Tuesday, July 31, 2018

LIRR platforms to be widened

From the Forest Hills Post:

The Long Island Railroad train platforms at the Forest Hills and Kew Gardens stations will be lengthened to accommodate two additional train cars, LIRR President Philip Eng announced yesterday.

The project will lengthen the platforms by 50 percent to allow six cars to meet the platform instead of the current four. LIRR trains can be up to 12 cars long, the railroad said.

The plan is intended to address crowding and reduce delays by helping customers to board and exit trains more easily, the LIRR said.

Both the north and south platforms at each station will be lengthened with fiberglass decking supported by steel scaffolding.

The Forest Hills and Kew Gardens stations have an average weekday ridership of 1,967 and 1,778 passengers, respectively. In recent years, Forest Hills has become a more popular destination for Forest Hills Stadium event attendees.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Only 2,000 riders a day? Don't bother. How much will this cost?

Gary W said...

Should have been done 25 years ago.

Now KG just needs to deal with the mini crime wave currently going on. Gun point robbery last night, knife point robberies and stabbings all near the court house and subway.

Amazing the diversity a homeless shelter can bring you.

Anonymous said...

By improving the conditions at these stations, they can help people enter and exit more efficiently, which will reduce crowding and delays for the whole line. Sometimes by the time the train gets to KG/FH, those cars are so packed you have to run down the platform to find a space you can squeeze in and that's holding up the train.

Anonymous said...

Are these some of the 'first 6 cars only open' stations?

Waste of money when the signal system is ancient.

Anonymous said...

It's not about the 2,000 riders per day. It's about catering to the pampered Forest Hills crowd. Where's the improvements at Auburndale, Murray Hill or Main Steet...THE WORST? The rich get their asses wiped. The poor? Stinky butts! Yer on yer own!

Anonymous said...

mornings the first few cars are extremely crowded and the train has to spend too much time at the station. In the fourth car people walk back through the train.

afternoons is the same, except the first four cars are crowded going east and a third of the people get off at FH or KG. Longer platforms would ease crowding

Anonymous said...

Well.....that train comes in from Long Island. WRF do you expect, an empty train? Take a limo if you're too spoiled to rub elbows with the common folk! Tsk tsk tsk....these people of privilege! Try riding the #7 if you think your train is crowded!

Anonymous said...

Yes.....this sequestered snow globe Forest Hills Gardens crowd....living in their bubble....think NYC was made only for them. You want isolation? Enjoy it only within your glass menagerie. It's a big bustling world out there!

Anonymous said...

>Amazing the diversity a homeless shelter can bring you.

Is there a new homeless shelter in KG that I didn't hear about?

Anonymous said...

Good idea, this expansion. Look, I know that overcrowding is happening and there are other problems in the system, but extending a platform 170 feet onto what's already railroad property trackbed area shouldn't be a HUGE expense, should it? This would hopefully take the crowd-caused train delays out of the equation.

Gotta snicker at the FHills haters here. I use the LIRR strictly as a time-saver, as do most City Zone people who take it. It's a further walk than my subway 75th Ave F stop, and costs twice as much, but I save at least 30 minutes on my commute. Worth it.

Anonymous said...

The project will cost $10 million. The LIAR is broke. They will just raise fares again.