Fixing Your Branch Line: West Hempstead Branch
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 เม.ย. 2022
- As a somewhat late two-year channel anniversary, I would like to introduce a brand new Pensyfan19 Original Series: Fixing Your Branch Line! The premise is I will select a branch line from a commuter railroad with more than four branches, go over its history and its flaws, and suggest what improvements I would make to the branch line. Might as well start off with my home railroad for the first episode, as we'll be covering the railroad's least used but most underrated branch line: the West Hempstead Branch!
Credit for all photos used go to their original photographers
All music used in this video is from the TH-cam Audio Library.
Copyright Disclaimer under Section 107 of the copyright act 1976: allowance is made for fair use for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.
Sources:
web.mta.info/lirr/Timetable/Br...
www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/west...
MrMaster767: th-cam.com/users/MrMaster...
Music Used in Order:
Greaser - Track Tribe
Ferris Wheel - Quincas Moreira
Our Volunteers Waltz - United States Marine Band
Remember September - Freedom Trail Studio
MydNyte - Noir Et Blanc Vie
Night Drive - JHS Pedals
Sunshine - Telecasted
Now there is hourly service. I have never seen that on that branch in my 70 years on this earth.
I totally agree, being someone who lived a five minute walk from The Westwood station. It was and still is a unique branch line. I remember when they finally added a digital display at that station. And yes because of the 2hr gap between trains I'd prefer to travel on the weekdays to the city from there. Usually on the weekends I'd have to take three trains home. One to Jamaica, another to Valley Stream, and the last to Westwood. Im going to miss that place alot.I live somewhere else now on Long Island. On two instance when there would be track work. Motor coaches would take over. It was also a unique and fun experience. One time they put us on a legit party bus with side facing seats, a bar, and a stripping pole. But we were mostly on actual motor coaches. Love the video, keep it up!
The neighborhood that surrounds the Westwood station is absolutely beautiful, with tree lined streets and Tudor style houses. Malverne station is gorgeous too with the park right next to it and quaint stores and shops across the street. Even the Hempstead Gardens station is cool as an island station sandwiched between two streets. I love the West Hempstead branch.
I used to live not far from Westwood station as well. That is a nice neighborhood and I used to like walking home from the station. Westwood was the last station opened on the line in 1929 and was named for the owner of a flower store in Penn Station. However the tall trees in Malverne have been prone to causing power outages during severe storms due to their height. Those species of trees are no longer permitted to be planted there.
Few things that the Long Island Railroad and it's branch lines can improve on is add more frequencies, upgrade the tracks for more higher speeds (90-125 mph), and buy up Railroad right of way that have been abandoned for years
Great video! Would love to eventually see an Oyster Bay line one!
The West Hempstead Branch doesn't need to be double-tracked in order to gain frequent service. To operate trains every 15 minutes during Peak Hours and every 30 minutes during Middays, Evenings and Weekends can be accomplished due to run time between West Hempstead and Valley Stream equating to only 12 minutes, there's 2 to 3 tracks at West Hempstead, and the bypass taking place at Valley Stream and West Hempstead.
When ESA opens this branch will get hourly service between Atlantic Terminal and WH. This is unprecedented in my 68 years on this earth
Did they end up doing it?
I don't blame you for not wanting to deal with ACE, the San Joaquin JPA can burn in train hell for killing off Cafe Service on the San Joaquin.
Outstanding video. 👍🏽👍🏽
I wouldn't mind seeing the line extended back to Mineola, but I don't think you could get it past Country Life Press station anymore. And I'd love to see the Hempstead Branch double-tracked between Garden City and Hempstead.
Great video good info about the west hempstead branch. I have been on that branch about once and it was kinda like wacky with the train times lol.
You could definitely remove Yaphank station & replace it with the proposed East Yaphank station & double track + electrify the Ronkonkoma branch to there & have more frequencies
An improvement that could be implemented more quickly and easily is running a minimum of 1 train per hour on the West Hempstead Branch, and running all shuttle trains to Jamaica, stopping at Far Rockaway Branch stations. This could likely be done almost entirely with existing infrastructure, with maybe only a passing siding between Malverne and Lakeview (or another location if this one isn't suitable) being built if the single track can't handle full service. This service would be a massive improvement over what's currently provided as it would not only match the hourly off peak service on the nearby Hempstead Branch, but also eliminate one transfer for many trips.
