America's BUSIEST Commuter Rail System! The Long Island Rail Road!
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- Опубликовано: 7 апр 2022
- Up this Friday, we take a look at America's busiest commuter rail system, the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR).
Date of Travel: March 2022
Class of Travel: N/A
Rolling Stock: M7
Type of Service: Long Island Rail Road
Operator: Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)
Train Number: 6814
Origin: Pennsylvania Station, New York, NY, United States of America
Destination: Long Beach, NY, United States of America
Cost of Ticket: $20.50 (£15.55, €18.60)
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As a daily LIRR commuter, Moynihan train hall is as well the new home of the LIRR, there you will find customer service, ticket machines, Ticket agents, and a way more pleasant concourse just for the LIRR, all inside Moynihan train hall. Also you bought a round trip ticket which is why it’s expensive
you mentioned in the video that the windows were dirty- but they are actually quite clean. The issue with the M7 windows is that they are actually Plastic Paneling, and the M7 plastic is super prone to scratching and sun damage.
LIRR's fleet always has one side facing south and one side facing north and the coaches and units are never turned leaving one side to have significantly more sun exposure.
@@JBS319 Huh…I suppose that’s one disadvantage to never needed to turn the trains. Makes me wonder if the C3’s and ‘30AC’s have that too?
@@russellgxy2905 C3s do not get turned. DE/DM30 on the other hand are often turned as there is a turntable at Morris Park Yard. But this is one reason why LIRR gave up on side stripes in favor of bare metal sides. The blue stripes on LIRR M1s disappeared in the 1980s and some M3s were delivered with just the yellow face stripe. Metro North kept the side stripes on their M1/3 fleet and the M2/4/6 fleet and stripes can still be found on the M3 and M8 fleets.
Why did they design the train with such poor windows?
@@bertrandbolin7097 There were some issues with the weight of the glass. They had to use plastic.
Congratulations on surpassing 100,000 subscribers in such a short period of time. Your enthusiasm and sense of detail makes all your videos enjoyable as well as informational
Thank you very much!
Having ridden the LIRR many, many times over the 30+ years we lived in Suffolk County, it was refreshing to see an (expert) outsider's view. Utilitarian is a good description: nothing fancy, just a comfortable enough way to travel an hour or so from point A to point B. The price may seem high, but there are discounts for weekly or monthly tickets. It was always cheaper and more relaxing than driving to Manhattan and paying a fortune for parking. We used it for work, concerts and plays, sporting events, museums, and access to the airports and Amtrak at Pennsylvania Station. Nice views of the Atlantic Ocean beach at the end! Looking forward to the rest of your U.S. train ride videos.
Welcome back to the US! I hope you can return soon. When you do I invite you to spend some time on NJ Transit. While the trains are not much different (there is much more variety of engines) the routes are much older, harkening back to the 19th century and being built by long obsolete local railroads as well as the old Pennsylvania RR (that’s why so many stations are called Pennsylvania Station) and the Jersey Central. The lines began to move commercial stuff and then encourage tourism. It’s only after WW II that they evolved into commuter lines but almost all will take from congested urban areas to old towns founded in colonial days still having many 18th and 19th century history. This is where you can get a taste for our Dutch and English history. Also check out Penn Station in Newark. Served by NJ Transit and Amtrak, it’s an architectural gem, sort of a mini Grand Central, now being renovated. Hope you can check these places out.
Just a quick point the Long Island Railroad is the oldest railroad operating under its original charter, parts of the system date back to 1830s.
There are actually plug sockets at the front and back of each train car on the M7. On the M9, each row of seating has a socket.
By the end of this year there will be new service from the truly "Grand" Central Terminal to all of Long Island via Jamaica Station. A complete renovation of Penn Station is planned. The second most reviled transportation facility in the US was La Guardia Airport. Its renovation is almost complete; it is both functional and beautiful. Perhaps "screaming and kicking" New York transportation is entering the 21st Century.
Bout time! I damn sure hope so. Still a direct rail connection to LaGuardia has been scrapped the last I read.
When last I was in NYC I was very pleasantly surprised by how much natural light there was, including some great views of Manhattan; also it was much roomier, and the people who worked in the terminal were pretty friendly and helpful.
Yeah...it's only 10 years behind schedule so we'll see when it actually happens.
Will any trains from Port Jefferson Montauk Oyster Bay Greenport head to Grand Central?
@@jackman2001 Perhaps at peak times. Otherwise one will have to transfer at Jamaica Station. The point is that from any LIRR station on LI, one will be able to travel to either Penn or GCT.
