LIRR finalizes Hicksville Station design; includes East Side Access work

Written by Jenifer Nunez, assistant editor
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Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) has finalized the design for the new station in Hicksville, a $120-million investment meant to revitalize the region's busiest transit hub and kick-start residential and commercial development in the hamlet's downtown.

 

“By renovating the Hicksville station, we’re moving ahead with much-needed upgrades at one of the LIRR’s busiest outlets and breathing new economic life into the community,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. “This rehabilitation is designed to fundamentally improve riders’ experiences at Hicksville while also setting the stage for expanded service through the East Side Access project and I am pleased to see it moving forward.”

Hicksville Station is the LIRR’s busiest line station with 22,000 customer trips per weekday. Both Ronkonkoma Branch trains and Port Jefferson Branch trains pass through Hicksville every day, as do selected Montauk Branch trains. The station is also served by major NICE commuter bus routes running north and south on Route 106 and Route 107.

The station rehabilitation is forecast to cost $68.7 million. Metropolitan Transportation Authority will invest another $52.3 million for a less visible but equally important part of the project – the construction of the Hicksville North Track Siding, an additional track along the existing railroad right-of way that will support the LIRR’s plans for faster and more frequent service when its East Side Access Project is completed in 2022. East Side Access will carry LIRR riders into Grand Central Terminal on the East Side of Manhattan for the first time.

LIRR President Patrick Nowakowski noted that the agency will work closely with the town of Oyster Bay to accommodate weekend work that is necessary to carry out the construction. Construction is not expected to impact weekday service.

The LIRR’s plan calls for construction completion in 2019 with a design that will almost completely recast the station with new platforms, new fully-heated, glass-enclosed platform waiting rooms, new lighting, new translucent canopy roof, new stairways, elevators and escalators, a new video security system, audio and digital communications systems and new signage. It also includes a new street-level plaza and entrance to the waiting room/ticket office.

The Hicksville North Track Siding Project includes the installation of more than 3,000 feet of new track, power and signal work. This effort will connect Track 1 at Hicksville to an existing track siding situated about one-half mile west of the station platform. The connection will enable the LIRR to add three trains to the morning and evening peak service between Hicksville and Manhattan when Grand Central Terminal opens to the LIRR with the completion of the East Side Access project in 2022. It will also improve the railroad’s ability to reroute trains in the event of maintenance, construction or service disruptions.

 

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