Ideas to improve LIRR scehdules

[N4 Via Merrick Rd]

I think that LIRR schedule look boring so i was working in photoshop and these were first ideas.

 

 

more will come up.

[lilbluefoxie]

I honestly prefer the grid, the grid lines make it easier to read. The only thing the current timetables need is a slight bit of shading between the entries to make it a bit easier to read, especially on the longer timetables like Port Jefferson. Not everything needs to be an over-styled graphic design piece.

[Amtrak7]

What needs to be done to the current LIRR schedules:

 

-Remove Hunterspoint from the weekend panels

-Add LIC to the weekday panels and remove the little HPA/LIC box

-For weekend trackwork specials, update the connecting services list to match a weekend!

-Remove unnecessary west connections (i.e. if a Brooklyn-Babylon local has a connection at Jamaica to the Freeport local, remove the Brooklyn times from the Freeport column)

-Remove Forest Hills/Kew Gardens/East NY/Nostrand Ave from the main schedule panels and don't hold FH/KG connections (I say this as someone who uses Nostrand every day, it is a waste of space for the small handful of passengers)

-Move St. Albans to the Babylon Branch timetable

-Port Jeff Branch: show the train numbers for both trains when "change at Huntington" is specified

-Add arrows for express trains (see Metro-North)

-Exception-out shading should be lighter than exception-in shading (trains that are extended on summer Fridays only should have the extended one darkly shaded and the every other day one lightly shaded, as casual riders are likely to jump right over the shaded trips without reading the notes)

 

Modify the splitting of the station timetables:

 

-Bellport/Mastic-Shirley/Speonk should be separate from the Hamptons & Montauk

-Port Jeff east of Huntington should be one form

-Mineola should be split from New Hyde Park/Merillon Ave

[Snowblock]

Some of your ideas I really like. The Port Jefferson timetable is a MONSTER and is impossible to refold. All of those Ronkonkoma, Oyster Bay and Montauk trains which stop at Mineola double the size of it too. Get those out of there and keep them in their own lines' timetables! The Mineola pocket schedules can still keep everything. However, Port Jeff and Huntington need to stay together since almost every Port Jeff train which isn't a through train will connect with a Huntington train.

 

I never understood what St Albans is doing on the West Hempstead timetable. The vast majority of service is from Babylon trains, so you have all these trains which only list St Albans and at first glance it looks like West Hempstead has twice the service it actually does. Here's a novel idea - do like I suggested above with Mineola and publish only the trains which serve the rest of the line, add a St Albans line to the Babylon timetable, and then keep everything in the pocket timetable. Same deal with Lynbrook.

[lilbluefoxie]

St Albans on the West Hempstead branch is a relic of an old service pattern, as for removing those intermediate zone 1 stops, I dont agree with that, people do use those stations to and from the island.

[VWM]

I say if it's a different line stopping at the station, at least mark it. They could mark Babylon line trains with a "B" at St. Albans. Same goes for Mineola, Valley Stream, Lynbrook, Hicksville, etc.

[Amtrak7]

Some of your ideas I really like. The Port Jefferson timetable is a MONSTER and is impossible to refold. All of those Ronkonkoma, Oyster Bay and Montauk trains which stop at Mineola double the size of it too. Get those out of there and keep them in their own lines' timetables!

 

 

Then what timetable would you recommend Mineola customers refer to? The pocket schedule doesn't always work, it doesn't show local/express, HPA connections, nor do they work for intermediate customers. I think they should pull the Hicksville-NHP mainline into its own separate schedule, but with specific references as to where each train comes from/goes to. Keep the stops in the Port Jeff/KO timetables for intermediate, but write a note having customers refer to the combined schedule. (think SEPTA and Glenside Combined)

 

And stop printing City Terminal Zone, who uses it anyway?

[trainfan22]

And stop printing City Terminal Zone, who uses it anyway?

 

 

I'm sure people who use Kew Gardens and Forest Hills stations to commute to NYP uses the City Terminal timetables, same goes for Atlantic Terminal - Jamaica riders, as the LIRR is much faster than taking the subway from the same area to that part of Queens.

[Amtrak7]

I'm sure people who use Kew Gardens and Forest Hills stations to commute to NYP uses the City Terminal timetables, same goes for Atlantic Terminal - Jamaica riders, as the LIRR is much faster than taking the subway from the same area to that part of Queens.

 

 

These west of Jamaica stations are practically the only cases where I actually refer to the pocket timetables. By the way, there is a special Forest Hills/Kew Gardens timetable in addition to the standard CT1 (NYP-Woodside-FH-KG). The only place I've seen it is Jamaica, it's not in NYP for some reason.