I commuted on this line from Oceanside to Penn Station for more than 30 years. You covered it well. Glad you enjoyed the ride.
3:31 One of the few remaining original 1910 staircases. LIRR is the oldest continuously operating RR still under its original charter.
Its so funny to me to see a LIRR train that's not packed/standing room only (as I usually went at rush hour) and wild to see a semi-clean toilet on the train! Also, there's a trick to getting them to lock with how you hold down the door handle. Love that you rode on these trains.
If you don't know it the Pennsylvania Railroad built America's greatest and most gorgeous rail station above where stands the disgusting Madison Square Garden (hopefully they've torn it down). You should look up the Old Penn Station. The biggest disgrace was the City allowing its raising. Having escaped NY 28 years ago i'm rather surprised how good the underground station looks these days, you would vomit if you saw it in the 70's and 80's. The Amtrak terminal was for 100 years the Main Post Office for New York. Great report on a grim railroad.
So happy you came to long beach, great video!
To go to Jamaica and then use the Air train to JFK you have two options: the fastest option (about 25 minutes) although more expensive is the LIRR but it costs about 10 dollars (however on weekends the ticket costs half) , the cheapest option (dollars 2.75) but slowest (50 minutes) is the subway line E. At minute 1:30 you see the access, that staircase takes you directly to the platform where you have to go up, ideal for tourists clueless who get dizzy inside Penn station! Very good video! I passed by there last week, greetings from Argentina!
I'm glad you're back in the US i love watching trips around the country.
Nice video . Thanks
I’m so excited for the channels future content in the USA!
The distance between New York Penn and Long Beach is roughly the same as Downtown Los Angeles and our Long Beach! Travel time is slightly longer for us by train though. Great video as always , Dylan!
This was great! I'm glad to see that you're finally back in the USA and you even did a trip report on the Long Island Railroad. I live on Long Island, so I used to ride the LIRR all the time. I almost always get an M7 since they're so common, and I think they're very nice trains. I've also been on some of the older M3s when they were still in service, and I've ridden on some the new M9s as well.
I've also been on some of the diesel trains that the LIRR has. The coaches are called C3s, and the locomotives that haul them are called DE30ACs (Diesel) or DM30ACs (Dual-mode).
Anyways, I hope you have a nice day, and I am looking forward to seeing your trip report on the Lake Shore Limited on Monday.
You can also board all LIRR trains in Moynihan Train Hall
Back in May 2021 I took a M7 EMU on Metro North’s Harlem line from White Plains to Chappaqua and I had a pretty good experience! 👍
Great Video! Subscribed!
Thanks!
awsome review dylan my man i love the locomotive type
Hi Dylan! Welcome back to USA:) From someone who grew up taking the LIRR, I really enjoyed your even handed and fair appraisal of our commuter line. On your return trip, try taking the train to Greenport. You’ll get to experience the north shore (as opposed to the south shore where long beach is), and you’ll take an old, quite loud diesel train to boot! It’s a wonderful day trip.
I'm a Canadian from Montréal, and I use Amtrak to travel the east coast, usually Boston, New York and Washington DC. The trains are all lackluster, in speed, comfort and convenience. But for aerophobia sufferers like me, trains are better than nothing. Dylan, next time you're in North America, come visit Montréal! The view from NYC and Montréal is quite exceptional, especially around Lake Champlain.
YES! More America! Please do more.
Great vid 👍
Thanks!
9:06 I’m pretty sure the sign is there to discourage you from moving between cars when the train is navigating the many tight switches at the major stations. I’ve walked through a few 12 coach trains and it gets a bit scary moving between coaches.
Yeah, they let you walk between cars when approaching the terminus, at least last time I rode.
That is correct. I have waited with conductors and riders for the consist to straighten out before going through
Thanks for the info!
been a long time since we had a review in america. looking forward to the conten in the future
Thank you for a most interesting video. I find the Long Island Railroad very good, and the newer EMUs like the M7 in which you rode are comfortable, and ideal for the runs they are used on. The later M8 EMUs are virtually the same except for a revised exterior livery. The really interesting LIRR trains are the Dual mode loco hauled double deck trains used on the longer runs to Montauk and Port Jefferson. I hope you can fit in a run on those trains which I am sure will impress you !
Welcome back to the states! Glad you made it to the new NYP, so much nicer.
Great trip. Finally, US after long time. Can't wait for Amtrak trip.
