Port Washington Midday Skip-Stop

[Gotham Bus Co.]

Is there some rational explanation for the stupid weekday midday skip-stop on the Port Washington branch? Why is it so vitally important for alternate trains to skip Murray Hill and Auburndale or Broadway and Plandome? Does that really save a measurable amount of time? Or would making all stops somehow "offend" riders from PW, Great Neck, or Bayside?

[Via Garibaldi 8]

1 hour ago, Gotham Bus Co. said:

Is there some rational explanation for the stupid weekday midday skip-stop on the Port Washington branch? Why is it so vitally important for alternate trains to skip Murray Hill and Auburndale or Broadway and Plandome? Does that really save a measurable amount of time? Or would making all stops somehow "offend" riders from PW, Great Neck, or Bayside?

The railroads focus is on getting folks to the suburbs first and foremost. They've always operated that way. Aside from that, the stops with higher ridership in the outskirts of the City will see those semi-express trains. Same thing on my line. We have semi-express trains that run direct to Riverdale from Manhattan and then Westchester. Everything else is skipped, and we get very good ridership on those trains from my area. The only way you make a case for those trains is to show that they would he enough ridership to justify making more stops, and I don't mean one or two people either.

When we got additional semi-express service years ago during the week, I made sure to go to the meeting to speak in favor of it. Perhaps you should write to the LIRR to inquire instead of throwing a temper tantrum?

Edited April 22, 2022 by Via Garibaldi 8

[Gotham Bus Co.]

12 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

Perhaps you should write to the LIRR to inquire instead of throwing a temper tantrum?

Not a "temper tantrum" but a point of curiosity. (Yes, there is a difference.)

[Via Garibaldi 8]

Just now, Gotham Bus Co. said:

Not a "temper tantrum" but a point of curiosity. (Yes, there is a difference.)

Sure doesn't sound like it, but ok. I can't speak for the LIRR, but I have found MNRR to be responsive to requests regarding service improvements, and if they are dismissive, I contact my elected officials. We had a situation where there was a huge gap in service after the last peak train to Croton Harmon. No service from 7:59pm until 9:20pm. Well after some e-mails and follow-ups, they agreed to restore a train to fill that gap.

[Mtatransit]

8 hours ago, Gotham Bus Co. said:

Is there some rational explanation for the stupid weekday midday skip-stop on the Port Washington branch? Why is it so vitally important for alternate trains to skip Murray Hill and Auburndale or Broadway and Plandome? Does that really save a measurable amount of time? Or would making all stops somehow "offend" riders from PW, Great Neck, or Bayside?

No it doesn't make any sense... same thing with the local trains skipping every other stations on the main line

LIRR is still stuck in the antiquated mentality of Penn Station - Suburb travel only, screw intermediate riders, or anyone else not traveling into Penn Station

[Lil 57]

17 minutes ago, Mtatransit said:

No it doesn't make any sense... same thing with the local trains skipping every other stations on the main line

LIRR is still stuck in the antiquated mentality of Penn Station - Suburb travel only, screw intermediate riders, or anyone else not traveling into Penn Station

Another good example is the St. Albans station I mentioned on here before. One train every 2 hours on weekends while the other Babylon trains fly by that station. (Service on the branch is every 30 minutes).

[Via Garibaldi 8]

8 hours ago, Mtatransit said:

No it doesn't make any sense... same thing with the local trains skipping every other stations on the main line

LIRR is still stuck in the antiquated mentality of Penn Station - Suburb travel only, screw intermediate riders, or anyone else not traveling into Penn Station

 

8 hours ago, Lil 57 said:

Another good example is the St. Albans station I mentioned on here before. One train every 2 hours on weekends while the other Babylon trains fly by that station. (Service on the branch is every 30 minutes).

It comes down to revenue as well. If those stations saw more ridership, it would be easier to justify having more trains run at them. I can say firsthand that I have used some stations that receive little service and often times, I was the only one getting on there, so it's kind of a situation where if they're going to run more service, there needs to be enough riders to justify stopping there. The fares have decreased at stops in the City, while they remained relatively high going to the suburbs, so naturally there are going to be more express trains since that's where the revenue is. 