One more thing, they should really remove St. Albans from the West Hempstead Branch schedule and put it on the Babylon Branch schedule. This isn't a change to service, but because only Babylon Branch trains stop there it would make more sense for it to be on the Babylon Branch schedule.
West Hempstead train stop at St. Albans ONLY in AM Rush Hours.
Talk about Mitchell fields garden city line. Still used for yard storage and the right of way if still owned by lirr
The infamous Waterbury Branch in CT
I certainly learnt a lot from this video. For starters, I had no idea this branch ever used to continue to Mineola, and that it's only single-track.
I also enjoyed the section on the Greenport Shuttle. Shame it's not on the LIRR route in TSW2.
Ikr its such an easy section only about 40 miles or so that can easily be implemented into train sim
What if after making the W Hempstead branch two tracks, they extended it to Levitown, thus making stops in Uniondale, East Meadow, Eisenhower Park, and maybe even Newbridge Rd. With the way the branch already is, they should have made a North Lynbrook station and a Malverne Park Oaks station. Also they should make Valley Stream a double platform station like Lynbrook.
I agree with the double platform at Valley Stream, but I feel an extension of the Hempstead Branch would be a more logical service to Levitown since it's a shorter route to NYC.
That's true, but if it's extended past W Hempstead to Levitown or Eisenhower Park, imagine the amount of people that would now be very close to a station. And not that I know that much about Eisenhower Park but in the summertime, Eisenhower Park would probably serve more passengers than West Hempstead considering West Hempstead station is pretty close to Hempstead railroad. I've thought about it so much that I imagine the line continuing to Levitown without interfering with the public because I study maps very often.
Another improvement that can be made to the West Hempstead Branch is if they added a second platform to the Valley Stream Station. I think this is a good idea because it would eliminate a HUGE bottleneck in the system, and also allow for connections to the Babylon Branch, as well as full-time direct service between West Hempstead and Atlantic Terminal, Grand Central, or Penn Station. They may also need to renovate the existing platform so that it matches the new platform.
Ya they should do that convert the West Hempstead line and Oyster Bay line into a light rail system combined cause LI doesn't have any mass transit system like NYC has the subway LI only has bus service and the LIRR but that doesn't count cause that's long distance and they can use some train service to serve the local areas so people can get around the Island faster because it's hard to move around the Island if you don't have a car and the bus it takes forever to come it's not consistent like the buses are in. NYC.
If you’re going to cover the ACL, then one thing can fix it: Revitalize the South Jersey Rail Network.
Cool
0:14 Candiac, hmm yes please.
now that the third track exist on the mainline follow up on this video that Mineola idea is huge
This is great!!!
Awesome video 🚂❤️😎👍
This is the only line I’m never familiar with on the West Hempstead Branch, although I’m not a LIRR commuter this is the only line that has only one single track use at Westwood,Malverne,Lakeview and Hempstead Gardens. After a few years riding the LIRR I mostly happen to take the Huntington train to either Mineola or Hicksville
Great video
Have you seen the schedule after east side access it has changed
It might've been helpful if the line approaching Valley Stream from the south had not undergone the boxing-in and blocking-off that occurred recently in Far Rockway. I could see the LIRR running direct from Penn Station to Far Rockaway and then on to West Hempstead or Hempstead, as a more efficient/effective use of trackage/cars than can be achieved anytime soon with the blockage at Far Rockaway now permanently in place. (There would need to be a connection at Valley Stream which is difficult but doable, now - and subway passengers would have to be given free transfers for 50 or 75 years with a big transfer point - both ways in both directions - arranged at Hammel's Wye.) There used to be more room for storage at Valley Stream, that might've been sufficient to enable it partially. On the other hand: with the blockage in place the lack of storage possibilities elsewhere would mean add'l capacity on the Rockaway Beach Branch for a proper Airtrain branch to Manhattan. It's silly though. They should be intent on preserving their right-of-way, and they're not. There's plenty of room along the Rockaway Beach Branch for storage. Or there is now, anyway. The point is these things need to be examined by the carrier and thought-ahead-for decades in advance. Then, when it comes time, they know what to proffer to the public, and the important public figures fall right in line just aping the pronouncements of cognocenti and everybody's happy. That's what happens now, but the projects are mostly designed to fail, to a shocking degree.
