main line west of Farmingdale. In June, the stations at Hinsdale and Creedmoor were completed, and in October the engine house at Hempstead was finished. In June, the Bethpage Branch was completed.
Central Railroad of Long Island
The segment that became the Hempstead Branch includes part of the CRRLI from Floral Park, New York to Garden City, New York, and part of the original Hempstead Branch which ran south of the LIRR Main Line ran from Mineola, ending just west of the current terminal in Hempstead. It opened on July 4, 1839 as the first branch of the LIRR. The main line was extended east from Hempstead Crossing opened May 26, 1873. The Central Railroad's successor, the FNS&C, was leased to the LIRR on May 3, 1876, and in June a connection at Hempstead Crossing was built, allowing trains from Mineola to use the ex-Central's Hempstead Branch, which ran parallel to the LIRR's Hempstead Branch track south of the Central. The original LIRR Hempstead Branch was abandoned south of Hempstead Crossing.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
From the 1850s through the 1870s rail service expanded considerably throughout Long Island, with several competitors vying for market share and making small if any profits. In 1875–76 a wealthy Whitestone, New York rubber baron named Conrad Poppenhusen acquired all the railroads. Poppenhusen, and his later successor Austin Corbin, were able to reorganize them under the umbrella of the LIRR thus forming the extensive network of lines that make up the railroad today.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
In 1905, the Oyster Bay Branch was double-tracked to Roslyn.
Huntington Railroad
Control was transferred to an LIRR subsidiary called the Long Island Consolidated Electric Companies. The extension of the Huntington Railroad by the LICEC from Huntington to Amityville, was completed and put in operation on August 6, 1909. This line was 18.50 miles in length and reached from the harbor at Huntington to Great South Bay at Amityville, thus transformed Huntington Railroad into the only cross-island trolley on Long Island. Attempts to create other cross-island trolleys by the South Shore Traction Company and Suffolk Traction Company failed. Nassau County had trolleys that spanned the county, but they were never run by a single company.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
The LIRR chartered the New York and Jamaica Railroad on September 3, 1859, and a supplement to the LIRR's charter passed March 12, 1860 authorized it to buy the NY&J and extend to Hunters Point. The LIRR carried through with the NY&J purchase on April 25, along with the purchase of a short piece of the Brooklyn and Jamaica at Jamaica, and the next day it cancelled its lease of the Brooklyn and Jamaica, but continued to operate over it. The Brooklyn Central and Jamaica Railroad, a consolidation of the B&J with the new Brooklyn Central Railroad, began operating from South Ferry over the top of the tunnel, along the B&J tracks to Flatbush Avenue, and south on the new Fifth Avenue Line in August 1860. The new line to Hunters Point was officially opened on May 9, 1861, with regular service starting May 10. A ferry connection (Hunter's Point Ferry) was initially advertised to James Slip; connecting boats began running to East 34th Street Pier in October. The BC&J soon began operating horse cars over the old line from South Ferry, connecting with LIRR trains at Jamaica. The tunnel was closed off in December.
Atlantic Branch
The portion east of Jamaica was opened by the South Side Railroad of Long Island on October 28, 1867, as part of its initial line from Jamaica to Babylon. With the consolidation of the South Side into the Long Island Rail Road system in 1876, all passenger trains were rerouted to use the LIRR main line from Berlin Junction (west of Jamaica) to Rockaway Junction and the LIRR's Rockaway Branch to Springfield Junction, where it crossed the South Side. This change took effect Sunday, June 25, 1876, and resulted in the closure of the South Side's Berlin, Beaver Street (Jamaica), Locust Avenue, and Springfield stations. This formed the current configuration, where the Montauk Branch follows this route, mostly ex-South Side, and the Atlantic Branch (then the Old Southern Road) uses the old South Side to Springfield Junction.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
In 1904 – 1905, the line was going to be connected to the Atlantic Division, and property was purchased for the connection in March 1905, and it was completed and electrified in 1908. Service was never started and the line was unused until 1918, when the tracks were removed for other uses because of World War I. The line was rebuilt once again and was electrified once there was a building boom in the area in 1934. However, because of the Great Depression, the line was not used and it was torn up before being sold in 1934.