 

http://mta.info/lirr/Timetable/Branch/ForestHillsKewGardBranch.pdf

[Via Garibaldi 8]

Here's an idea... Encourage more folks to use their smartphones... I mean really we're in 2012... Get with the technology people! When I use MetroNorth, I refer to my smartphone for any questions I have regarding service. The same thing applies for the LIRR. In fact I didn't know where to get LIRR maps or MetroNorth maps for that matter.

[Vistausss]

These west of Jamaica stations are practically the only cases where I actually refer to the pocket timetables. By the way, there is a special Forest Hills/Kew Gardens timetable in addition to the standard CT1 (NYP-Woodside-FH-KG). The only place I've seen it is Jamaica, it's not in NYP for some reason.

 

http://mta.info/lirr...wGardBranch.pdf

 

 

People who commute from anywhere near a line that goes to CTZ will use that timetable, I'm sure of that. That includes stations like Queens Village and stuff.

 

But I also agree with Via Garibaldi 8.

[lilbluefoxie]

I disagree with removing the printed schedules, with crime on the rise on the city, its many times not prudent to whip out your iphone or iphone knockoff to mavigate the mta site to the schedule page then download the pdf of the timetable when you can much faster jut read the paper timetable. Those timetables are paid for with ads anyway.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

I disagree with removing the printed schedules, with crime on the rise on the city, its many times not prudent to whip out your iphone or iphone knockoff to mavigate the mta site to the schedule page then download the pdf of the timetable when you can much faster jut read the paper timetable. Those timetables are paid for with ads anyway.

 

 

I didn't say remove them... I just don't think it is a bad idea to encourage folks to use their smartphones. Besides we use it for everything else anyway and it could be good for the environment... Less trees being chopped down, lower costs for the to print, etc. etc.

[lilbluefoxie]

I didn't say remove them... I just don't think it is a bad idea to encourage folks to use their smartphones. Besides we use it for everything else anyway and it could be good for the environment... Less trees being chopped down, lower costs for the to print, etc. etc.

 

 

they use recycled paper, and the costs of printing those schedules is minimal compared to other crap the MTA wastes money on. When riding the Subway its best to keep your iphone in your pocket. Metro North/LIRR is another story. But if you are in some of the crappier stations like East NY, Nostrand Ave, Melrose, Tremont, University Heights, etc. It's best to keep the phone in your pocket (and consider getting a bulletproof vest lol) I find it a lot faster to read the paper timetable than to look it up on my phone, where the text is much smaller.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

they use recycled paper, and the costs of printing those schedules is minimal compared to other crap the MTA wastes money on. When riding the Subway its best to keep your iphone in your pocket. Metro North/LIRR is another story. But if you are in some of the crappier stations like East NY, Nostrand Ave, Melrose, Tremont, University Heights, etc. It's best to keep the phone in your pocket (and consider getting a bulletproof vest lol) I find it a lot faster to read the paper timetable than to look it up on my phone, where the text is much smaller.

 

LOL... I guess I never thought of it that way seeing that I board in nice areas, but I wasn't just thinking about waste, but also about how to improve LIRR schedules. Having a smartphone permits one to do so much more in these sorts of situations so the schedule would work better through technology which was really my point.

[lilbluefoxie]

LOL... I guess I never thought of it that way seeing that I board in nice areas, but I wasn't just thinking about waste, but also about how to improve LIRR schedules. Having a smartphone permits one to do so much more in these sorts of situations so the schedule would work better through technology which was really my point.

 

 

What else could they do, they already have a mobile site that lets you pick stop to stop and get the next trains, but I personally find it easier to just read the schedule, or look at the digital sign boards. Not everything needs a high tech solution to be effective.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

What else could they do, they already have a mobile site that lets you pick stop to stop and get the next trains, but I personally find it easier to just read the schedule, or look at the digital sign boards. Not everything needs a high tech solution to be effective.

 

Quite frankly I really don't see what the fuss is anyway... I always get the LIRR and MetroNorth schedules online or on my smartphone just the same and it is pretty straightforward to read. No big deal.

[Joel Up Front]

I find the online/iOS schedules far better in terms of clarity. None of this "see Note A" and I can easily see whether the train goes directly to my destination or not.

[qjtransitmaster]

I'm sure people who use Kew Gardens and Forest Hills stations to commute to NYP uses the City Terminal timetables, same goes for Atlantic Terminal - Jamaica riders, as the LIRR is much faster than taking the subway from the same area to that part of Queens.

 

One problem barely anybody uses the kew gardens station

[Amtrak7]

I find the online/iOS schedules far better in terms of clarity. None of this "see Note A" and I can easily see whether the train goes directly to my destination or not.

 

 

That's the problem. You don't know if its a local or an express, its destination, or any outer connections that would make the train more crowded. That's why I barely if ever use the pocket timetables.