Very surreal having Dylan review a train system from where I grew up ;-)
Glad you had a chance to ride the LIRR and got to see Long Beach. As you saw, it is aptly named. Welcome Dylan, I'm a huge fan in California. Keep up your excellent work.
Thanks!
Dylan! So glad you are here. Penn station is the worst! Go to grand central terminal!
Or try New jersey transit double decker down to Princeton// then ride the “ dinky” into Princeton proper. Very fun!
note that when you left jamaica, you went down the atlantic branch(as train stopped at laurelton, rosedale, woodmere). long beach brach does not begin until east of valley stream after atlantic branch ends(starts at atlantic terminal in brooklyn) and splits off into the far rockaway and long beach branches. Long Beach trains can also go from Jamaica down the Montauk branch past st. albans to connect to long beach branch at valley stream. montauk branch of course continues east to Montauk, with the west hempstead branch also diverging to the north at valley stream.
Welcome to America, Dylan! From Chicago I guess you are taking the California Zepher to the San Francisco area, and then the Empire Builder back east from Seattle. Would be two truly epic adventures!
Congrats on 100K
Thanks!
The ride on those M7 trains is actually nice, smooth and quiet.
Ex Pat living in Long Beach. Welcome to our City By The Sea. If you took that train in summer it would be packed with people from Manhattan, the beach also packed. A great place to live just outside of NY. The LIRR has its problems at times, used to be nicknamed the silver snail. Thanks for the video. Well done
Another excellent video. Not been physically on this line but do play on train sim world 2. 👍👍
Ah yes, the classic sounds of flat wheels on an M7. Long Beach trains actually tend to run fast to Jamaica. The newer M9s are so much nicer. And it's definitely possible to move between coaches while the train is moving, they just don't like it.
Right - indeed if you're on the Huntington line they'll ask you to make your way up and down the train if you need to get off at one of the stations with the shorter platforms.
While the ticket is expensive, the cost of gas and parking in many parts of NY, especially in NYC and boroughs means that you save money on parking and the headache of NYC or even LI traffic, plus you can chill on your phone or crack a beer without much issue. As someone whose spent 20 years on LI if you don't need a car I'd take the train into the city every single time over driving. Taking the train is less necessary for traveling across the island itself though, and can be practical if you have friends nearby the station you're heading to.
Technically, you’re branching off the Main Line past Jamaica, joining the Atlantic Branch until Lynbrook, and then joining the Long Beach Branch to Long Beach.
I hope you get a chance to check out the LIRR mainline when the triple track project is done.
I used to live in Oceanside, and I got to ride from there to Penn. i enjoyed it.
Being originally from Long Island, you pretty much hit it spot on.
Great trip report
Thanks!
The trains actually do have outlets on them just certain seats! LOL
Nice ride, and nice price too. That wheelchair bay had no window! Did you know that there is another line to the eastern tip of Long Island. Michael Portillo took a ride on that line in his Great Railway Journey tv show. Looking forward to your trainride to Chicago.
Great work Dylan
Thanks!
Excellent 👍👍👍
I didn’t even think of using Wi-Fi, I guess I didn’t want to miss my stop. Thanks for letting us know Monihan station is open. Your right Amtrak and Long Island rail we’re all in the same building, that I’ll have to keep that in mind next time I go on Amtrak 🧐
Welcome to the States, Dylan! 🇺🇲🚉🚆🚅
I used to live in Queens and would take the Long Island Rail Road all the time, I loved it.
My only experience with the LIRR was after an ATA conference in a Times Square hotel over Halloween. I changed as Jamaica to a train to JFK for my flight home to Tōkyō.
Never knew Penn was short for Pennsylvania, lovely journey apart from the windows
The trains is longer than some platforms, and yet, one can't walk through the train. This is a rather daft combination of short-comings.
This was not the April 1st episode. : )
I was thinking the same thing Flier, but I think Dylan said that you can't walk through, unless the train has stopped. So I think you can walk through at station stops. If the stops are long enough that is!
As a New Yorker, you can walk through the trains. There is nothing that is stopping you, just do be carefull
You can buy a bike onboard so no need to walk 8:55
Everybody walks in between them, everybody ignores that rule
What a great surprise. It's good to see you in America again after so long. I remember your transcontinental trips on Amtrak. Sorry about the windows on that train, but the BART trains in the Bay Area are no better and don't even have toilets.
They do have "toilets" - it's the area between each car. I've seen this being used on multiple occasions. Especially if you're going from downtown SF to dublin/pleasanton.
