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Long Island Rail Road to rebuild Hicksville Station
(Yes, there really is a place called Hicksville in Long Island. My wife and I unintentionally offended a resident of it riding on the LIRR a few years ago and chuckling at the name.)
This new station seems a little pedestrian. I don’t ever feel that “modern” (as in 1950s+) transit stations are ever built to take advantage of the opportunities available to them.
Paul, I don’t disagree with your sentiment - but Hicksville station has needed improvement since I first started using it in 1972. It is really a poor station. Hopefully, this design will be a big improvement over the existing station. Given the location in Hicksville, it would seem that there could be lots of opportunity to include spaces for small, commuter oriented businesses in the facility to generate significant ancillary revenues for the LIRR.
Hicksville is named after one of the original families that settled that part of Long Island. It is not because there were a lot of hicks or country bumpkins living there.
The expansion plans at one time included a third track on the main line to Jamaica from Hicksville to accommodate the increased traffic due to the East Side Access project. The NIMBYS have successfully blocked that expansion so far. Also what about the completion date of the Hicksville Project. Is it going to be similar to the completion date of the East Side Access? That project was supposed to be completed this year, now 2022. I may never live long enough to see the completion of the project and to ride on a train into GCT.
The State of New York owns the RR and …enough said!
I wish them all the best.
Speaking to the article,it says that Port Jefferson Branch trains and “Ronkonkama Branch” trains diverge at Divide Tower. Long away from"The Island" I inquire was the track renamed the Ronkonkama Branch.
Growing thru early teenage years, armed with a '51 LIRR Employe’s timetable, that track was the Mainline, Long Island City Or vicinity to Greenport,.tip of the North Fork.
Thru Ronkonkama
.Diverging at B tower, (memory: possible fault about the following names) was the Babylon Branch, connecting the Mainline to the Montauk Branch at Babylon.
Two adds about Hicksville: the only drop I witnessed using steam was an H10sb in Hicksville, station switching, chuffing and sluffing around,
Then the performance:,rapid acceleration, loud, smoky, check to get the pin, loud, smoky to get in the clear on a spur, to let the following car pass.
And the LIRR ceremoniously had two G5s trade trains on the siding south of the main track with pristine 1550 series (reputed to be the last of 'em) RS3’s
Then the G5s coupled and together, but then the last survivors of LIRR steam, sluffed and chuffed westward to have their fires dropped. Display and museum next. , …
. .
Mr. Carlin - That’s a fabulous description of a drop with steam power. I was envisioning it as I read it. Folks who haven’t witnessed such activity will have difficulty understanding why it was so exciting.
Please see the Greenville ME post from yesterday and send them $50. Like to get them to 10K, only 1K away…
I sent a donation to Greenville last week. They are only $102.00 short of their first contract goal. BTW, I miss riding the LIRR “Cannonball” to/from Hampton Bays, of a Friday and Sunday. Parlor cars are cool! Stole a few highball glasses, too!
$120 million to do some minor cleanup at a station - what New York State contractor is going to fill their pockets with taxpayer money for such minor improvements?