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Facts About the Ronkonkoma LIRR Station

Written by Lon Cohen  |  04. January 2022

The Ronkonkoma railroad station has a history that is almost as long as the Long Island Rail Road itself. The station is the terminus of track electrification, although plans are for that to change. It also was created to replace not one but three other stations in the late 1800s.

 

Want to catch a train from Ronkonkoma Station? Check out the train schedule by clicking here.

 

We compiled some interesting facts about the Ronkonkoma Station below. How many did you know?

 

History

 

  • Before Ronkonkoma Station, Lake Road Station was built in 1843
  • It was named Lake Road Station as it was located on Lake Road, which is now Pond Road
  • According to a history website, by 1850 Lake Road Station was moved to the Dr. E. F. Peck General Store on the northwest corner of what is today Ocean Avenue and Lakeland Street
  • The same site says that the original Lake Road Station operated simultaneously with the one at the general store on Ocean Avenue
  • Lake Road Station was eventually renamed Lake Station
  • Lake Station was phased out and no record of the original station's existence can be found after 1857
  • At some point Lake Road Station or the second station at the general store was referred to as Lakeland Station
  • Ronkonkoma Station was originally called Lake Ronkonkoma Station
  • Lake Ronkonkoma Station was built in 1883 to replace the original Lake Road Station/Lakeland Station
  • It replaced both Lakeland Station and another station built in 1853 called Hermanville
  • At the time, Hermanville served a community along the south side of the tracks
  • By 1860, Hermanville Station was no longer on maps
  • The word "Lake" was dropped from the station name eventually
  • The station house caught fire in 1933
  • A temporary building was used until September 1937, when the second Ronkonkoma station was completed
  • The 1937 station was used for storage until it was torn down in 1994
  • The current station was designed by architect Richard Henry Behr
  • In 2018, a project to complete 13-miles of new second track was completed between Farmingdale and Ronkonkoma
  • Previously, there was a single track along this route causing what the railroad called a “significant risk to reliable service and on-time performance in the event of a service disruption.”
  • The double track project cost $431 million

 

General Facts

 

  • It is 48.5 miles from Ronkonkoma Station to Penn Station, according to the LIRR
  • It was estimated that the entire Ronkonkoma LIRR line carried 9,841,068 passengers in 2018
  • According to the LIRR, the Ronkonkoma Station serves approximately 15,021 passengers each weekday
  • The Ronkonkoma Station has its own Yelp review page
  • The design for the train station is known as the Spanish Solution
  • Ronkonkoma is a major railroad station and transportation hub along the Main Line of the Long Island Rail Road in Ronkonkoma, New York
  • It is the eastern terminus of the Ronkonkoma Branch and the western terminus of the Greenport Branch
  • The parking garage was built in 1996 on a former freight spur
  • As of May 2011, Ronkonkoma station had a total of about 6,100 parking spaces
  • The opening of East Side Access into Grand Central Terminal is expected to enable an increase in service on the Ronkonkoma Branch during the AM rush by almost 50%

 

Main Line Electrification

 

  • In 1987 Ronkonkoma Station became the eastern terminus of Main Line electrification
  • According to a New York Times article, a rush hour trip from Ronkonkoma to Penn Station decreased from about 97 minutes, including changing trains in Jamaica to 71 minutes
  • After electrification, ridership dramatically increased on the Ronkonkoma line
  • The New York Times said that in a survey conducted by the railroad that among peak-hour train riders 42% were new to the branch, 34% switched from another one, 6% were new riders on the LIRR and 2% were returned riders
  • The railroad estimated that there was increase of over 2,000 new passengers during the morning rush hour
     

Ronkonkoma Station Train Yard

 

  • All tracks at Ronkonkoma Yard are powered
  • The yard is usually full after rush hour
  • According to amodernli.com, the LIRR completed a planned expansion of the Ronkonkoma Yard and built a new employee facility there in November 2020
  • The expanded yard and new employee facility is now known as the LIRR Mid-Suffolk Train Storage Yard
  • The expansion will support the planned increase in rail service with the opening of East Side Access into Grand Central Terminal
  • The yard will provide additional space to store, maintain, inspect, clean, repair and service electric train cars
  • It now contains 22 total tracks, each with capacity for a 12-car train
  • Newsday reported that the new yard is about 30 acres, “more than twice as big as the original Ronkonkoma Yard”
  • The yard expanded onto wooded land belonging to Long Island MacArthur Airport
  • The expansion cost $136 million

Bonus: Check out this cool old photo of a train in Ronkonkoma from the 1960s. And this photo from 1981.

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