You are reading

LIRR to Lengthen Platforms at Forest Hills, Kew Gardens Stations

Kew Gardens Station

July 27, 2018 By Tara Law

The Long Island Railroad train platforms at the Forest Hills and Kew Gardens stations will be lengthened to accommodate two additional train cars, LIRR President Philip Eng announced yesterday.

The project will lengthen the platforms by 50 percent to allow six cars to meet the platform instead of the current four. LIRR trains can be up to 12 cars long, the railroad said.

The plan is intended to address crowding and reduce delays by helping customers to board and exit trains more easily, the LIRR said.

Both the north and south platforms at each station will be lengthened with fiberglass decking supported by steel scaffolding.

The Forest Hills and Kew Gardens stations have an average weekday ridership of 1,967 and 1,778 passengers, respectively. In recent years, Forest Hills has become a more popular destination for Forest Hills Stadium event attendees.

“With the high ridership at these stations, we are experiencing train delays as customers must walk from car to car to be able to reach a door at a platform,” Eng said. “Because these two stations are at a busy section of the railroad, those delays can cause trains behind to be delayed as well. Longer platforms should speed up our main line service for all customers traveling between Penn Station and Jamaica.”

Several elected officials, including U.S. Representative Grace Meng, thanked the LIRR for investing in the stations.

“It is critical that we maintain and upgrade key infrastructure in our borough, and lengthening the platforms at the Forest Hills and Kew Gardens stations will go a long way towards reducing crowding and decreasing delays,” Meng said.

Preparation work for the project was scheduled to begin this week. The railroad has not yet released the projected completion date or an estimate of the project’s cost.

Any temporary construction-related changes at either station will be announced closer to the start of construction work.
email the author: news@queenspost.com

One Comment

Click for Comments 
LG

LIRR Trains, which run at ground level in Forest Hills, with no barriers for sound or safety are now speeding by faster than ever. The vibration is shaking the foundation of buildings, causing hearing problems, and inviting serious accidents as residential homes abut the ground level tracks

Reply

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

Scooter-riding robbers sought for gunpoint chain-snatching inside Woodhaven playground: NYPD

Police from the 102nd Precinct in Richmond Hill are looking for a scooter-riding armed robber and his accomplice who allegedly held up a 25-year-old man at gunpoint in broad daylight at a Woodhaven playground late last month.

The incident occurred just before noon on Wednesday, Sept. 25, when the two strangers rode a two-wheeled scooter onto the basketball court inside London Planetree Playground on Atlantic Avenue and approached the victim. One of the perpetrators pulled out a firearm and forcibly removed two gold chains from the victim’s neck and $100 in cash, police said. The bandits rode off northbound on 89th Street toward Jamaica Avenue. The victim was not injured during the encounter.

Flushing man busted for pushing an 82-year-old woman off the platform at the Main Street 7 train station in Wednesday: NYPD

A Flushing man was arrested Monday and charged with attempted murder for allegedly shoving an 82-year-old woman onto the tracks at the Main Street 7 train station during a random attack on Wednesday, Oct. 2.

Brandon Harris, 35, who lives directly across the street from the bustling subway station, was booked at the Transit District 20 headquarters at the Briarwood subway station in Jamaica on Monday.

City completes $106M sewer project in Maspeth using micro-tunneling techniques to reduce disruptions

The city announced on Monday the completion of a $106 million infrastructure project in Maspeth, the second of three phases to create a new drainage system through central Queens. The project also upgraded over a mile of water mains and replaced smaller, local combined sanitary sewers.

The city’s Department of Design and Construction managed the project for the Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Transportation and successfully used micro-tunneling technology throughout large parts of it to minimize construction impacts during work.