More LIRR weekend service changes on tap amid Third Track work

Major service changes are in store for LIRR riders for another weekend, as the railroad enters the home stretch of its effort to install a 10-mile third track on its Main Line.

For the second consecutive weekend, there will be no train service between Jamaica and Hicksville beginning 12:15 a.m. Saturday until 2:30 a.m. Monday.

Buses will replace trains between East Williston and Mineola beginning Friday at 10 p.m.

The same service plan was in place last weekend and will occur again on the weekends of Aug. 26-29, Sept. 9-12, and Sept. 16-19.

“We're in the final stages of the LIRR Expansion Project, which will add a new third track between Floral Park and Hicksville,” Long Island Rail Road officials said in a statement. “As we complete work on track, signals, switches, and stations, there will be major service changes on multiple weekends throughout 2022.”

The $2.6 billion Third Track project, as it’s commonly known, aims to boost the LIRR’s capacity to operate trains on a congested section of its Main Line — allowing it to more quickly bounce back from unexpected service issues and providing more “reverse commute” opportunities for riders traveling to and from jobs on Long Island.

The railroad expects to largely complete the project by December, and officials have said the first portion of the new third track, between Queens Village and Garden City, will be in operation by Aug. 15. The second section of the new track — reaching to Carle Place — will be commissioned on Aug. 29, officials said.

The upcoming weekend work includes the installation of new switches and the reconfiguration of tracks near Mineola, waterproofing a bridge in Carle Place, testing new signals and switches near Queens Village, and installing concrete rail ties between Carle Place and Mineola, LIRR officials said.

Special timetables are in place on all LIRR branches during the affected weekends. The adjusted schedules included extra trains on the Babylon branch, and changes in departure and connection times on other branches.

In addition to the weekend outages, third track work also will cause some "significant changes" on weekdays through September for customers using the New Hyde Park, Merillon Avenue, Mineola, Carle Place and Westbury stations. The changes include track changes and substitute bus connections.

More information is available at www.mta.info.

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.