To be clear, I have no issue with increased service at any station if it is justified. I'm simply stating how they operate and why since the question was why they provide the service that they currently do. Again, if  @Gotham Bus Co feels so strongly about it, he should write the  (the LIRR) and his elected officials, otherwise nothing is going to change.

Edited April 23, 2022 by Via Garibaldi 8

[Mtatransit]

15 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

 

It comes down to revenue as well. If those stations saw more ridership, it would be easier to justify having more trains run at them. I can say firsthand that I have used some stations that receive little service and often times, I was the only one getting on there, so it's kind of a situation where if they're going to run more service, there needs to be enough riders to justify stopping there. The fares have decreased at stops in the City, while they remained relatively high going to the suburbs, so naturally there are going to be more express trains since that's where the revenue is. 

To be clear, I have no issue with increased service at any station if it is justified. I'm simply stating how they operate and why since the question was why they provide the service that they currently do. Again, if  @Gotham Bus Co feels so strongly about it, he should write the  (the LIRR) and his elected officials, otherwise nothing is going to change.

I mean maybe its better up in MNR territory, but the way LIRR serve some Eastern Queens stations, just makes me feel like the railroad has complete contempt for city riders.

First, the fares are still high in the city. It's much better now, and that's after elected officials dragged a unwilling MTA to experiment with Atlantic Tickets, and expanded city ticket, both which the MTA still don't promote in their TVMs

Second: Unlike MNR which increased service in the city a couple of years ago, LIRR service in Southeastern Queens is still pathetic. And to add salt to the wound, alot of the trains that do stop at those stations are Hempstead trains, which goes to AT/Brooklyn.

The demand is obviously there, judging by the amount of people xfering between trains and buses at Jamaica, just either the service amount is inadequate or the fares are still too high for commuters

 

That being said, having trains skip stations the way LIRR do is ridiculous. They run two main line locals, however only alternating ones stop at either new Hyde Park or Merillon Ave. God forbid you are trying to get from Westbury to NHP? Well you'll have to transfer at Mineola to the next local... they might as well just run one train every hour at that point because that is the service level they are providing. I don't see that kind of service patterns on MNR ever, having a semi express is one thing, but not having a train that actually makes all the stop is another.

I mean having a train make alternating stops just seems petty to me... you'll save the passengers on the train less than 5 minutes, but you'll discourage ridership at the stations the trains are skipping.

That being said, I would would completely skip writing to the MTA, go straight to writing to elected officials. Writing to the MTA is a complete waste of time. They give the same canned reply over and over and over again, and even if you go to their board hearing, they could care less. They only listen to the governors office.

 

 

Edited April 24, 2022 by Mtatransit

[checkmatechamp13]

On 4/23/2022 at 2:12 AM, Lil 57 said:

Another good example is the St. Albans station I mentioned on here before. One train every 2 hours on weekends while the other Babylon trains fly by that station. (Service on the branch is every 30 minutes).

There is a good blog called The LIRR Today where he had a sample schedule redone from scratch. He had two trains running back and forth on the West Hempstead Branch providing hourly service to Hunterspoint Avenue, instead of one shuttle train only going to Valley Stream every 2 hours. I wish the commuter railroads would follow SEPTA's lead and look at redesigning their schedules from scratch.

[Mtatransit]

2 hours ago, checkmatechamp13 said:

There is a good blog called The LIRR Today where he had a sample schedule redone from scratch. He had two trains running back and forth on the West Hempstead Branch providing hourly service to Hunterspoint Avenue, instead of one shuttle train only going to Valley Stream every 2 hours. I wish the commuter railroads would follow SEPTA's lead and look at redesigning their schedules from scratch.

I mean SEPTA has their own problems to boot. Their post COVID regional rail schedule has been absolutely horrific and completely useless. 

It also took them until this week, to finally go back to coordinating their Trenton Line train with NJT NEC. previously, the SEPTA train would arrive into Trenton one minute before NJT train leaves, and they leave from opposite sides of the station, so its impossible to catch it. Same thing goes for going south, NJT trains would get in one minute after SEPTA leaves.