My biggest problem with LIRR is the fact that often they will not tell you the track number until < 5 minutes before the train arrives, and often the train will leave minutes after arriving, I take LIRR home from college most of the time i go home, most of the time the trip involves running to try and make the train
hi dylan,taking the train has got to be better then driving, shame there was not a lot of passengers on board,see you monday. brian d.
Just to point out, there is an area for LIRR in the Moynihan Train Hall and it’s renovated
I used Penn Station last time I was State Side to get from New York to Baltimore back ìn 2019. It looks nicer now than it did back then. Although granted I had just arrived by plane and was pretty tired so my memory isn't 100%. Also when you mentioned you were going to Long Beach I immediately thought of the one in California. That would have been a long journey for such a train. ;D, Anyway good vid. :)
Especially long considering he even passed through Jamaica along the way ;)
The time table has changed since your trip. I suspect from the reference marks in the current (Effective March 21 - May 22, 2022) time table that the time at Woodside was for a connecting train. Also regular passengers would buy one of several kinds of "commutation" tickets at a discounted rate.
I know you’re probably back home now but wanted to welcome you to the US!
Try out the New Haven line running out of Grand Central. Gorgeous station but just commuter trains. Grab a pizza by the Yale campus.
There are outlets to plug-in your devices it’s located at the seats by the doors on the side of the seats.
You should take the cannonball to Montauk.. it’s such a beautiful ride from the city, through the suburbs along the south shore of Long Island on a double decker train..I live near speonk where the beautiful view of nature begins for 40 miles until terminus at Montauk..
As somebody that has ridden the LIRR many times, I think that your opinion on the service is very accurate. Although I don’t find the stations dingy.
On a good day the stations are decently clean, but yeah everything else was dead accurate.
@@mariosmells”Dingy” means gloomy and drab, not dirty.
It is very possible to go between cars while the train is moving thats how the conductors on the train go from car to car to check tickets the doors just carry alot of force and pressure to open.
The only commuter railroad I've taken is NJ Transit. In this video we saw an empty NJ Transit train heading to Sunnyside Yard for storage.
you can get the LIRR trains from the new train hall too if im not mistaken
You said at 8:25 that we branched off from the main line to the Long Beach Branch. Just to let you know that the cutoff after Jamaica is the Atlantic Branch and it runs the South Shore lines: West Hempstead, Long Beach, Far Rockway, Babylon (Midnight only), and the Montauk bound trains. The ACTUAL Long Beach branch doesn't start until Lynbrook
Wow! That fare is outrageous. More than twice what I would expect for a journey that short. For that money they could have at least washed the windows. Congratulations on hitting at the 100K milestone! 👍
Mostly being spent on the NYC Subway
Thanks!
@@tuggaonthehudson and fraud
they're actually not dirty, they're sun damaged. The trains run east-west and never get turned around so the south side windows are ruined after ~20 years.
You should definitely do one or more of the metro north lines when you come back.
You mentioned the carriages being a little wider than those in the UK, do they use a different guage of track in America or just have slightly wider rolling stock? As a new subscriber I'm loving the channel, so thank you and keep up the good work!
Same track gauge, but different loading gauge, which is basically the profile trains are allowed to have so that they fit in tunnels and don't collide with things on the side of the track. LIRR M7 is 3.2 meters vs 2.8 meters for a London suburban train (depending on the line presumably).
7:13 That’s my local stop… not that I use it much since about a block north there’s the Forest Hills 71st-Continental subway station on Queens Blvd. On the rare day when something disrupts subway service though… everyone stuffs themselves into this station to get into the city. Not every LIRR train stops here either, so it can be rather dangerous to stand near the edge when an express blows through on the “local” track. (Most “city terminal zone” stations west of Jamaica get much less frequent service compared to stations east of Queens.)
Dylan, you've got to come to Canada (specifically Toronto, where I'm typing this comment) and try out our GO (Government of Ontario ) Transit trains (the one from Toronto to Niagara Falls would be a good one.)
As someone who’s ridden LIRR, MNR, NJT and GO, I will say that GO and NJT both could use significant electrification as well as high platforms.
@@tsujimasen which one do you like the best? My favorite is the MNRR by a long shot
@@tsujimasen Thankfully GO is going to electrify most of their routes within the next several years. Sure, they should've done it already but better now than never.
