The Long Island Rail Road is restoring service of two morning trains to Grand Central Madison on the Port Washington Branch after the Nov. 13 service change switched the destination to Penn Station, according to local government officials who fought to get the service back after garnering community input.
The 6:42 a.m. – now leaving at 6:47 a.m. – and 7:19 a.m. trains leaving Port Washington will now be traveling to Grand Central Station, Sen. Jack Martins (R-Mineola), state Assemblywoman Gina Sillitti (D-Port Washington) and North Hempstead Town Councilmember Mariann Dalimonte posted on their Facebook accounts. The service will be restored beginning Nov. 27.
“Our work to get better schedules is not yet finished but they’re listening so let’s keep it up,” Sillitti said in a Facebook post. “Well done, everyone!”
Most of the recent changes under the Nov. 13 service updates were made to the morning rush hour service, notably providing additional express trains from Port Washington to Penn Station. The MTA said the changes were geared to the ridership data they have sourced.
During the peak morning commute, 15 trains are scheduled with 11 starting at the Port Washington station, three beginning at the Great Neck station and one departing from Little Neck.
Five trains between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. were scheduled to arrive in Grand Central, compared to 10 trains arriving in Penn Station between that same time frame.
With the most recent restoration of the morning trains to Grand Central, now seven morning rush trains will arrive at Grand Central and eight at Penn Station.
The new schedule resulted in a majority of the trains traveling to Penn Station, with all five trains departing the Port Washington Station between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. going to Penn Station. That will now be changed to three traveling to Penn Station and two to Grand Central beginning Monday.
The recent service changes for the Port Washington Branch also delivered more morning rush express trains to Penn Station, a request that local commuters were advocating for since services were changed with the introduction of Grand Central Madison.
But while the change delivered additional Penn Station service and express trains that were desired, the service omitted all direct trains from Port Washington to Grand Central.
Under the Nov. 13 service change, four morning rush trains were express and four were partially express leaving Port Washington. All but one of the eight trains that run express or partially express arrived at Penn Station during the morning rush.
Now the two morning trains arriving at Grand Central being reinstated will be partially express. The 6:47 a.m. train will stop at Little Neck, Douglaston and Bayside, and the 7:19 a.m. train will stop at Little Neck, Douglaston, Bayside and Woodside.
