The Montauk Branch is a

rail line Rail terminology is a form of technical terminology. The difference between the American term ''railroad'' and the international term ''railway'' (used by the International Union of Railways and English-speaking countries outside the United Sta ...

owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

of New York. The branch runs the length of

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

, 115 miles (185 km) from Long Island City on the west to Montauk on the east. However, in LIRR maps and schedules for public use, the term ''Montauk Branch'' refers to the line east of

Babylon ''Bābili(m)'' * sux, 𒆍𒀭𒊏𒆠 * arc, 𐡁𐡁𐡋 ''Bāḇel'' * syc, ܒܒܠ ''Bāḇel'' * grc-gre, Βαβυλών ''Babylṓn'' * he, בָּבֶל ''Bāvel'' * peo, 𐎲𐎠𐎲𐎡𐎽𐎢 ''Bābiru'' * elx, 𒀸𒁀𒉿𒇷 ''Babi ...

; the line west of there is covered by

Babylon Branch The Babylon Branch is a rail service operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. The term refers to the trains serving Montauk Branch stations from Valley Stream east to Babylon; in other words, the Babylon Branch is a ...

schedules, and a few Montauk Branch trains operate via the

Main Line Mainline, ''Main line'', or ''Main Line'' may refer to: Transportation Railway * Main line (railway), the principal artery of a railway system * Main line railway preservation, the practice of operating preserved trains on an operational railw ...

west of Babylon due to increased track capacities.LIRR Montauk Branch Timetable
/ref>

Route description

Lower Montauk

left, 200px, Lower Montauk Branch (defunct Richmond Hill station) in 2019 The westernmost portion of the Montauk Branch in Queens, known as the "Lower Montauk," runs between the Long Island City and

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 station ...

s, mostly at street level with grade crossings. Just east of the Long Island City station, the abandoned

Montauk Cutoff The Montauk Cutoff is an abandoned railroad right-of-way in Long Island City, Queens, New York City, that connected the Long Island Rail Road's Main Line and Lower Montauk Branch. Route The Montauk Cutoff is a cutoff approximately one-third o ...

merges with the branch. The Lower Montauk Branch had nine stations, four of which were closed by 1940. The remaining five stations ( Richmond Hill,

Glendale Glendale is the anglicised version of the Gaelic Gleann Dail, which means ''valley of fertile, low-lying arable land''. It may refer to: Places Australia * Glendale, New South Wales ** Stockland Glendale, a shopping centre *Glendale, Queensland, ...

, Fresh Pond, Haberman, and Penny Bridge) were closed on March 13, 1998, due to low ridership and incompatibility with then-new C3 bi-level coach cars that can only use high platforms (only Richmond Hill had an actual platform; the other four stations' platforms were just pavement strips beside the tracks). After these stations closed, the LIRR continued to use the Lower Montauk to operate non-stop trains between Jamaica and Long Island City rather than divert them to the Main Line; there were only two such trains at the time of the 1998 station closures, one westbound in the morning, and one eastbound in the evening. These two trains were re-routed north to Hunterspoint Avenue in 2012, effectively ceasing passenger train service on the Lower Montauk. Soon after, full control of the Lower Montauk was transferred to the

New York and Atlantic Railway The New York and Atlantic Railway (NY&A) is a short line railroad formed in 1997 to provide freight service over the tracks of the Long Island Rail Road, a public commuter rail agency which had decided to privatize its freight operations. An af ...

for freight operations. The

New York City Department of Transportation The New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) is the agency of the government of New York City responsible for the management of much of New York City's transportation infrastructure. Ydanis Rodriguez is the Commissioner of the Departm ...

has periodically floated proposals to repurpose the Lower Montauk Branch for rapid transit operations. In 1984, the Department studied an option to connect the branch to the

New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...

through a proposed connection to the IND 63rd Street Line in Long Island City. This proposal was unpopular in the communities surrounding the branch. In 2017, the Department studied a plan to operate light rail service on the Lower Montauk Branch. After

Penn Station Pennsylvania Station is a name applied by the Pennsylvania Railroad to several of its grand passenger terminals. Pennsylvania Station or Penn Station may also refer to Current train stations * Baltimore Penn Station * Pennsylvania Station (Cinc ...

opened in 1910 the Lower Montauk became the freight route, and when the present Jamaica station opened in 1913 the two Lower Montauk tracks continued past the south side of the station, south of Hall tower and the south Union Hall Street platform and on to

Holban Yard The Hillside Facility, also called the Hillside Support Facility or the Hillside Maintenance Complex, is a maintenance facility of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) in Jamaica, Queens, New York City. The Hillside facility was built between 1984 an ...