[KeystoneRegional]

What needs to be done to the current LIRR schedules:

 

-Remove Hunterspoint from the weekend panels

-Add LIC to the weekday panels and remove the little HPA/LIC box

-For weekend trackwork specials, update the connecting services list to match a weekend!

-Remove unnecessary west connections (i.e. if a Brooklyn-Babylon local has a connection at Jamaica to the Freeport local, remove the Brooklyn times from the Freeport column)

-Remove Forest Hills/Kew Gardens/East NY/Nostrand Ave from the main schedule panels and don't hold FH/KG connections (I say this as someone who uses Nostrand every day, it is a waste of space for the small handful of passengers)

-Move St. Albans to the Babylon Branch timetable

-Port Jeff Branch: show the train numbers for both trains when "change at Huntington" is specified

-Add arrows for express trains (see Metro-North)

-Exception-out shading should be lighter than exception-in shading (trains that are extended on summer Fridays only should have the extended one darkly shaded and the every other day one lightly shaded, as casual riders are likely to jump right over the shaded trips without reading the notes)

 

Modify the splitting of the station timetables:

 

-Bellport/Mastic-Shirley/Speonk should be separate from the Hamptons & Montauk

-Port Jeff east of Huntington should be one form

-Mineola should be split from New Hyde Park/Merillon Ave

 

 

Okay, I'll put in some suggestions below, each "-" is a reply to the corresponding "-" above.

 

-Agreed, it's unnecessary to put LIC and HPA stations in for now.

-I'm 50/50 on that one, though I'd agree for a LIC addition, I question the removal of the box because it's beneficial to some riders who aren't so familiar to the LIRR and they might think that LIC and HPA are going to be served by trains coming out of Penn.

-Agreed.

-I disagree, you might want to remove NSA and ENY, but definitely not Atlantic Terminal, because I see a lot of people going to Brooklyn from Long Island and vice versa considering Long Island's great malls and Brooklyn's eateries, bars and youth lifestyle venues.

-No, as much as Forest Hills and Kew Gardens seem unused to you, but I see more and more people use these two stations, and many people would like to know what train will come to get to a point in Long Island and if these trains require a connection at Jamaica or another major connection station. I am one of these people, and it would lead me to use car more frequently during railfanning trips, and that's a no-no. NSA and ENY, I'd be okay with because these stations have one of the least ridership perhaps in the entire LIRR system.

-Agreed.

-Agreed.

-Maybe, but the LIRR timetable seems pretty clear which is express (the more stations/times are blanked out, the more it's express (as long as the last stop is after the blanks.

-Agreed.

 

Last three "-'s" - If for the zone or station specific schedules, I'd agree, for the full branch schedules, I'd disagree mainly because I'd rather have less paper to flip thru and look at how connections will work.

[Amtrak7]

-I disagree, you might want to remove NSA and ENY, but definitely not Atlantic Terminal, because I see a lot of people going to Brooklyn from Long Island and vice versa considering Long Island's great malls and Brooklyn's eateries, bars and youth lifestyle venues.

-No, as much as Forest Hills and Kew Gardens seem unused to you, but I see more and more people use these two stations, and many people would like to know what train will come to get to a point in Long Island and if these trains require a connection at Jamaica or another major connection station. I am one of these people, and it would lead me to use car more frequently during railfanning trips, and that's a no-no. NSA and ENY, I'd be okay with because these stations have one of the least ridership perhaps in the entire LIRR system.

 

 

I never said to remove Atlantic Terminal, I said to remove the intermediate stops (FH, KG, NSA, ENY)

 

As to the "unnecessary connections", a good example of this would be 154 and 1154 on the Babylon Branch. (17:23 dp ATL)

[Vistausss]

But what would replace ENY? The area is already underserved by subway so if you also remove the train station people don't have much access to public transport anymore.

[qjtransitmaster]

But what would replace ENY? The area is already underserved by subway so if you also remove the train station people don't have much access to public transport anymore.

 

unlike kew gardens ENY does not duplicate the subway directly. ENY allows people along the direct access to the LIRR and those on the west of broadway jct. As well as several other connections.

Kew gardens please you can take the service is too infrequent and if you add trains you will piss NY bound people off. Forest hills is different it allows a direct connection from LIRR to local and service without transferring from the . Kew gardens is too close to Jamaica therefore useless.

 

ENY is dirty as hell if it was cleaned up ridership will increase. Besides skipping ENY does not save much time anyway.

 

Some of my LI friends use LIRR to ENY for the to get B82 for church CCC.

[Vistausss]

No, but the has crowding problems and the is the only other option. So you would end up with an even more crowded and an increasing-in-crowd if you close ENY. Besides, people along ENY have direct access to Jamaica and Grand Central this way.