Day two of the Penn Station overhaul and so far commuters aren’t quite feeling the train pain just yet. Checkey Beckford reports.
What to Know
- Three LIRR park-and-ride bus lots have been cut from the alternatives being offered to commuters during the summer work at Penn Station
- People simply were not using those lots in the first two days of the major renovation work at Penn Station, MTA Chair Joe Lhota said
- Five remaining lots will still be offered for park-and-ride LIRR commuters
The Long Island Rail Road has released its plan detailing its scaled-back bus service for commuters during the summer renovation work at Penn Station.
News 4 first reported Wednesday that the park-and-ride bus service, which was being offered to LIRR commuters as an alternative means of getting to Manhattan during the eight-week infrastructure improvement at Penn Station, would be cut back because it was being underutilized.
Effective Thursday, July 13, park-and-ride bus service will no longer be offered at the following stations:
• North Hempstead Beach Park (Alternative PNR: Nassau Coliseum)
• Roosevelt Field Mall (Alternative PNR: Nassau Coliseum)
• Bethpage State Park (Alternatives PNRs: Melville or Seaford Kiss & Ride)
Five alternative park-and-ride lots will remain in place for LIRR commuters: Melville, Nassau Coliseum, Seaford (Kiss & Ride only), Valley Stream and Belmont Racetrack.
Buses will depart every half-hour between 6 and 9 a.m. and drop off first on the east side at 34th Street and 3rd Avenue, with a second stop on the west side at Penn Station (34th Street bteween 7th and 8th avenues).
In the evening, bus service will return to the park-and-ride lots every half-hour between 3 and 7 p.m., picking up first on the west side of Penn Station, and then picking up on the east side at 34th Street between Lexington and 3rd avenues.
Full schedules are available at LIRRSummerSchedule.com.
MTA Chairman Joe Lhota told News 4 Wednesday, "So far, based on two days of voting, the people have voted they would much prefer the other approaches than the buses, so common sense would just require us to scale it back."
Meanwhile, ferries offered to LIRR riders from Glen Cove were also being underutilized, though there was some slight pick-up on Tuesday. Lhota says the MTA plans to do some more marketing around the ferry service.
The work at Penn Station was initially scheduled for nights and weekends over a few years, but recent derailments and other problems that spotlighted the station's aging infrastructure convinced Amtrak to accelerate the schedule.