SEPTA also has this new Key thing, yet they still don't have TVM at 99% of the stations, and instead of going full POP, still rely on conductors manually scanning each card, again most likely because they don't have a way to buy a ticket at most stations

 

That being said no doubt LIRR really need to go back and reexamine its schedule, especially for the post COVID world. They should take the opportunity during this ridership shift, to create a frequent regional rail system, instead of sticking to its old ways and praying that the old 9-5 commuters come back, because that is what the system caters to right now, at the expense of every other riders

[Via Garibaldi 8]

17 hours ago, Mtatransit said:

I mean maybe its better up in MNR territory, but the way LIRR serve some Eastern Queens stations, just makes me feel like the railroad has complete contempt for city riders.

First, the fares are still high in the city. It's much better now, and that's after elected officials dragged a unwilling MTA to experiment with Atlantic Tickets, and expanded city ticket, both which the MTA still don't promote in their TVMs

Second: Unlike MNR which increased service in the city a couple of years ago, LIRR service in Southeastern Queens is still pathetic. And to add salt to the wound, alot of the trains that do stop at those stations are Hempstead trains, which goes to AT/Brooklyn.

The demand is obviously there, judging by the amount of people xfering between trains and buses at Jamaica, just either the service amount is inadequate or the fares are still too high for commuters

 

That being said, having trains skip stations the way LIRR do is ridiculous. They run two main line locals, however only alternating ones stop at either new Hyde Park or Merillon Ave. God forbid you are trying to get from Westbury to NHP? Well you'll have to transfer at Mineola to the next local... they might as well just run one train every hour at that point because that is the service level they are providing. I don't see that kind of service patterns on MNR ever, having a semi express is one thing, but not having a train that actually makes all the stop is another.

I mean having a train make alternating stops just seems petty to me... you'll save the passengers on the train less than 5 minutes, but you'll discourage ridership at the stations the trains are skipping.

That being said, I would would completely skip writing to the MTA, go straight to writing to elected officials. Writing to the MTA is a complete waste of time. They give the same canned reply over and over and over again, and even if you go to their board hearing, they could care less. They only listen to the governors office.

 

 

The railroads tend to not give canned responses in part because the number of complaints tend to be much lower compared to say the subway or the bus.  Whenever I've had a complaint with Metro-North, I get an actual response and in some cases, I've had a supervisor come out to check the next day.  Pre-COVID, I had an issue with the shuttle buses not meeting with my trains. I don't take the shuttle buses now, as I either do the short 15 minute walk or go to the station by car, but back then they sent someone out immediately.  As far as the schedule goes, it is important to have a paper trail so that when you contact elected officials, they can go back to the  and say hey my constituents have been complaining about XYZ and here some examples of the complaints. That's what the electeds usually prefer in fact.

Regarding your other comments, Jamaica has absolutely nothing to do with the other stations. I do use the LIRR, as I have clients out on Long Island.  I've been out there for networking dinners, lunch with clients and the like, and I've had to transfer at Jamaica.  That's like saying because Fordham is busy, then the other stations in the City on MNRR must be busy, which is just not true.   

There are a number of reasons that the LIRR runs the way that it does, similar to the stance that MNRR has. MNRR has stated outright that they are a railroad and not a subway and thus they are not looking to compete with the subway, nor can they, as they don't have the resources to run service like that.  Now I know the argument will be but the areas we're discussing along the LIRR don't have a subway nearby, but in their minds they can only compete but so much with the people that currently take say a local bus to the subway out in Queens. 

It's the same story in the Bronx. There are a lot of people that get off at Fordham and Marble Hill to avoid paying higher fares to go into Manhattan, so they get off there and take say the subway.  I know City Ticket is in effect now, but $5.00 is still almost double the $2.75 fare and that $5.00 does not get you a transfer.  I use City Ticket here are there, and the main reason I don't use it more is because first off, even though I live in between two MNRR stations, it's only worth using MNRR if I am going directly into Grand Central and not traveling far from there.  On occasion I walk to the station on nice days, but I usually go there by car, and if I have to transfer once I am in the City, then it's like what's the point of going by car to the station when I have to transfer in the City? I can just go by car into the City or I may be better off taking the express bus where I get a transfer if I need one or the bus goes to more places that I'm looking to go.

