Long Island Rail Road's relocated Yaphank station to open

The Long Island Rail Road’s newly relocated Yaphank station is set to open this weekend, with a ceremonial morning train stopping at the new station Friday morning, and full service rolling out Saturday, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office said Thursday.

With the opening of the new “Yaphank-BNL Station” — so named because of its proximity to Brookhaven National Laboratory — the railroad will also formally decommission its scarcely used original Yaphank station, which has sat in the same location for 142 years.

A regularly scheduled westbound Ronkonkoma branch train will stop at the new station around 10:25 a.m. Friday, before continuing on to the original Yaphank station. Beginning Saturday, the LIRR will run its usual schedule of 8-10 trains serving Yaphank-BNL each day.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials have said the opening of the new station is a step in a broader plan to improve service in Suffolk, including through the purchase of new diesel locomotives, which are used throughout much of the county where tracks are not electrified. The MTA’s current five-year capital budget includes funding to begin studying electrifying the LIRR’s tracks to Yaphank.

“I see this is as just the beginning,” Marc Herbst, the Suffolk County representative on the MTA board, said in an interview Thursday.

LIRR President Rob Free said the railroad will work to get the word out to Yaphank’s relatively few regular riders about the station’s relocation ahead of the Monday morning rush hour. In recent years, only around 15 riders per day have used the original station, which Free acknowledged is “kind of in the middle of nowhere” on Park Street near Yaphank Avenue/County Route 21.

“It's a really difficult place to find,” Free said in an interview Friday. “The new Yaphank station is closer to Shirley, closer to the William Floyd Parkway, to major roads.”

The MTA broke ground in April 2025 on the new station, located at a previously vacant 5.36 acres property south of the Long Island Expressway, east of William Floyd Parkway.

The accessible station includes a platform long enough to accommodate two train cars, a 50-car parking lot, a plaza area with train schedules and bicycle racks, and LED lighting.

"By locating this new and improved station right next to major employers and critical regional connections, we are ready to move the entire east end towards a future of economic growth and opportunity,” Hochul said in a statement.

The new station realizes a years-long goal of Suffolk planners to bring the LIRR closer to Brookhaven National Laboratory, a key employment center in the county. Lab director John Hill said the new station “creates a direct line to discovery,” as the facility takes on cutting-edge research, including the ongoing development of a $2.9 billion Heavy-Ion Collider that scientists say will give new insights into the origin of all matter.

The new station “improves access for scientific collaborators from around the world, students from across the region, and staff and visitors from Long Island and New York City,” Smith said in a statement.

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.