The Suffolk Traction Company is a former

streetcar A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

system in

Suffolk County, New York Suffolk County () is the easternmost county in the U.S. state of New York. It is mainly located on the eastern end of Long Island, but also includes several smaller islands. According to the 2020 United States census, the county's populatio ...

. It operated primarily between

Patchogue Patchogue (, ) is a village in Suffolk County, New York. The population was 11,798 at the time of the 2010 census. Patchogue is part of the town of Brookhaven, on the south shore of Long Island, adjoining Great South Bay. It is officially known ...

and Holtsville, but also included a route that served Blue Point, Bayport, and

Sayville Sayville is a hamlet and census-designated place in Suffolk County, New York, United States. Located on the South Shore of Long Island in the Township of Islip, the population of the CDP was 16,853 at the time of the 2010 census. History The ea ...

. It was opened in 1909 and ceased operations in 1919.

Main Line

The four current roads that originally carried the trolley line between Patchogue and Holtsville are South Ocean Avenue, North Ocean Avenue, and what today is Old North Ocean Avenue. The PD Tower at Patchogue Railroad Station served as a control tower for both the Long Island Railroad and the trolleys. Traction Boulevard (also known as Suffolk Traction Boulevard) continued the line, which crossed over the southeast corner of Canaan Lake and headed in a northwesterly direction. North of the Patchogue Highlands area, the paved road became a dirt trail and carried the former ROW towards

Holtsville Station Holtsville was a station stop on the Greenport Branch of the Long Island Rail Road. It was located off the southeast corner of the Waverly Avenue grade crossing on the south side of the tracks between Long Island Avenue and Furrows Road in Holtsvil ...

. The trolleys that used the road were storage battery cars that ran down the center of the street. North of Holtsville, Suffolk Traction planned an extension through Farmingville, Selden, Terryville,

Echo In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay is directly proportional to the distance of the reflecting surface from the source and the list ...

(now

Port Jefferson Station Port Jefferson Station is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of Brookhaven, in Suffolk County, in New York, United States. The population was 7,838 as of the 2010 census. History The area now known as Port Jefferson Station ...

), and eventually

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 ...

. Unfortunately, the company went bankrupt, even as a bridge was being built over the LIRR Main Line for the Suffolk Traction Main Line on the way to Port Jefferson. The ROW was abandoned, and much of it was sold to private and public developers later in the 20th century, although the road was still depicted on numerous maps. The dirt trail was visible where it crossed Woodside Avenue and then disappeared entirely at the latter-day site of the town dump where it was obliterated (see below). It picked up again in the woods on the east side of Waverly Avenue just south of Katz's Farm which was located directly south of the LIRR station in Holtsville. The ROW ran along the edge of Katz's Farm so was not discernible. The Town of Brookhaven installed a landfill on part of the former ROW, leaving a portion of it as an entrance at Blue Point Road. The landfill was transformed into a town park in the early to mid-1970s. During a 2009 repaving project of North Ocean Avenue by the Village of Patchogue Department of Public Works, the former trolley tracks were uncovered and removed for preservation.

Other branches

Besides the main line, Suffolk Traction Company had the Bayport- Blue Point Line between

Sayville Railroad Station Sayville is a station on the Montauk Branch of the Long Island Rail Road in the village of Sayville, New York, on Depot Street between Greeley Avenue and Railroad Avenue. Ferries to Fire Island board from a port south of the station. History Say ...

and

Bicycle Path Cycling infrastructure is all infrastructure cyclists are allowed to use. Bikeways include bike paths, bike lanes, cycle tracks, rail trails and, where permitted, sidewalks. Roads used by motorists are also cycling infrastructure, except wher ...

, a section of which is currently

NY 112 New York State Route 112 (NY 112) is a state highway located entirely within the town of Brookhaven in Suffolk County, New York, in the United States. It runs from an intersection with Montauk Highway (formerly part of NY 27A) i ...

. The line was originally owned by the

South Shore Traction Company The Manhattan and Queens Traction Company, also known as the Manahttan and Queens Transit Company, was a streetcar company operating in Manhattan and Queens County, New York between 1913 and 1937. History The Manhattan and Queens Traction Compan ...

and ran primarily along Middle Road, Blue Point Avenue, and

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 ...

. It served the LIRR stations in Sayville, Bayport, Blue Point and Patchogue. A proposed eastbound extension into

Bellport Bellport is a village in the Town of Brookhaven in Suffolk County, on the South Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 2,084 at the 2010 census. The Incorporated Village of Bellport is named after the Bell family ...

and Brookhaven was also on the books, but collapsed along with the Port Jefferson extension of the main line. A third line called the Sayville Line ran exclusively within Sayville, from the Railroad Station along Sayville's Railroad Avenue, Montauk Highway, and Candee Avenue down to the

Great South Bay The Great South Bay is a lagoon situated between Long Island and Fire Island, in the State of New York. It is about long and has an average depth of 4 feet 3 inches and is 20 feet at its deepest. It is protected from the Atlantic Ocean by Fire Is ...

. This line was originally a horse-drawn trolley, and like the Sayville to Patchogue Line, it was originally owned by the South Shore Traction Company.

References

External links

*TrainsAreFun.com
Suffolk Traction Company

1915 image in Patchogue
*Suffolk County Historical Society
Patchogue-Medford Library

Local History Department
''
"Troubles Dogged Local Trolley," by Thomas R. Bayles (Longwood's Journey)A Desire Named Streetcar, by Sylvia Adcock
(Newsday—Long Island; Our Story)
Suffolk Traction Company (Bygone Long Island)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Suffolk Traction Company Streetcar lines on Long Island Brookhaven, New York Islip (town), New York Defunct New York (state) railroads Defunct public transport operators in the United States Transportation in Suffolk County, New York Railway companies established in 1909 Railway companies disestablished in 1919