The Central Railroad of Long Island was incorporated in 1871 by Alexander T. Stewart, an entrepreneur who was developing what is now Garden City, to build from Flushing southeast and east to Bethpage, giving the LIRR direct competition to its Main Line. The line from Flushing to Hempstead via its Hempstead Branch opened in 1873, and was operated from opening by the Flushing and North Side; the rest of the line from Hempstead Crossing (where it crossed the LIRR's Hempstead Branch) to Bethpage opened later that year, as did the Central Railroad Extension to Babylon. The Flushing and North Side Railroad, Central Railroad, and several smaller owned lines were merged on August 1, 1874 to form the Flushing, North Shore and Central Railroad, controlled by the Poppenhusens.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
The first non-LIRR line on Long Island was the Flushing Railroad, incorporated in 1852, which opened on June 26, 1854 from Long Island City to Flushing, before the LIRR opened its line to Long Island City.This line ran from Hunter's Point east to Haberman, and then it went north following what is close to what are now Maurice and Garfield Avenues, and then to Winfield and Flushing along the current Port Washington Branch ROW. In 1854, the railroad had ambitions to continue further east all the way out to Huntington, going through Roslyn, Oyster Bay and Cold Spring, on the north shore of Long Island. In 1857, it fell into the hands of a receiver, and it was sold under foreclosure the following year. The company was reorganized in 1859 as the New York and Flushing Railroad when Oliver Charlick took over the railroad, which had fallen into a state of disrepair and whose quality of service had deteriorated. The residents of Flushing convinced the LIRR to incorporate the Flushing and Woodside Railroad on February 24, 1864 to build a competing branch to Flushing – Bridge Street and to Whitestone. The line was intended to use the LIRR tracks from Hunter's Point to Woodside, where it would branch off and then run parallel to Jackson Avenue to Flushing, providing a more direct route than the New York and Flushing Railroad's. Work on the project begun in 1864, however, not much progress was made over the next three years because of legal problems in securing the right-of-way. Despite service complaints, New York and Flushing established a subsidiary called the North Shore Railroad of Long Island in 1866 which extended the line from Flushing to Great Neck Unfortunately, when the line was about half completed, the NY&F realized that they could not survive the competition, and sold their line (and their lease on the North Shore Railroad of Long Island.) to the LIRR in the spring of 1867. The LIRR benefitted by preventing the South Side Railroad from using the New York and Flushing access to the LIRR's Long Island City terminal, and by keeping the North Side Railroad from extending east to Huntington in competition with the LIRR. The LIRR also stopped construction on the incomplete Flushing and Woodside as it felt that the Flushing and Woodside Railroad would end up being a direct competitor to the LIRR. Charlick's intention was to revitalize the NY&F and to run a profitable service to Flushing without any competition. The New York & Flushing Railroad was operated as a branch, from Hunter's Point to Flushing.
South Side Railroad of Long Island
On January 26, 1876, the Poppenhusens acquired the LIRR. The line beyond Bushwick to Williamsburg was abandoned February 26, making the line to Bushwick a branch; passenger trains operated over a new connection into the LIRR's Long Island City terminal. The LIRR leased the Southern on May 3, 1876. In June, the Southern became the main passenger route from Long Island City to Jamaica; most passenger trains on the Southern from Jamaica east to Springfield Gardens were rerouted to the LIRR's Springfield Branch. This route east of Jamaica is still the main one for trains using the ex-Southern (Montauk Branch) east of Valley Stream, but the "Lower Montauk" west of Jamaica is almost unused by passenger trains now.