With Queens, there are similar issues with accessibility. The stations are sort of out of the way, and you don't have a bus linking directly with the trains, and if you are going to Manhattan, you don't get any transfer with City Ticket, so it's really $5.00 and then $2.75 on top of that IF you are traveling off-peak or weekends, otherwise, you are paying the peak fare and perhaps paying to transfer as well. The stations that tend to perform better usually riders don't mind paying the higher fare, but as I said, you still have accessibility that is a problem and the LIRR is only worth it if you're going into Penn Station.

The stations that tend to perform a bit better either have some sort of shuttle bus service that takes residents directly to the station or those people drive. Little Neck and Douglaston are examples. As an example, the North Shore Towers runs shuttle vans directly to the LIRR I believe to Little Neck.  The other thing is both the LIRR and MNRR study demographics, and they know where they can get more riders at, so if they know people don't mind paying more for the railroad, they will run more service. They did that in my neighborhood. They expanded the number of semi-express trains off-peak.  The station isn't packed with riders, but people will use it more so than some of the other stops.

Edited April 24, 2022 by Via Garibaldi 8

[checkmatechamp13]

@Mtatransit That's why they're looking at more frequent service, consistent service patterns, potentially lower fares, infill stations, better connections with NJT, etc Hopefully after their redesign, they manage to resolve these issues.

[Gotham Bus Co.]

On 4/23/2022 at 10:00 AM, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

 

It comes down to revenue as well. If those stations saw more ridership, it would be easier to justify having more trains run at them.

 

LIRR will probably say that Bayside gets more midday ridership than Broadway or Auburndale. Of course it does — because twice as many trains stop there. That leads people to drive to Bayside instead of walking to Broadway or Auburndale. 

[Via Garibaldi 8]

3 minutes ago, Gotham Bus Co. said:

 

LIRR will probably say that Bayside gets more midday ridership than Broadway or Auburndale. Of course it does — because twice as many trains stop there. That leads people to drive to Bayside instead of walking to Broadway or Auburndale. 

How is parking at Broadway or Auburndale though?

[paulrivera]

22 hours ago, Mtatransit said:

That being said, having trains skip stations the way LIRR do is ridiculous. They run two main line locals, however only alternating ones stop at either new Hyde Park or Merillon Ave. God forbid you are trying to get from Westbury to NHP?

Shout out to the trains that stop at Kew Gardens and Forest Hills but not Woodside.

I mean, Woodside has enough ridership to justify having Penn-Jamaica trains stop there and skip Kew and Forest (I'm not questioning that arrangement), but why do trains that stop at Kew and Forest not stop at Woodside?

[Via Garibaldi 8]

8 minutes ago, paulrivera said:

Shout out to the trains that stop at Kew Gardens and Forest Hills but not Woodside.

I mean, Woodside has enough ridership to justify having Penn-Jamaica trains stop there and skip Kew and Forest (I'm not questioning that arrangement), but why do trains that stop at Kew and Forest not stop at Woodside?

Good question... I will say that those trains are nice to take. Fast to Penn Station and less packed than the ones that stop at Woodside. That could be the reason since at certain times, you have trains every few minutes. I don't see the point in having all of them serve Woodside, Forest Hills and Kew Gardens.

[Mtatransit]

8 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

The other thing is both the LIRR and MNRR study demographics, and they know where they can get more riders at, so if they know people don't mind paying more for the railroad, they will run more service. 

Didn't MNR almost close Melrose entirely and Tremont on the weekend back in the late 80s, due to low ridership? A Bronx politician ended up advocating for it saying that the MTA didn't do any marketing of the station, the station was in deplorable condition, and that most trains skip it. Sounds a lot like Queens stations to be very honest, granted maybe the station looks much better these days in Eastern Queens

Without proper service its hard to grow ridership because people will look for any other options, case in point LIRR at Ronkonkoma. I refuse to believe that most of the ridership at Ronkonkoma is from the local area. I suspect there is a sizable portion of ridership who a) came from east of Ronkonkoma who don't want to deal with the crappy LIRR service and b) People coming from the PJ Line who didn't want to deal with the crappy LIRR service

So even if they do study demographics, it certainly doesn't seem like it is reflected into increasing service to places where people actually live.

