MTA Lists Post-Storm Issues With Long Beach Branch

In announcing they were restoring 'near-normal' train service to the Long Beach, branch, MTA officials also detailed issues that plagued the railway for weeks post-Hurricane Sandy.

Long Island Rail Road employees have been working day and night in the aftermath of Sandy repairing electrical substations and critical signal equipment on the Long Beach Branch, according to the MTA.

Three of the four substations along the Long Beach branch are now back in service, including one in the Long Beach LIRR yard that also sustained damage from flooding and from the release of raw sewerage from an adjacent sewage treatment plant. Repair work continues on the Oceanside substation.

On the Long Beach Branch, approximately 1,000 electrical signal components were replaced, repaired or cleaned as LIRR signal employees worked at 21 different signal instrument locations.

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Their work, in part, included the repair/replacement or cleaning of: over 150 transformers, 350 relays, and 73 impedance bonds, as well as hundreds of other signal components. Work crews have already repaired or replaced over 100 high voltage connections (feeder cables to power the substations and third rail) in the yard and on the branch.

The salt-water damaged 3-megawatt substations have had switches, circuit breakers, relays and other critical substation parts cleaned, repaired or replaced. (The 3-megawatt substation, which provides the 750 volts of D.C. current to the third rail to run LIRR trains, is equivalent of powering approximately 200 homes.) Additional repair work will continue on the branch and the LIRR also will be examining ways to protect power, signal and switch equipment from the type of extreme flooding caused by Sandy.

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Weekday Train Service
Because of the capacity reduction in Amtrak’s two East River tunnels, four morning rush hour and four evening rush hour trains on the Long Beach Branch will canceled as detailed below:

AM Peak Canceled Long Beach Branch Trains

(Four trains canceled)

· The 6:54 AM from Long Beach, due Atlantic Terminal at 7:49 AM, is canceled. Customers will be accommodated by the 7:04 AM from Long Beach due Penn Station at 7:57 AM. Customers for Atlantic Terminal must transfer at Jamaica.

· The 7:23 AM from Long Beach, due Penn Station at 8:22 AM, is canceled. Customers will be accommodated by the 7:39 AM from Long Beach due Penn Station at 8:32 AM.

· The 7:56 AM from Long Beach, due Atlantic Terminal at 8:51 AM, is canceled. Customers will be accommodated by the 8:03 AM from Long Beach due Penn Station at 8:54 AM. Customers for Atlantic Terminal must transfer at Jamaica.

· The 8:08 AM from Long Beach, due Penn Station at 9:02 AM, is canceled. Customers will be accommodated by the 8:38 AM from Long Beach due Atlantic Terminal at 9:26 AM. Customers for Penn Station must transfer at Jamaica.

PM Peak Canceled Long Beach Branch Trains

(Four trains canceled)

· The 4:40 PM from Penn Station, due Long Beach at 5:37 PM, is canceled. Customers will be accommodated by the 5:00 PM train from Penn Station, due Long Beach 5:55 PM.

· The 5:23 PM from Penn Station, due Long Beach at 6:18 PM, is canceled. Customers will be accommodated by the 5:20 PM train from Penn Station, due Long Beach 6:11 PM.

· The 7:33 PM from Penn Station, due Long Beach at 8:26 PM, is canceled. Customers will be accommodated by the 8:12 PM train from Atlantic Terminal, due Long Beach 9:03 PM. Customers at Penn Station should take the 8:08 PM from Penn Station to Babylon and transfer at Jamaica for the Long Beach Train.

· The 8:30 PM from Penn Station, due Long Beach at 9:22 PM, is canceled. Customers will be accommodated by the 9:00 PM train from Atlantic Terminal, due Long Beach 9:50 PM. Customers at Penn Station should take the 8:42 PM from Penn Station to Huntington and transfer at Jamaica for the Long Beach Train.