Port Washington Branch

The Port Washington Branch is an electrified, mostly double-tracked 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 east of the Woodside station in the New York City borough of Queens, and runs roughly parallel to Northern Boulevard past Mets-Willets Point (Citi Field), Flushing, Murray Hill, Broadway, Auburndale, Bayside, Douglaston, Little Neck, and then crosses into Nassau County for stops in Great Neck, Manhasset, and Plandome before terminating at Port Washington.

Port Washington Branch
Port Washington Branch train enters the Plandome station.
Overview
Status	Operational
Owner	Long Island Rail Road
Locale	Queens and Nassau County, New York, USA
Termini	Woodside Port Washington
Stations	13
Service
Type	Commuter rail
System	Long Island Rail Road
Services	Port Washington Branch
Operator(s)	Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Daily ridership	46,808 (average weekday, 2006)
Ridership	9,928,915 (annual ridership, 2023)
History
Opened	1854 (as Flushing Railroad)
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Electrification	750 V (DC) Third rail
Route map West Side Yard Northeast Corridor to Washington, D.C. 0.0 mi 0 km Penn Station Grand Central East River Tunnels 3.7 mi 1.8 mi Main Line to Long Island City Sunnyside Yard Northeast Corridor to Boston South 3.1 mi 5 km Woodside ​ Winfield Junction (closed) Main Line toward Jamaica Elmhurst (closed) Corona (closed) West Flushing (closed) 6.7 mi 10.8 km Mets–Willets Point ​ Whitestone Branch Zone 1 Zone 3 7.5 mi 12.1 km Flushing–Main Street ​ 8.4 mi 13.5 km Murray Hill 9.2 mi 14.8 km Broadway 9.9 mi 15.9 km Auburndale 10.8 mi 17.4 km Bayside 12.1 mi 19.5 km Douglaston 12.7 mi 20.4 km Little Neck Queens Nassau Zone 3 Zone 4 13.8 mi 22.2 km Great Neck Manhasset Viaduct 15.4 mi 24.8 km Manhasset 16.5 mi 26.6 km Plandome 18.1 mi 29.1 km Port Washington

The Port Washington Branch is the only LIRR branch to not serve Jamaica, a major LIRR transportation hub, as it branches off the Main Line at Winfield Junction, several miles northwest of Jamaica. Thus, passengers seeking to switch to other LIRR services without going into Manhattan must instead transfer at Woodside station.

Route description

The Port Washington station from the corner of Main Street and Haven Avenue in Port Washington.

Winfield Junction

Manhasset Viaduct, viewed from East Shore Road

Manhasset Viaduct, viewed from below

The line has two tracks from Woodside to Great Neck and one track from east of Great Neck past Manhasset and Plandome stations to Port Washington. This often causes slight delays to one train to spread to other trains. A second track cannot be added through Manhasset and Plandome due to the proximity of businesses to the narrow right-of-way in Manhasset, and the fact that the Manhasset Viaduct, which carries the line between Great Neck and Manhasset, has only one track.

Most peak-hour trains are either local between Manhattan and Great Neck (making all stops) or express between Manhattan and Port Washington (making stops only at Bayside, Great Neck, Manhasset, Plandome station, and Port Washington, although a few morning express trains run nonstop between Great Neck and Penn Station).

Extra service is offered during the U.S. Open tennis tournament and for New York Mets home games, both of which are held in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park. These trains primarily pick up and discharge passengers at the Mets–Willets Point station between Woodside and Flushing Main Street; formerly a station used exclusively for events, Mets–Willets Point has been open full-time since April 2023.

The route also runs over the Manhasset Viaduct, a high train trestle over the marshes at the southern end of Manhasset Bay. The bridge stands 81 feet (25 m) tall and runs 678 feet (207 m) across the bay, offering a view of the Manhasset Bay. Scenes from the Hearst-produced silent film serial "The Perils of Pauline" are said to have been shot on the trestle.

There is only one grade crossing on the Port Washington Branch, located at Little Neck Parkway, at the west end of the Little Neck Station.

History

19th century

The Port Washington Branch was built by the Flushing Railroad, in 1854 from Hunters Point in Long Island City to Flushing, before the LIRR opened its line to Long Island City. It was the first non-LIRR line on Long Island. The company was reorganized in 1859 as the New York and Flushing Railroad, and established a subsidiary known as the North Shore Railroad to extend the line from Flushing to Great Neck in 1866.

