Extreme changes to limit LIRR service

Weekend service on the Long Island Rail Road will be extremely limited throughout October and November as the LIRR Modernization Project brings signal and switch-control work to Jamaica Station.

The agency advised riders to use the LIRR for essential business travel only during the weekends of Oct. 23 and 24 and Nov. 6 and 7, as service will be greatly reduced, particularly between Jamaica and Penn stations.

First responders and service employees with no other alternatives should use the LIRR during those two weekends, the agency said, but riders traveling for recreational purposes should consider using the Port Washington Branch or other travel alternatives.

The LIRR warned riders that, on those weekends, train movement through Jamaica Station will be limited to two tracks, one east and one west, and only three trains per hour in each direction from the south shore. Buses and subway service will replace LIRR trains.

There will be no LIRR service between Mineola and Jamaica stations, Queens Village and Jamaica, and Jamaica and Atlantic Terminal. Only three trains will operate each hour between Jamaica and Penn stations, and buses will replace trains between Mineola and Jamaica and Queens Village and Jamaica on a number of LIRR branches. Some riders will be required to use the E subway train between Jamaica and Penn stations.

The changes are a result of testing of a new $56 million signal-system upgrade that will bring the LIRR "state-of-the-art computerized microprocessor technology," according to the agency, which released a statement on Monday outlining the upcoming changes.

The new technology, to be implemented at Jamaica Station's critical switching area, will centralize the switching and signal control from three existing signal towers at the station — including Hall Tower where the switching board was damaged by a major fire last month.