History of Long Island
Long Island has had a long recorded history from the first European settlements in the 17th century to today. Greatly influenced by construction of railroads in the 19th century, it experienced growth in tourism as well as the development of towns and villages into some of the first modern suburbs in the United States.
List of streetcar lines on Long Island
The Freeport Railroad was based in Freeport, New York, and existed between 1913 and 1924.
In the early-20th Century, the Long Island Rail Road installed a trolley line that ran along the former CRRLI Main Line between Garden City Station and Plainedge from 1915 to 1933. A connection to Country Life Press station was established in 1927. Trolleys were replaced by MP41's and later MP54's.
List of streetcar lines on Long Island
The Babylon Railroad Company began in 1870 as a horse-drawn trolley from the South Side Railroad's Babylon Station to the Fire Island Ferry. After the Central Railroad of Long Island opened in 1873 passengers could access the horse car to the Great South Bay at the Watson House. A second line was opened from Babylon Station into Amityville in 1910.
Jamaica–Far Rockaway line
The streetcar line was originally operated by the Long Island Electric Railway (LIER), which was incorporated in 1894. On October 11 of that year, the company applied for a line between the then-Long Island towns of Jamaica, Hempstead, and Far Rockaway. Construction of the line began in 1895 along with the company's streetcar line along Liberty Avenue. As originally planned, the line would have been long and circuitous south of 147th Avenue, traveling east into Rosedale and Valley Stream, then back west towards Far Rockaway. The more direct Rockaway Turnpike route was ultimately selected, after the company secured exclusive rights to use the road. While the company's other three lines began operation in 1896, the Far Rockaway line was delayed due to construction over swampy land near the Queens-Nassau border, and disputes with the Long Island Rail Road over the crossing with the LIRR's Montauk Branch. The first portion of the line between Jamaica and Baisley Boulevard began on September 1, 1896, operating on Sundays only. Service was extended south to Farmers Boulevard on May 2, 1897. The full line to Far Rockaway began operations on June 6, 1897.
Port Washington Branch
The Port Washington Branch was built by the Flushing Railroad, in 1854 from Hunters Point in Long Island City to Flushing, before the LIRR opened its line to Long Island City. It was the first non-LIRR line on Long Island. The company was reorganized in 1859 as the New York and Flushing Railroad, and established a subsidiary known as the North Shore Railroad to extend the line from Flushing to Great Neck in 1866.
Staten Island Railway
By 1880 the railway was barely operational, and New York State sued (through Attorney General Hamilton Ward) to dissolve the company in May of that year. Erastus Wiman, one of the island's most prominent residents, organized the Staten Island Rapid Transit Company (SIRT) on March 25, 1880, and partnered with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O) to build a large rail terminal on the island and centralize the six-to-eight ferry landings. He secured an extension on a land-purchase option from George Law by offering to name it "St. George" after him.
Construction of the Vanderbilt's Landing-to-Tompkinsville portion of the North Shore Branch began on March 17, 1884, and the line opened for passenger service on August 1 of that year. The lighthouse just above Tompkinsville impeded the line's extension to St. George but, after the SIRT lobbied for an act of Congress, construction of a two-track, tunnel under the lighthouse began in 1885 for about $190,000. The SIR was leased to the B&O for 99 years in 1885. Proceeds of the lease were used to complete the terminal at Saint George, pay for two miles of waterfront property, complete the Rapid Transit Railroad, build a bridge over the Kill Van Kull at Elizabethport, and build other terminal facilities. The North Shore Branch opened for service on February 23, 1886, to Elm Park. The Saint George terminal opened on March 7, 1886, and all SIR lines were extended to the station. The remainder of the North Shore Branch, to its terminus at Erastina, was opened in the summer of 1886. On January 1, 1888, the South Beach Branch opened for passenger service to Arrochar. In 1893, the South Beach Branch was extended from Arrochar to a new terminal at South Beach. The new lines opened by the B&O were known as the Staten Island Rapid Transit Railway, and the original line (from Clifton to Tottenville) was called the Staten Island Railway.