Originally intending to run further east to Roslyn, Oyster Bay, and even Huntington, the NY&F's plans were thwarted by the LIRR who reached those destinations first, as well as poor service and competition with the 1868-established Flushing and North Side Railroad. In 1869, the New York State Legislature authorized the Flushing and North Side to buy the New York and Flushing east of the LIRR crossing at Winfield Station, while the segment between Hunters Point and Winfield was acquired by the South Side Railroad of Long Island until it was abandoned for passenger service east of what was to become the former Laurel Hill Station in 1875. Part of the right-of-way ran through what is today the Mount Zion Jewish Cemetery in Maspeth.

By 1874, all branches of the Flushing and North Side Railroad, including the Main Line to Great Neck were incorporated into the Flushing, North Shore and Central Railroad, which included the Central Railroad of Long Island. Two years later, it would become part of the Long Island Rail Road, which closed the line east of Flushing in 1881 and reopened it a year later as subsidiary known as the Long Island City and Flushing Railroad. The LIC&F was merged with the LIRR on April 2, 1889.

Despite a failed attempt to extend the line from Great Neck to Roslyn in 1882, wealthy Port Washington residents persuaded the LIRR to bring the terminus to their hometown in 1895. This required the construction of the Manhasset Viaduct over the marshes at the southern end of Manhasset Bay, which was authorized by an LIRR subsidiary called the Great Neck and Port Washington Railroad (GN&PW). According to Manhasset's website, "in 1897, a contract was given to the Carnegie Steel Company and a subsidiary, the King Iron Company, undertook the job of constructing the bridge." The trestle bridge cost about $60,000, and the first train to cross it was on June 23, 1898. The GN&PW was disestablished as a subsidiary in 1902, and that segment simply became part of the Port Washington Branch.

20th century

Two other early 20th-century stations built on the Port Washington Branch were in Auburndale (1901) and Plandome (1909). The branch was electrified from the main line to Winfield Junction by June 23, 1910, to Whitestone Junction onto the Whitestone Branch to Whitestone Landing Station by October 22, 1912, and to its terminus in Port Washington by October 21, 1913. In 1910, the Public Service Commission approved the LIRR's application to eliminate grade crossings along the line. These projects were prerequisites for the extension of the line's second track to Great Neck and Whitestone and the electrification of the line.

Grade crossing elimination projects took place during the 1910s and 1920s in Queens and Nassau County. These grade elimination projects included unique station reconstruction in places such as Murray Hill which had a station house built over the tracks and Great Neck which had an elaborate plaza built around it. In 1929, the station at Winfield Junction was eliminated, making Woodside Station the transfer point between Main Line and Port Washington Branch trains.

Despite the elimination of the Whitestone Branch in 1932, as well as Flushing Bridge Street station, Flushing station kept the name "Flushing-Main Street Station." A new station was built just in time for the 1939 New York World's Fair then reused for the United Nations, and then the 1964 New York World's Fair and simultaneously Shea Stadium, for which it would be renamed in 1966. This was the last station to be built on the line. By 1985, when Elmhurst station closed, Shea Stadium station would also become the westernmost station on the Port Washington Branch before the junction with the Main Line.

In January 1987, the station building at the Plandome station was burned to the ground by vandals. Following the fire, the station building was rebuilt as a more modern version of the original.

21st century

In conjunction with the East Side Access project, the MTA proposed two readiness projects that they said will increase capacity on the Port Washington Branch. The first was the extension of a pocket track east of Great Neck station, located between the station and where the line becomes single-tracked. The pocket track was extended eastward by 1,200 feet (370 m) to allow for storage of a second trainset, in addition to the one that the original pocket track could store. The construction of the pocket track was originally scheduled for completion in December 2018 at a total cost of $45.2 million. However, the completion date was pushed back several times; construction of the extended pocket track would ultimately be completed in December 2022. Alongside this project, a new bridge was built at Colonial Road near Great Neck station; it opened in May 2016 and replaced a 114-year-old span.

The second of the two readiness projects is the expansion of Port Washington Yard, next to Port Washington station. As of 2017, construction was scheduled to begin in late 2020 or early 2021 at a cost of $500,000. However, this project met significant community opposition, primarily because of proposed reduction of parking spaces near the station. As of September 2022, the MTA has not come to an agreement with the Town of North Hempstead, resulting in the project being postponed indefinitely.

