What you need to know about LIRR service shutdowns this weekend

Getting around much of the LIRR's service area this weekend will involve a variety of bad options, from diesel shuttle trains linking the Babylon and Ronkonkoma lines to public buses to two-hour waits for a train.

That's because planned track work in Elmont will shut down train service throughout much of Nassau County through Monday morning, and have cascading effects throughout public transportation providers from Queens to Suffolk.

Before heading to your train station this weekend, here's what you need to know to decide whether it's worth the trouble:

Beginning Friday evening, and lasting until early Monday morning, there will be no Long Island Rail Road service between Jamaica and Hicksville on the Huntington, Port Jefferson and Ronkonkoma branches. In addition, buses will replace trains on the Oyster Bay and Hempstead branches.

The service changes will take effect beginning at 8 p.m. on Friday on the Hempstead Branch, and at 10 p.m. Friday on all other affected branches.

On the Huntington/Port Jefferson and Ronkonkoma branches, trains will only run east of Hicksville. Customers looking to travel between Jamaica and Hicksville can connect to the Babylon Branch using a diesel shuttle train operating north and south between Hicksville and Babylon stations, and also stopping at Bethpage.

Trains will run every hour between Hicksville and Ronkonkoma, and between Hicksville and Huntington. Trains will run every two hours between Hicksville and Port Jefferson.

A shuttle bus will run between the Jamaica and Mineola stations, but will not make any stops in between. Nassau’s NICE Bus will honor LIRR tickets on routes serving railroad stations without service, including on the N6, N22, N24 and N40/41 lines.

Customers traveling east of Jamaica on the Oyster Bay and Hempstead lines will have to rely on special shuttle buses offered by the LIRR, and MTA buses serving Hollis and Queens Village. Those buses will cross-honor LIRR fares.

LIRR Commuter Council chairman Gerard Bringmann noted while traveling out of an unaffected LIRR line may be viable option, railroad customers should be mindful that some station parking lots have residency restrictions.

Bringmann said the best option, if available, may be to avoid traveling altogether during one of the most significant planned LIRR service disruptions in months.

“If you don’t have to go in, don’t go in,” Bringmann said. “It's either avoid going or add extra time or suck it up and drive. But who wants to do that?”

Normal service will resume on all branches at 4:30 a.m. Monday, according to the LIRR.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials said the train service outages are necessary as the LIRR moves into a new phase of a "major upgrade of the infrastructure" near Elmont-UBS Arena station, including the installation of new track switches and signals.

"This work will modernize and improve service reliability through a critical junction within our system," LIRR president Rob Free said in a statement. "It will also improve the customer experience long after this short-term disruption. In the meantime, we urge customers to plan ahead and allow themselves extra travel time."

Other service changes are planned for every weekend through Aug. 24.

During the disruptions, LIRR officials recommend that riders plan ahead, and, if possible, use alternate branches in Nassau County, including the Babylon/Montauk branches, which will see some added train service to accommodate extra riders.

More information on the outages is available at www.mta.info/lirr and on the MTA’s TrainTime app.

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.