The Light Rail vision is likely the best option for regular service on this branch, the tracks already run from Garden City through to the mall at Roosevelt Field, and they can directly connect to the Hempstead branch again, making it really easy to get to and from the mall. But Hochul isn’t going to do anything because her administration cares more about banning natural gas than making life better
Hey, this isn't related to this video but Amtrak streamed a part of the New Orleans to Mobile line in Bay St. Louis on twitch to prove that Starting passenger service wouldn't have great effect on CSX.
I also highly expect a video like this on the Metra line to Joliet. Alan Fisher said that that was the worst service Metra has and Wikipedia says that it's the least patronized service.
1. Absolutely being covered in the Periodical.
2. Absolutely being covered in this series.
You should do this for every branch on the lirr, they're all weird and need fixing except for ronkonkoma and Babylon 😂
LIRR might look at equipping the Scoot with Stadler FLIRT Stock, for operating cost control.
As of February 27th, 2023, I can officially say the MTA has officially fixed this branch. Although it’s doesn’t run to mineola, it has more frequency and does not run as a shuttle anymore. W Wh users!
Why not improve West Hempstead Branch by Rebuilding it to Mineola or Hempstead and making the Mineola Junction Y that way Main Line trains can use West Hempstead Branch then rejoin the Main Line at Hillside Support Facility or Jamaica if all 3 tracks were blocked on the Main line with connections to the Third track. The power line can be useful because you can put them on top of the Tracks look no further than NEC Newark, NJ to Washington DC 138kv 60hz power line is on top of 11kv 25hz. Philadelphia PA Reading Main Line where the PECO pylons are Y shaped at the bottom. If you use the DM30AC as a Greenport NY Penn service. Ronkonkoma is where 750V DC mode is activated on DM30AC all the way to Penn Station
So I don't think the company proposing converting the West Hempstead Branch to light rail is called T-Rex. Pretty sure the proposal was by the Regional Plan Association, a non-profit that does housing and transit recommendations.
How about the Eastport Manorville ROW? Better public transport between the forks is increasingly needed.
They should fix the greenport branch because it should have more trains then 1 shuttle train at 1 time and they also should have 5 or 10 cars they should also make thre platform longer and should get a second branch and also this line should get a fixing your branchline episode even it was the honorable mention
Thanks for your informative video, looking forward to the rest of the series.
I noticed your comment on the Henry Posner III / Carnegie Mellon Pop-Up Metro TH-cam site some 7 months ago! I understand that LIRR examined the concept and that there was some talk of battery conversion of their own stock but funding wasn't available. Is this still the state of play?
I'd be interested to hear your views on the use of BEMUs in the US, they appear to be the latest craze in continental Europe but little reported from your side of the pond.
I absolutely support a program like CMU with their imported ex London Undergroumd battery powered subways. Although, I would suggest other railcars such as the LIRR M3 to be used due to intense crashworthiness standards. I'm not sure if funding is an issue for the LIRR M7 Battery conversion program, but I did hear that the sets they're using haven't been shipped out yet.
@@Pensyfan19 Thanks
Can you do an episode explaining why the entire Long Island railroad is not electrified via catenary wire or third rail?
A combination of lack of funds and not wanting to overdevelop the shrinking amount of farmland on LI, especially on the east end.
@@Pensyfan19 The efficiency and improvement in greenhouse emissions would be immense. Farmland perseveration is more of a land planning issue. It is always maddening to switch trains at Babylon or Jamaica, maybe the switch at Jamaica is even worse with the rerouting of trains to GCS Madison.
Hi there, I have couple of Ideas about this branch and its potential to be extended towards Far Rockaway and Hempstead then possibly Mineola and beyond.
Feel free to list them here.
Will The Metrolink Inland Empire Line Get An Episode?
Cause 7(The Number Of Metrolink Lines) Is Greater Than 5(The Minimum Requirement)
I'm going back and forth between that line and the Riverside line for its short length, but I might end up choosing Inland Empire.
Bro just add a double track to improve the service
The problem with the W Hempstead branch (and the Hempstead Branch) is low-density land use around the stations. Port Washington, to take a contrasting example, has much higher ridership because the land near the stations holds many more residents and businesses. The line has better service to accommodate the higher demand.
Transit quality follows land use policy, and spending lots of money on a line that serves few people is a waste. We should force Nassau Co. to allow multi-family housing and reduce or eliminate the minimum lot size requirements.
Where do you learn all this stuff
The LIRR archive known as trainsarefun.com
@@Pensyfan19 deadass? I have to look up my far Rockaway branch then
One thing reading 2102 is operating again