The Long Island Rail Road, often abbreviated as the LIRR, is a railroad in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of New York, stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County on Long Island. The railroad currently operates a public commuter rail service, with its freight operations contracted to the New York and Atlantic Railway. With an average weekday ridership of 354,800 passengers in 2016, it is the busiest commuter railroad in North America. It is also one of the world's few commuter systems that runs 24/7 year-round. It is publicly owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which refers to it as MTA Long Island Rail Road. In 2022, the system had a ridership of 70,342,700, or about 253,800 per weekday as of the third quarter of 2023.
Pennsylvania Station is the main intercity railroad station in New York City and the busiest transportation facility in the Western Hemisphere, serving more than 600,000 passengers per weekday as of 2019. The station is located beneath Madison Square Garden in the block bounded by Seventh and Eighth Avenues and 31st and 33rd Streets and in the James A. Farley Building, with additional exits to nearby streets, in Midtown Manhattan. It is close to several popular Manhattan locations, including Herald Square, the Empire State Building, Koreatown, and Macy's Herald Square.
The Northeast Corridor (NEC) is an electrified railroad line in the Northeast megalopolis of the United States. Owned primarily by Amtrak, it runs from Boston in the north to Washington, D.C. in the south, with major stops in Providence, New Haven, Stamford, New York City, Trenton, Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore. The NEC closely parallels Interstate 95 for most of its length, and, as of 2013, is the busiest passenger rail line in the United States both by ridership and by service frequency. The NEC carries more than 2,200 trains daily.
The New York Connecting Railroad or NYCR is a rail line in the borough of Queens in New York City. It links New York City and Long Island by rail directly to the North American mainland. Amtrak, CSX, Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Providence and Worcester Railroad and New York and Atlantic Railway (NYAR) currently use the line. It runs from the Hell Gate Bridge over the East River to Fresh Pond Junction yard in Glendale in Queens. It was completed in 1917. Amtrak uses the northernmost section of the line from Sunnyside Junction in the Woodside section of Queens to the Hell Gate Bridge into the Bronx from which it follows the line north to Boston.
The Woodside station is a station on the Main Line and Port Washington Branch of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), located in the Woodside neighborhood of Queens in New York City. It is the first station passed by eastward trains from Penn Station and Grand Central Madison, and it is the only station in Queens shared by the Port Washington Branch and other LIRR branches. East of Woodside the two-track Port Washington Branch turns eastward, while the four-track Main Line continues southeast to Jamaica station.
East Side Access (ESA) is a public works project in New York City that extended the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) two miles from its Main Line in Queens to the new Grand Central Madison station under Grand Central Terminal on Manhattan's East Side. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) project was originally scheduled to open in 2009 but was delayed by more than a decade. The new station and tunnels opened with limited service to Jamaica station in Queens on January 25, 2023, and full service began on February 27, 2023. The estimated cost of the project rose nearly threefold from US$3.5 billion to US$11.1 billion as of April 2018, making it one of the world's most expensive underground rail-construction projects.
The East River Tunnels are four single-track railroad passenger service tunnels that extend from the eastern end of Pennsylvania Station under 32nd and 33rd Streets in Manhattan and cross the East River to Long Island City in Queens. The tracks carry Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) and Amtrak trains travelling to and from Penn Station and points to the north and east. The tracks also carry New Jersey Transit trains deadheading to Sunnyside Yard. They are part of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, used by trains traveling between New York City and New England via the Hell Gate Bridge.
Sunnyside Yard is a large coach yard, a railroad yard for passenger cars in the Sunnyside neighborhood of Queens in New York City. The yard is owned by Amtrak and is also used by New Jersey Transit. The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) completed construction of the yard in 1910; it was originally the largest coach yard in the world, occupying 192 acres (0.78 km2).
The Port Jefferson Branch is a rail line and service owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. The branch splits from the Main Line just east of Hicksville and runs northeast and east to Port Jefferson. Several stations on the Main Line west of Hicksville are served primarily by trains bound to/from the Port Jefferson branch, so LIRR maps and schedules for the public include that part of the Main Line in the "Port Jefferson Branch" service.
The City Terminal Zone is the set of Long Island Rail Road lines within New York City west of Jamaica station, except the Port Washington Branch.
The Ronkonkoma Branch is a rail service operated by the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) in the U.S. state of New York. On LIRR maps and printed schedules, the "Ronkonkoma Branch" includes trains running along the railroad's Main Line from Hicksville to Ronkonkoma, and between Ronkonkoma and the Main Line's eastern terminus at Greenport. The section of the Main Line east of Ronkonkoma is not electrified and is referred to as the Greenport Branch.
The Hunterspoint Avenue station is a station on the Main Line of the Long Island Rail Road within the City Terminal Zone. It is located at 49th Avenue between 21st Street and Skillman Avenue in the Hunters Point and Long Island City neighborhoods of Queens, New York City. This ground-level station has an island platform between two tracks and is currently not wheelchair accessible from the entrance above the station.
The Main Line is a rail line owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. It begins as a two-track line at Long Island City station in Long Island City, Queens, and runs along the middle of Long Island about 95 miles (153 km) to Greenport station in Greenport, Suffolk County. At Harold Interlocking approximately one mile east of Long Island City, the tracks from the East River Tunnels and 63rd Street Tunnel into Manhattan intersect with the Main Line, which most trains use rather than continuing to Long Island City station.
The M9 is a class of electric multiple unit railroad cars being built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries for use on the MTA's Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) and Metro-North Railroad. They entered service September 11, 2019. These cars will replace the M3/M3A railcars built during the early 1980s, as well as expand the LIRR fleet to provide additional service after the completion of the LIRR's East Side Access project. A separate order of cars purchased for the LIRR and Metro-North using federal funding for the East Side Access project will also be designated M9A.
The West Side Yard is a rail yard of 30 tracks owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority on the west side of Manhattan in New York City. Used to store commuter rail trains operated by the subsidiary Long Island Rail Road, the 26.17-acre (10.59 ha) yard sits between West 30th Street, West 33rd Street, 10th Avenue and 12th Avenue. Since the early 2010s, the eastern part of the yard has been covered by the Hudson Yards complex of skyscrapers and other buildings.
The Gateway Program is the planned phased expansion and renovation of the Northeast Corridor (NEC) rail line between Newark, New Jersey, and New York City, New York, along right-of-way between Newark Penn Station and New York Penn Station. The project is to build new rail bridges in the New Jersey Meadowlands and new tunnels under Bergen Hill and the Hudson River, rehabilitate the existing 1910 tunnel, and construct a new terminal annex.
Penn Station Access (PSA) is a public works project underway by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York City. The goal of the project is to allow Metro-North Railroad commuter trains to access Penn Station on Manhattan's West Side, using existing trackage owned by Amtrak. Metro-North trains currently terminate exclusively at Grand Central in Midtown Manhattan.
The Hell Gate Line is the portion of Amtrak's high-speed Northeast Corridor between Harold Interlocking in Sunnyside, Queens, and Shell Interlocking in New Rochelle, New York, within the New York metropolitan area.
Grand Central Madison is a commuter rail terminal for the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) in the Midtown East neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Part of the East Side Access project, the new terminal started construction in 2008 and opened on January 25, 2023. The station sits beneath Grand Central Terminal, which serves the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)'s Metro-North Railroad.
The Montauk Cutoff is an abandoned railway in Long Island City, Queens, New York City, that connected the Long Island Rail Road's Main Line and Lower Montauk Branch.