Long Beach, New York
Development began on the island as a resort and was organized by Austin Corbin, a builder from Brooklyn, New York. Austin Corbin formed a partnership with the Long Island Rail Road to finance the New York and Long Beach Railroad Company which laid tracks from Lynbrook, New York to Long Beach in 1880. The company also opened the Long Beach Hotel, at the time the largest in the world. The railroad brought 300,000 visitors the first season. By the next spring, tracks had been laid almost the full length of the Long Beach island, but after repeated winter storm washouts they were removed in 1894.
List of Long Island Rail Road stations
The station house, built in 1873, is the oldest such building constructed by the LIRR that remains standing. 's station house is older, but it was originally built by the South Side Railroad of Long Island in 1870. On the West Hempstead Branch, 's station house is the only one originally built during the first two decades of the 20th Century, although it is not recognized as a historic landmark. The elaborate station house was one of the few to avoid modernization during the mid-to-late 20th Century and has retained the original grand decorative construction. When the Babylon Branch was elevated in the post-WW II era, former station houses in Wantagh and Lindenhurst were moved away from the tracks. The former Wantagh station was transformed into a museum, and also listed on the NRHP.
Central Railroad of Long Island
On July 20, 1874, the CRRLI along with other subsidiary railroads of the Flushing & North Side Railroad were merged to form the Flushing, North Side, and Central Railroad. In September 1874, the CRRLI also purchased the Southern Railroad of Long Island (SRRLI). Just before Stewart's death in 1876, a financial backer of the CRRLI, rubber baron Conrad Poppenhusen, bought a majority share of the LIRR, with each of the newer railways leased to the LIRR. Declaring bankruptcy in 1877, the LIRR was placed in receivership that October. Austin Corbin bought possession of the system in 1881, and consolidated all the railroads on Long Island under the LIRR, forming the railroads intricate system of rail lines. In consolidating the lines the CRRLI would be fragmented into several branch lines that throughout the 1900s would serve the LIRR in a number of different ways. In 1893 the LIRR bought out all remaining claims to the Stewart Line from Flushing to Bethpage Junction.
Transportation on Long Island
The Long Island Rail Road is the second busiest commuter railroad system in North America, carrying in 2012 an average of 282,400 customers each weekday on 728 daily trains. It was once the largest commuter rail in the U.S. but following three successive years of declines was replaced at the close of 2012 by the Metro-North railroad that services areas north of New York City. Chartered on April 24, 1834, it is also the oldest railroad still operating under its original name. By the close of 2014, the LIRR commutation statistics had recovered to an average weekday ridership of 298,448 and an annual ridership of 85,868,246 achieved by December 31, 2014.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
Two more electrification projects were undertaken under state ownership. Third rail electrification was extended on the Main Line and Port Jefferson Branch from Mineola to Hicksville and Huntington on October 19, 1970, after being started in 1968. This was the first time in 43 years that electrified service was extended to previously non-third rail territory. The Main Line beyond Hicksville (where the Port Jefferson Branch splits) to Ronkonkoma (also known as the Ronkonkoma Branch) was fully electrified in December 1987, however, in 1987 there was interim electric service to Farmingdale. The improvement extended electrified service a full 50 miles east of Manhattan to Suffolk County's central corridor communities of Wyandanch, Deer Park, Brentwood, Central Islip, and Ronkonkoma. New electric service was also added to two station in Nassau County; Bethpage and Farmingdale. Peak period running times between Ronkonkoma and Penn Station were reduced to 60 minutes from 93 minutes. This time savings led to an increase in ridership on the Ronkonkoma Branch. In 2007, ridership on the branch had increased from 6,200 to 16,000 passenger trips every day, equaling a 150 percent increase. The Ronkonkoma Branch then became the second largest branch in total ridership after the Babylon Branch. In 1985, a second electrified track was built between Syosset and Huntington on the Port Jefferson Branch in order to eliminate a single track bottleneck. This helped boost ridership on the branch. Further extensions of electrification (to stations such as Port Jefferson, Yaphank, Patchogue or Speonk) have been seriously considered from time to time, but no such short-term capital budget actions are currently contemplated.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