. Those two tracks now carry trains to/from the Hillside Facility that has replaced Holban Yard; they can also carry nonstop Main Line trains past Jamaica station. East from Jamaica the Montauk Branch runs between the Main Line tracks (with two usually westward Main Line tracks north of it and two eastward tracks south of it) until just west of

Hillside Facility The Hillside Facility, also called the Hillside Support Facility or the Hillside Maintenance Complex, is a maintenance facility of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) in Jamaica, Queens, New York City. The Hillside facility was built between 1984 an ...

. At the Montauk Branch rises to cross above the other tracks and turns southeast. At it swings parallel to 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 sectio ...

between its Laurelton and Rosedale stations. The Montauk Branch east of Jamaica is 0.7 mile longer than the Atlantic.

Babylon Branch

The portion between Jamaica and

Babylon station Babylon is a station on the Long Island Rail Road in the village of Babylon, New York at Railroad Avenue west of Deer Park Avenue ( Suffolk CR 34). It is on the Montauk Branch, and is the eastern terminus of the Babylon Branch service. To the w ...

s has been electrified since 1925, and electric trains to Babylon are often identified as a separate service, the

. It is grade-separated on embankments or elevated structures. From Babylon east to Montauk, diesel-electric or dual-mode electric/diesel-electric locomotives haul trains of passenger coaches. The Montauk Line has heavy ridership and frequent service as far as

Patchogue station Patchogue is a station of the Montauk Branch of the Long Island Rail Road in the village of Patchogue, New York. It is on Division Street between West Avenue ( Suffolk County Road 19) and South Ocean Avenue. The station is located in the Patchog ...

and commuter service as far as Speonk station. In the summer, with travelers going out to

The Hamptons The Hamptons, part of the East End of Long Island, consist of the towns of Southampton and East Hampton, which together comprise the South Fork of Long Island, in Suffolk County, New York. The Hamptons are a popular seaside resort and one o ...

Fire Island Fire Island is the large center island of the outer barrier islands parallel to the South Shore of Long Island, in the U.S. state of New York. Occasionally, the name is used to refer collectively to not only the central island, but also Lo ...

and other beaches, additional service is operated to the far eastern terminal at Montauk, such as the ''

Cannonball A round shot (also called solid shot or simply ball) is a solid spherical projectile without explosive charge, launched from a gun. Its diameter is slightly less than the bore of the barrel from which it is shot. A round shot fired from a lar ...

'', a Friday afternoon train departing from

(originally Hunterspoint Avenue) and running non-stop to

Westhampton station Westhampton is a station along the Montauk Branch of the Long Island Rail Road. It is on Station Road and Depot Road in Westhampton, New York, just west of Old Riverhead Road and south of the Francis S. Gabreski Airport. Westhampton station was ...

in Westhampton. The Montauk Branch, along with the parallel Atlantic Branch, spawns three subsidiary branches: the

West Hempstead Branch The West Hempstead Branch is an electrified rail line owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) in the U.S. state of New York. It runs between Valley Stream, New York, and West Hempstead, New York. Route description The branch se ...

Far Rockaway Branch The Far Rockaway Branch is an electrified rail line and service owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. The branch begins at Valley Interlocking, just east of Valley Stream station. From Valley Stream, th ...

, and

Long Beach Branch The Long Beach Branch is an electrified rail line and service owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. The branch begins at Valley Interlocking, just east of Valley Stream station, where it merges with the F ...

. The

electrified Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic history ...

portion of the Montauk Branch ends in the village of

. Some of the

diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engin ...

trains on the Montauk branch begin or end their runs at Babylon station, connecting with electric trains there. Other Montauk diesel trains operate into New York City, to Jamaica station; Hunterspoint Avenue or Long Island City stations in Long Island City; or Penn Station.

East of Babylon

The terminal stations in diesel territory, east of Babylon, are Patchogue, Speonk, and Montauk. The Montauk Branch is double-tracked from just east of Long Island City (where there is a short segment of single track) all the way through Babylon, becoming single track at Y Interlocking east of the Sayville station. Some Montauk Branch diesel trains operate west to NYC via the diesel-only Central Branch, joining the Main Line east of

Bethpage station Bethpage is a station along the Main Line of the Long Island Rail Road. It is located at Stewart Avenue and Jackson Avenue, in Bethpage, New York, and serves Ronkonkoma Branch trains. Trains that travel along the Central Branch also use the ...

. Only a few actually run via the Montauk Branch west of Babylon, under normal conditions on the Main Line. The Montauk was home to the last tower in North America that regularly used "hooping" train operations: PD Tower, in Patchogue. "Hooping" is the transfer of instructions to the engineer and conductor by attaching the folded orders to the "hoop", a rod several feet long with a loop at the end that is passed from the ground to a moving train by catching the loop on one's arm. The last train to get hooped at PD was train 2730 on May 6, 2006.