On July 9, 2024, the sides agreed to a memorandum of understanding (MOU) under which the LIRR would study expanding the yard. At the North Hempstead Town Hall meeting that evening (where the MOU was unanimously approved), Assemblywoman Mariann Dalimonte stated in response to a question from a member of the public that she and Supervisor DeSena had expressed the concern as to whether or not there would be any service improvements from this project to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees the LIRR. Dalimonte said they asked the MTA to ensure that services would be expanded if the project is completed, but the MTA said they could not guarantee it.

Stations

West of Woodside, all trips go on to terminate at Penn Station or Grand Central.

Zone	Location	Station name	Miles (km) from Long Island City	Date opened	Date closed	Connections and notes
1	Woodside, Queens	Woodside	3.1 (5.0)	1869		Long Island Rail Road: City Terminal Zone New York City Subway: 7 and <7>​ (at 61st Street–Woodside) New York City Bus: Q32 MTA Bus: Q18, Q53 SBS, Q70 SBS
	Maspeth, Queens	Winfield Junction		1854	1929
	Elmhurst, Queens	Elmhurst		1855	1985	Originally named Newtown
	Corona, Queens
		Corona		1853	1964	Originally named Fashion Race Course, then West Flushing
		West Flushing		1854
		Mets–Willets Point	6.7 (10.8)	1939		New York City Subway: 7 and <7>​ (at Mets–Willets Point) New York City Bus: Q48 Originally named World's Fair, then United Nations, then World's Fair again, then Shea Stadium.
3	Flushing, Queens	Flushing–Main Street	7.5 (12.1)	1854		New York City Subway: 7 and <7>​ (at Flushing–Main Street) New York City Bus: Q12, Q13, Q15, Q15A, Q16, Q17, Q20A, Q20B, Q26, Q27, Q28, Q44 SBS, Q48, Q58 MTA Bus: Q19, Q25, Q34, Q50, Q65, Q66 Nassau Inter-County Express: n20G, n20x Originally named Flushing
		Murray Hill	8.4 (13.5)	1889		New York City Bus: Q12, Q15, Q15A Nassau Inter-County Express: n20G, n20x
		Broadway	9.2 (14.8)	1866		New York City Bus: Q12, Q13, Q28 MTA Bus: QM3 Nassau Inter-County Express: n20G, n20x Originally named Flushing–Broadway
	Auburndale, Queens	Auburndale	9.9 (15.9)	1901		New York City Bus: Q12, Q13, Q28, Q76 MTA Bus: QM3 Nassau Inter-County Express: n20G, n20x
	Bayside, Queens	Bayside	10.8 (17.4)	1886		New York City Bus: Q12, Q13, Q28 MTA Bus: QM3 Nassau Inter-County Express: n20G, n20x Originally named Bay Side
	Douglaston–Little Neck, Queens	Douglaston	12.1 (19.5)	1866		New York City Bus: Q12 MTA Bus: QM3 Nassau Inter-County Express: n20G, n20x Originally named Little Neck
		Little Neck	12.7 (20.4)	1870		New York City Bus: Q12, Q36 MTA Bus: QM3 Nassau Inter-County Express: n20G, n20x
4	Great Neck	Great Neck	13.8 (22.2)	1866		Nassau Inter-County Express: n20G, n20H, n21, n25, n26, n57, n58 Originally named Brookdale
	Manhasset	Manhasset	15.4 (24.8)	1899		Nassau Inter-County Express: n20H, n21, n20x
	Plandome	Plandome	16.5 (26.6)	1909
	Port Washington	Port Washington	18.1 (29.1)	1898		Nassau Inter-County Express: n23

External links

Template:Attached KML/Port Washington Branch

KML is not from Wikidata

Media related to Port Washington Branch (category) at Wikimedia Commons

• MTA Long Island Rail Road
• Port Washington Branch Stations^[usurped] (Bob Andersen's Unofficial LIRR History Website)
• NYCSubway.org: Port Washington Branch
• Forgotten New York:
  • Pride in Port (The Jekyll & Hyde Branch of the Long Island Railroad: Part One)
  • Pride in Port (The Jekyll & Hyde Branch of the Long Island Railroad: Part Two)
• Port Washington Branch (The LIRR Today)