When the LIRR was charted in 1834, it was authorized to construct a branch line to Sag Harbor, and in 1854, a survey was made for a branch from Riverhead to the Hamptons and Sag Harbor. However, the line was not built., The South Side Railroad of Long Island ran as far as Patchogue on the South Shore, and in order to insure a monopoly on the East End, President Oliver Charlick proposed building a branch to Sag Harbor, as it was originally planned, branching from Riverhead. However, Riverhead residents were not interested in a branch line, and Manorville was chosen as the split location. The line was to turn eastward to Sag Harbor at Eastport. The Sag Harbor Branch (now mostly part of the Montauk Branch), was finally opened from Manorville on the main line to Hampton Bays in 1869 and to Bridgehampton and Sag Harbor on May 9, 1870.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
Charlick decided to build his own line to the Rockaways, in competition with the South Side's branch, which was built three years earlier, and incorporated the New York and Rockaway Railroad on December 30, 1870 to build from the Main Line near Rockaway Junction. Going south and west through the communities of St. Albans and Springfield Gardens, the line provided a more direct route to Cedarhust, crossing the South Side Railroad before paralleling it to Far Rockaway, where it once again crossed the SSRLI and ran to its terminal at Lockwood's Grove. On about July 1, 1871, the line was leased to the LIRR. The line, operated by the LIRR, opened in 1871 to Springfield Gardens and it opened on May 14, 1872 to Far Rockaway. The section of the line between Springfield Junction and Cedarhurst was abandoned a few years after the LIRR and the South Side merged in 1876, and from then on, the line through Valley Stream that belonged to the South Side was the only one used. In July 1876, the right-of-way for a connection between the Cedarhurst Cut-off and the South Side Railroad was obtained.
Main Line (Long Island Rail Road)
The line was electrified from to Queens Village and Belmont Park on October 2, 1905. On May 26, 1908, the line was electrified to Floral Park; Hempstead Branch stations southeast of Floral Park were electrified on the same date. The line was triple-tracked between Bellerose and Floral Park in 1908. On September 8, 1910, the line between Long Island City and Jamaica was electrified, and service to Pennsylvania Station was inaugurated. Initially, service consisted of 101 trains in each direction to the Hempstead, Far Rockaway and Long Beach branches.
List of Long Island Rail Road stations
The Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) is a commuter railway system serving all four counties of Long Island, with one station in the Manhattan borough of New York City in the U.S. state of New York. Its operator is the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York. Serving 301,763 passengers per day as of 2007 and 88.5 million riders for the year of 2008, it is the busiest commuter railroad in the United States. With 324 passenger route-miles, it spans Long Island from Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn to Montauk station at the tip of the southern fork. Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan is the actual westernmost station of the Long Island Rail Road and its busiest station. 
The system currently has 124 stations on eleven rail lines called "branches". (Not included in this count are two additional stations that serve employees of the LIRR: and ). Two stations are open seasonally: and ; in addition, the station exclusively serves cemeteries in its area and is thus served during daytime hours. and are open only on weekdays. The six stations on the Main Line east of Ronkonkoma get a few weekday-only trains. is a major transfer station between branches, as it provides the interchange from the eastern Long Island stations to the western New York terminals and vice versa. Other inter-branch transfer stations include , , , , and . The , and stations provide transfers between electric train service and diesel train service within their respective branches, the Port Jefferson, Ronkonkoma/Greenport and Babylon/Montauk branches.