History

Currently, the Montauk Branch intersects with the

Bushwick Branch The Bushwick Branch, also called the Bushwick Lead Track, is a freight railroad branch in New York City. It runs from Bushwick in Brooklyn to Fresh Pond Junction in Glendale, Queens, where it connects with the Montauk Branch of the Long Islan ...

Bay Ridge Branch The Bay Ridge Branch is a rail line owned by the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) and operated by the New York and Atlantic Railway in New York City. It is the longest freight-only line of the LIRR, connecting the Montauk Branch and CSX Transporta ...

, and Central Branch, as well as the

at Long Island City and

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

and the

at Jamaica and

Valley Stream Valley Stream is a village in Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York, United States. The population in the Village of Valley Stream was 37,511 at the 2010 census. The incorporated Village of Valley Stream is within the Town of Hempstead, ...

; the

and

are connected via the Atlantic Branch at Valley Stream. In the past, junctions existed with the

Rockaway Beach Branch The Rockaway Beach Branch was a rail line owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in Queens, New York City, United States. The line left the Main Line at Whitepot Junction in Rego Park heading south via Ozone Park and across Jamaica ...

(a quarter mile east of

Woodhaven Boulevard Woodhaven Boulevard and Cross Bay Boulevard (formerly Jamaica Bay Boulevard) are two parts of a major boulevard in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Queens. Woodhaven Boulevard runs roughly north–south in the central p ...

Southern Hempstead Branch The Southern Hempstead Branch was a branch of the Long Island Rail Road from Valley Stream to Hempstead. It was established in 1870 and abandoned in May 1879, and is not the same route as the current West Hempstead Branch. History Hempstead res ...

(Valley Stream to Hempstead), Manorville Branch ( Eastport to Manorville on the Main Line), and

Sag Harbor Branch The Sag Harbor Branch was a branch of the Long Island Rail Road that was the eastern terminal on the south shore line of Long Island from 1869 to 1895 and then was a spur from Bridgehampton to Sag Harbor, New York from 1895 to 1939. It originall ...

( Bridgehampton to

Sag Harbor Sag Harbor is an incorporated village in Suffolk County, New York, United States, in the towns of Southampton and East Hampton on eastern Long Island. The village developed as a working port on Gardiner's Bay. The population was 2,772 at the 2 ...

). In early times, the ''Scoot'' ran frequently between Greenport on the North Fork, "around the horn" on the Manorville Branch, and east to Sag Harbor. In their day, both of those villages were very busy, bustling ports.

Formation and early days: 1860s to 1925

The

South Side Railroad of Long Island The South Side Railroad of Long Island was a railroad company in the U.S. state of New York. Chartered in 1860 and first opened in 1867 as a competitor to the Long Island Rail Road, it was reorganized in 1874 as the Southern Railroad of Long Isl ...

built the line from Bushwick, Brooklyn to Patchogue in the 1860s, and completed the new line to Long Island City in 1870. , January 2005 Edition With the reorganization of the South Side as the

Southern Railroad of Long Island The South Side Railroad of Long Island was a railroad company in the U.S. state of New York. Chartered in 1860 and first opened in 1867 as a competitor to the Long Island Rail Road, it was reorganized in 1874 as the Southern Railroad of Long Is ...

in 1874 and its lease by the LIRR in 1876, this line became the Southern Railroad Division, Southern Railroad of Long Island Division, or simply Southern Division. Effective Sunday, June 25, 1876, all Southern Division passenger trains were rerouted to use the LIRR main line from Berlin Junction (west of Jamaica) to

Rockaway Junction Rockaway Junction was a junction and station on the Long Island Rail Road's Main Line and Montauk Branch in Hillside, Queens, New York City, United States. It was located in the vicinity where the Montauk Branch now crosses over the two eastbou ...

, and the LIRR's Rockaway Branch to Springfield Junction, where it crossed the Southern. This change resulted in the closure of the Southern's

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, Beaver Street (Jamaica), Locust Avenue, and Springfield stations. The old line between Jamaica and Springfield, which became freight-only, was renamed the Old Southern Road. The Southern was reorganized as the

Brooklyn and Montauk Railroad Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, behi ...

in 1879,

Vincent F. Seyfried Vincent Francis Seyfried (April 18, 1918-April 14, 2012, aged 93) was an American historian of Long Island. His work between 1950 and 2010 includes eleven books on trolley systems in Queens and Long Island, twelve books on areas of Queens, a seven- ...