I rode this line for years from NYP to Valley Stream. Surprised to see you reviewing it! I don't disagree that any/every part of NYP is "pretty grim" but unless you didn't actually film it, I'm not sure if you really made it to the main LIRR concourse. You were in kind of the far hallway (not sure what it's actually called) that allows you to walk between the tracks at the opposite end. The main LIRR concourse (which is separate from the main NYP concourse) at least has shops, a waiting/sitting room, staffed dedicated LIRR ticket counters and a big board that everybody stands under to see when their train's going to be called. Keep in mind too that this is a pure commuter service and 99% of people who ride it are regulars who know all the stuff like which car to be in for their chosen stop (my stop only accommodated 8 or 10 cars, for example - I can't remember which but many trains were 2 cars longer). Also, you definitely can walk between train cars, whatever those signs say. (I don't blame you for not putting that in a video, though!) Anyway I definitely do not miss these trains - I never liked the M7's. The M3's were a little better, but you've really gotta be in that New York mood for any LIRR train.
same. LIRR is actually pretty fast.
It HAD shops and a waiting room and all that. Now there isn't really anything except scaffold and blue hoarding walls as the entire concourse is under reconstruction. LIRR is currently with Amtrak in Moynihan but will primarily be back in the rebuilt concourse when it is completed. NJT cannot use Moynihan as that concourse does not have access to tracks 1-4 which are used exclusively by NJT.
VS represent!
Lived there for two years, miss it sometimes.
I was thinking, New York to Long Beach? That's quite a commute 🤔
You’ll have to go back and show us the East Side Access project when it’s done
Nearly a hour to travel 22 miles !!!! and I thought our Grantham to Skegness chug-a-lug was slow😀😀
It's depressing really that LIRR has an average speed year 2022 comparable to UK trains in 1850. Or 1860?
That power outlet next to the sink screams red flag to me!
Well done. Where are u from in the UK? I'm an American living in Birmingham. When I return to NYC to work at diff times of the year I take the LIRR sometimes from Jamaica to Penn Sta, instead of the subway. I agree w/u that the tkt cost to LB from PS was high...also the LIRR sec of PS is indeed grim, reminds me a lot of Euston, my least fave London station. U were a good sport with the dirty windows.
FWI, you can move between cars while the train is in motion. I do it all the time.
“In UK or Europe”. Um, wait, let’s look at a map. 😉
Nice and informative video.
They’re plugs on the m7 there in the back by the doors behind the seats depending which car
You, in my opinion, picked the wrong branch for seeing what the LIRR is all about. Other branches serve the new CITI Field home of the Mets and the former World's Fair site. In addition, LIRR serves Belmont Park home of the final jewel of the horse racing triple crown the Belmont Stakes, and the new USB Arena built for ice hockey. Besides the normal commuter traffic, the LIRR makes lots of revenue serving these sites.
Nearly an hour from Long Beach to Manhattan? Compare to Keikyu Railway serving Tokyo having the highest customer service rating. About an hour and ten ride on the entire main trunk from Shinagawa to Misakiguchi via the fastest express which can travel 70mph serving cities in the millions. Some trains continue with through service to the subway and another suburban railway.
Penn is actually a little south (33rd) Street and West from the ESB (34th St.)
You can actually move between the cars. Some stations with short platforms require you to move between them if you’re on a long train.
You were actually in my area. I'm up in Connecticut.
Took you long enough to do this! This is a route from TSW2, so nice to see reviews in the US of A again! Also, I see you brought Eli with you as well! Maybe she can feature in more videos, such as you can get her opinions on each journey!
I had the feeling that we might get to see the Statue of Liberty over there. 0:17
I always love it to see Tourists ride New York trains and expect to see something from Europe. It's New York. Our subway has more diseases than a person dying from ebola.
Penn Station looks like a cross between Birmingham New Street and one of the more confusing tube stations
Weird to see "watch the gap" instead of "mind the gap". As usual a great watch!
Ironically Londoners would probably be more likely to say the former (well I would anyway).
It is possible to walk between the cars on the LIRR. It's discouraged but people do it all the time.
I thought the title said best at first. I think Denver’s RTD commuter rail has that title.
You got a bit lucky. You should try commuting on that train or any LIRR train during rush hour on a weekday. Not nearly as pleasant, nor clean, nor timely. At any rate, great job.
I have a dream. I don't think it will ever happen, but I have a dream.
The Long Island City Station gets extended to the waterfront to a sizeable ferry terminal. And there are ferries that meet ever train and to a half a dozen places on Manhattan.