White Line (Long Island Rail Road)
The service began at the original Hunter's Point station, today's Long Island City (LIRR station) and ran along the main line through Woodside Station. Southeast of Winfield Junction it split off between the Main Line (Long Island Rail Road) and what is today the Port Washington Branch. Running on a separate right-of-way south of the Port Washington Branch and north of the Main Line, it had its own Newtown Station, then the line curved northeast where it had a station for Corona called Corona Park station, then passed through the southern end of Great Neck Junction, where the Central Railroad of Long Island branched off to head towards Garden City, Bethpage and Babylon. Finally, the line ended along the south side of the Flushing and North Side main line at Flushing (F&NS station). After the Flushing and North Side and the Central Railroad of Long Island were consolidated into the Flushing, North Shore and Central Railroad in 1874, which itself was later merged into the LIRR in 1876, the LIRR no longer saw any need for the White Line and it was abandoned. Horsecars replaced the trains until 1880, and the depots were destroyed either before or after being moved to other lines.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
Because of increasing fatalities at the Atlantic Branch's 50 grade crossings, a law was passed from the City of Brooklyn and the City of New York to remove grade crossings in 1897. As part of the law, a tunnel would have been built to Lower Manhattan, but because of the large cost, it was removed in 1900. Work commenced in December 1901, after a new version of the law was passed on April 8, 1901 without any mention to the tunnel. The portion from Flatbush Avenue to Bedford Avenue the line was to be a tunnel, and the portion from Nostrand Avenue to Ralph Avenue was to be elevated. The next section, between Ralph Avenue and Howard Avenue was to be built as a tunnel, and the remaining portion to Atkins Avenue would have been an elevated structure. The first portion of the line to be opened was between Manhattan Crossing and Atkins Avenue. This portion opened on May 28, 1903, and the second part, the elevated from Nostrand Avenue to Ralph Avenue, opened on November 23. to Manhattan Crossing, The first tunnel segment, the one between Ralph Avenue and Howard Avenue, opened in 1904. Because of delays resulting in the construction of the new Flatbush Avenue terminal, service to the new underground Flatbush Avenue did not commence until November 5, 1905. Prior to the opening of the underground station, trains used a connection with the Brooklyn Rapid Transit's Fifth Avenue Elevated and temporary wooden platforms were built on the connection. The new terminal opened on April 1, 1907. The easternmost elevated section of the line was replaced by a tunnel around the year 1940.
Long Island Rail Road
After the Second World War, the railroad industry's downturn and dwindling profits caused the PRR to stop subsidizing the LIRR, and the LIRR went into receivership in 1949. The State of New York, realizing how important the railroad was to Long Island's future, began to subsidize the railroad in the 1950s and 1960s. In June 1965, the state finalized an agreement to buy the LIRR from the PRR for $65 million. The LIRR was placed under the control of a new Metropolitan Commuter Transit Authority. The MCTA was rebranded the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in 1968 when it incorporated several other New York City-area transit agencies. With MTA subsidies the LIRR modernized further, continuing to be the busiest commuter railroad in the United States.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
More capital improvement projects took place during the late 1990s. In 1998, the railroad began to replace its aging diesel and parlor car fleet, which dated from the 1940s and 1950s, by purchasing new bi-level coaches. In doing so the railroad also began to install the rest of its stations with completely ADA-accessible high-level platforms. Some of these stations were closed rather than upgraded due to low patronage.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
In the summer of 1951, as a cost-cutting measure, all trains operating in and out of Penn Station using electric locomotives were changed to originate and terminate in Jamaica of Long Island City. As a result, there was no direct service to New York, and passengers were forced to switch to an electric train, and "the moniker "change at Jamaica" became the norm".
History of the Long Island Rail Road
In the 1930s, the use of the Manorville Branch for service between the forks declined, and limited service using the line continued into the World War II years, and in 1946 the line was removed from timetables, and it was no longer used after March 3, 1949. On November 25, 1949, the Interstate Commerce Commission approved the LIRR's request to abandon the line, and the tracks were removed in the winter of 1950.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
The South Side entered receivership in 1873, and was sold in September 1874 to the Poppenhusens and reincorporated as the Southern Railroad of Long Island. The two Poppenhusen lines were connected at Babylon, and the Southern's branch to Hempstead was abandoned.
