The City Terminal Zone, also known as the City Zone Branch, is a collection of rail lines of the Long Island Rail Road within

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. Specifically, it includes all stations in fare zone 1 (except for Mets–Willets Point on the

Port Washington Branch The Port Washington Branch is an electrified two-track rail line and service owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. It branches north from the Main Line at the former Winfield Junction station, just ...

), which is the set of stations west of the

Jamaica station Jamaica station is a major train station of the Long Island Rail Road located in Jamaica, Queens, New York City. With weekday ridership exceeding 200,000 passengers, it is the largest transit hub on Long Island, the fourth-busiest rail stati ...

Routes

Current routes

There are three routes that are part of the City Terminal Zone: *

New York Penn Station Pennsylvania Station, also known as New York Penn Station or simply Penn 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 p ...

(NYP) – Trains that, from Jamaica, travel west along the Main Line to Penn Station in Manhattan via the

East River Tunnels 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 track ...

. *

Atlantic Terminal Atlantic Terminal (formerly Flatbush Avenue) is the westernmost stop on the Long Island Rail Road's (LIRR) Atlantic Branch, located at Flatbush Avenue and Atlantic Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn, New York City. It is the primary terminal for th ...

(AT) – Trains that travel along the

Atlantic Branch The Atlantic Branch is an electrified rail line owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. It is the only LIRR line with revenue passenger service in the borough of Brooklyn. The line consists of two section ...

to Brooklyn. *

Long Island City Long Island City (LIC) is a residential and commercial neighborhood on the extreme western tip of Queens, a borough in New York City. It is bordered by Astoria to the north; the East River to the west; New Calvary Cemetery in Sunnyside to th ...

(LIC) – Trains that serve Hunterspoint Avenue and Long Island City in Queens. These trains also use the Main Line west of Jamaica, but typically skip Woodside, Forest Hills, and

Kew Gardens Kew Gardens is a botanical garden, botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botany, botanical and mycology, mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its li ...

. This route is served only during weekday rush hours in the peak direction (to Long Island City in the morning, from Long Island City in the afternoon).

Future routes

In addition to the three currently operating routes, one more is scheduled to begin operation in the near future: * Grand Central Madison – Trains that travel along the Main Line to Grand Central Madison via

East Side Access East Side Access (ESA) is a public works project in New York City that extended the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) from its Main Line in Queens into a new station under Grand Central Terminal on Manhattan's East Side. A project of the Metropoli ...

, which includes the lower level of the

63rd Street Tunnel The 63rd Street Tunnel is a double-deck subway and railroad tunnel under the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Queens in New York City. Opened in 1989, it is the newest of the East River tunnels, as well as the newest rail rive ...

and a new tunnel under

Park Avenue Park Avenue is a wide New York City boulevard which carries north and southbound traffic in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Aven ...

. Service is expected to begin in December 2022. Due to clearance restrictions in the tunnel, the C3 bilevel cars will be unable to access the new terminal.

Former routes

The City Terminal Zone formerly included the Lower Montauk Branch from Long Island City to Jamaica until passenger service on that route was discontinued in November 2012. This line formerly included Penny Bridge, Haberman, Fresh Pond, Glendale, and Richmond Hill stations until they were closed in March 1998.

Stations

East of , trains continue in Long Island on the Main Line ( Hempstead, Oyster Bay,

Port Jefferson Port Jefferson (informally known as "Port Jeff") is an incorporated village in the town of Brookhaven in Suffolk County, New York, on the North Shore of Long Island. Officially known as the Incorporated Village of Port Jefferson, the population ...

, Ronkonkoma), Atlantic Branch (

Far Rockaway Far Rockaway is a neighborhood on the eastern part of the Rockaway, Queens, Rockaway peninsula in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Queens. It is the easternmost section of the Rockaways. The neighborhood extends from Beach 3 ...

and

Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporated ...

), and Montauk Branch ( West Hempstead, Babylon, Montauk).

Future stations

A new station in Sunnyside, Queens, is scheduled to be built once the remainder of

is complete.

References

External links

City Terminal Zone branch timetable
{{Long Island Rail Road Long Island Rail Road branches Transportation in Manhattan Transportation in Brooklyn Transportation in Queens, New York