Hempstead branch LIRR service will only be available at select stations this weekend

Service on the Hempstead branch of the Long Island Rail Road will only be available from Hollis, Queens Village and Floral Park this weekend as the LIRR improves service through several Queens and Long Island stations. Eagle photo by Jonathan Sperling.

By Jonathan Sperling

Service on the Hempstead branch of the Long Island Rail Road will only be available from Hollis, Queens Village and Floral Park this weekend, due to the installation of a bridge that will help provide more reliable LIRR service in the future.

Hempstead Branch service will be suspended east of Floral Park, as well as at Bellerose Station, from approximately 12 a.m. Saturday to 12:30 a.m. on Monday. Hempstead Branch trains will continue to operate out of Atlantic Terminal, but will originate and terminate at Mineola Station instead of Hempstead. There will be no train service at Bellerose, Stewart Manor, Nassau Boulevard, Garden City, Country Life Press and Hempstead.

The service change comes as the LIRR Expansion Project performs its third bridge installation project of the summer on the weekend of Aug. 17-18. Workers will install a new bridge over South Tyson Avenue in the Village of Floral Park, bordering Floral Park, Queens.

The bridge, in use since 1958, will be replaced in order to address a bottleneck at of the LIRR’s Main Line, where four tracks merge into two. The new bridge will also accommodate a future third track to increase capacity and improve service reliability along the line, which makes stops in Long Island City, Woodside, Forest Hills, Kew Gardens, Jamaica, Hollis and Queens Village.