President Oliver Charlick died in 1875, and the Poppenhusens acquired a majority of the LIRR's stock on January 26, 1876, placing all the lines on Long Island under their control. Conrad Poppenhusen was elected president on April 11, 1876, and the LIRR and Flushing, North Shore and Central boards were now identical. On May 3, the LIRR leased the Flushing, North Shore and Central and Southern. In the next few years, a number of lines and services were consolidated, and redundant lines were closed, including the Newtown and Flushing, the parallel Flushing and North Side west of Winfield, the Central between Flushing and Creedmoor (forming the Flushing Branch and Creedmoor Branch), part of the New York and Rockaway (later rebuilt as the Cedarhurst Cut-off), and the LIRR's branch to Hempstead.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
However, it was not yet complete. The line was intended to go to through White Oak Tree, present-day Laurel Hill before going to Cold Spring Harbor. There was not money for the project, and the LIRR got an extension from the Legislature in February 1858. Because of the Civil War the extension was impractical. The Hicksville and Cold Spring Branch Railroad had legislative approval to run as far as Cold Spring Harbor, but Charlick wanted an extension to Huntington. As a result, permission for the three miles of right-of-way had to be obtained. The iron to extend the railroad had been purchased in February 1866. The right-of-way began to be graded in May 1867. The right-of way and track that was once intended to terminate at Cold Spring Harbor was abandoned and a new right-of-way running east was built. The line was extended to Huntington on January 13, 1868 and to Northport on April 25, 1868. and to Huntington and Northport in 1868. The Smithtown and Port Jefferson Railroad was organized on June 3, 1870 to build from Northport Junction, branching off of the Northport Branch, to Port Jefferson, opening on January 13, 1873. Northport then became the end of a mile and a half long branch. Passenger service to Northport ended in 1899
Hampton Jitney
The founder saw a need for a new transit option for people travelling between New York City and the popular Hamptons region of Long Island. The area has long been served by the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), but by the 1970s poor track conditions on its Montauk Branch resulted in lengthy trip times and delayed trains. Rebuilding the Montauk Branch in 1978 and 1979 resulted in quicker and more reliable trips, but the non-electrified single track line limited train frequency. The LIRR does maintain a number of passing sidings along the Montauk Branch that would allow more frequent service. By the late 1970s Hampton Jitney acquired a fleet of coaches. In the 1980s Hampton Jitney services had expanded to the point where the company runs roughly hourly service year-round on its Montauk Line and service between 2 and 3 hours on its Westhampton, and North Fork line. The company also started a charter service during this time.
Northport, New York
On April 25, 1868, the Long Island Rail Road opened a station within the village of Northport. This was an essential transportation link for the village, especially for the growing commuter population. However, just a few years later the LIRR decided to move the Northport station to a new location in Larkfield to facilitate further railway extension to Port Jefferson. The new railway station located on Larkfield Road was opened on January 13, 1873, and retained the station name of Northport.
History of the Long Island Rail Road
A 25-year decline in freight on Long Island led to the MTA selling the Long Island Rail Road's Freight operations to the New York and Atlantic Railway, a subsidiary of the Anacostia & Pacific, on May 11, 1997. The MTA had decided that having an outside company might help bring back freight traffic, and it decided that the transfer would allow the LIRR to focus more on its passenger service.
Long Island State Park Commission
The Long Island State Park Commission was created in 1924 by the New York State Legislature to build and operate parks and parkways on Long Island. Governor Al Smith appointed as its first President, Robert Moses, who had drafted the bill creating the Commission and who served until 1953. The Commission was abolished in 1977, its parks being taken over by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and its parkways by the New York State Department of Transportation.