, The Long Island Rail Road: A Comprehensive History, Part One: South Side R.R. of L.I., 1961 and on March 14, 1880, the name was changed from the Southern Division to the Montauk Division. Thus the old South Side Railroad, except between Jamaica and Springfield Junction, was now the Montauk Division. The LIRR opened the

, including the present Montauk Branch from Eastport to Bridgehampton, on June 8, 1870. On July 27, 1881, after the South Side became part of the LIRR, its line – then the Montauk Division – was extended east to the Sag Harbor Branch at Eastport. The Sag Harbor Branch east of Eastport became part of the Montauk Division, and the old line from Manor (Manorville) to Eastport became the

Manor Branch The Sag Harbor Branch was a branch of the Long Island Rail Road that was the eastern terminal on the south shore line of Long Island from 1869 to 1895 and then was a spur from Bridgehampton to Sag Harbor, New York from 1895 to 1939. It origina ...

. An extension to Montauk, splitting off the old Sag Harbor Branch at Bridgehampton, opened to

Amagansett Amagansett is a census-designated place that roughly corresponds to the hamlet by the same name in the Town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York, United States, on the South Shore of Long Island. As of the 2010 United States Census, t ...

on June 1, 1895 and to Montauk by September, and the line between Bridgehampton and Sag Harbor reverted to the old Sag Harbor Branch name.

Babylon electrification: 1925 to present

Electrification of the Montauk Division from Jamaica to

was completed on May 20, 1925, and normal operation began the next day. The Central Extension between Bethpage and Babylon was reopened for freight trains that had run via the Montauk Division. The Montauk station was initially near the center of a sleepy fishing village at the north end of Fort Pond (where Austin Corbin built a pier in his unsuccessful effort to have trans-Atlantic ships dock there.) The

Great Hurricane of 1938 The 1938 New England Hurricane (also referred to as the Great New England Hurricane and the Long Island Express Hurricane) was one of the deadliest and most destructive tropical cyclones to strike Long Island, New York, and New England. The stor ...

devastated the terminus area and tore up sections of the roadbed. The population center then moved two miles (3 km) to the south, away from the station. 1998 saw the closure of three lightly used stations:

Center Moriches Center Moriches ( ) is a hamlet and census-designated place in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population was 7,580 at the 2010 census. Center Moriches is in the town of Brookhaven. It is the location of the historic Masury Estate B ...

Quogue Quogue () is a village in the Town of Southampton in Suffolk County, on the South Fork of Long Island, in New York, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 967, down from 1,018 at the 2000 census. Geography Acc ...

, and

Southampton College Stony Brook Southampton is a campus location of Stony Brook University, located in Southampton, New York between the Shinnecock Indian Reservation and Shinnecock Hills Golf Club on the eastern end of Long Island. History Southampton College, L ...

. Southampton College was temporarily reinstated for the 2004 and 2018 U.S. Open tournaments at the nearby Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, along with a steel walkway over

Montauk Highway Montauk Highway is an east–west road extending for across the southern shore of Long Island in Suffolk County, New York, in the United States. It extends from the Nassau County line in Amityville, where it connects to Merrick Road, to Montauk ...

. At the conclusion of the tournament, the walkway was dismantled and the temporary platform was removed. On April 16, 2019, New York State Assemblyman

Fred Thiele Frederick W. Thiele Jr. (born August 8, 1953) is an American politician who serves in the New York State Assembly from the 1st district since 2013 and the 2nd district from 1992 to 2012, as a member of multiple political parties. Thiele was ori ...

announced that funding to design improvements on the Montauk Branch would likely be included in the 2019–2020 state budget. The funding would be used by the LIRR to design three passing sidings to be installed on the line in single-track territory between Speonk and Montauk. The installation of passing sidings would allow for increased service on the South Fork Commuter Connection. MTA President and CEO Pat Foye said that improvements to the Montauk Branch were identified in the LIRR's request for the MTA' s Twenty-Year Needs Assessment.

File:Montauk Branch goes under Woodhaven Blvd jeh.jpg, 88th Street grade crossing over the Lower Montauk Branch;

overpass in background. File:Montauk Branch Grand Av jeh.JPG, Lower Montauk passing over Grand Avenue File:Montauk LIRR.jpg, Track 8 at LIRR Jamaica Station, awaiting the arrival of a Montauk bound train.

Stations

West Hempstead Branch trains split off after St. Albans. Babylon Branch trains terminate at Babylon, while Montauk Branch trains continue beyond. Many non-electric Montauk Branch trains that run express between Jamaica and Babylon run via the Main Line and Central Branch, with one rush hour roundtrip serving and stations.

References

External links

{{Long Island Rail Road Long Island Rail Road branches Transportation in Queens, New York Transportation in Nassau County, New York Transportation in Suffolk County, New York