8 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

There are a number of reasons that the LIRR runs the way that it does, similar to the stance that MNRR has. MNRR has stated outright that they are a railroad and not a subway and thus they are not looking to compete with the subway, nor can they, as they don't have the resources to run service like that.  Now I know the argument will be but the areas we're discussing along the LIRR don't have a subway nearby, but in their minds they can only compete but so much with the people that currently take say a local bus to the subway out in Queens. 

LIRR skips stations for no good reasons (at least in my eyes) well into Nassau County. Westbury, Merillon Ave, NHP, Westbury. These stations receive services every other train. These are not stations that are traditionally Subway-Bus, unless you count Subway - NICE Bus. If they do this kind of arrangement, they might as well cut the Huntington train to once an hour and make it run all local, and reallocate the extra train on the Ronkonkoma Branch so it ca run every 30 minutes instead

3 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

Good question... I will say that those trains are nice to take. Fast to Penn Station and less packed than the ones that stop at Woodside. That could be the reason since at certain times, you have trains every few minutes. I don't see the point in having all of them serve Woodside, Forest Hills and Kew Gardens.

I am more in favor of a system where if a train is a local, it makes all stops similar to the way MNR does things, and then have separate expresses and semi expresses do its own things to speed up rides for commuters.

In fact I am in favor of the way MNR does things, going further than Stamford or N White Plains or CH? Take an express, if you are going below that, take a semi express during rush hour or a local. None of this 1:20PM train stops only at Woodside, Jamaica, NHP, Mineola, Westbury, Hicksville and 1:50 train will stop at Forest Hills, Jamaica, Merillon Ave, Carle Place, Hicksville

So I would prefer if the trains that stop at FH/KG make all 3 stops, and have the expresses just skip it. This way at least even if minuscule, some city riders who are willing to pay can use it, and its less confusing to passengers

 

[Jsunflyguy]

On 4/22/2022 at 7:32 PM, Gotham Bus Co. said:

Not a "temper tantrum" but a point of curiosity. (Yes, there is a difference.)

 

On 4/22/2022 at 5:53 PM, Gotham Bus Co. said:

Is there some rational explanation for the stupid weekday midday skip-stop on the Port Washington branch?

I've  never known a sincere inquiry to begin with insults, but perhaps its a cultural thing I'm not familiar with.

Anyway, I'll shed some light based on my observations running the route. A cursory look at the schedule shows a 48 minute run time with all local stops, doing a 2 stop skip this brings the run time down to 45 minutes. During the off peak hours trains meet in Port Washington, which provides system redundancy (if your train breaks down you have another crew/equipment to pick up the slack). Generally, the clearance time between these meets is 5 minutes, so if you're going to run service like this all day having 3 minutes in your back pocket is pretty huge. Especially when you factor in wanting trains to make an extra stop at Mets-Willets for baseball games during the day without having to issue a special timetable every time that happens. 

All of this goes on top of factoring in slotting for Penn Station, Port Washington trains slot in between mainline arrivals at a 3 minute interval between a KO and Long Beach train, or right behind a Babylon train for the other half of the hour. So that time saving makes all the difference between making the slot and having a conflict. Keep in mind that Harold to NYK routinely has track and tunnel outages midday so you can't count on having two tunnels to bail you out, you need your schedule to work with minimal infrastructure so you can have your maintenance and upgrades done during the lighter hours, something a lot of fantasy schedules fail to consider.

 As far as the impact on the public, I'd make the case it isn't as terrible as people may think. Plandome for example has about 3,000 people in its catchment area (assuming a bubble of a 10 minute walk). That's nothing, barely two train loads. When you factor in the stations extremely limited parking its quite apparent that this is a bedroom, commuter community that is not suffering from a lack of service. If anything, having hourly service is more than sufficient in light of the potential ridership. The MH, Broadway, Auburndale tract is obviously more dense but optimizing the stops at these stations is not an incredible burden. The stations are a 10-15 minute walk apart from each other, so a rider choosing a stop is really adding 5 minutes or so by using the alternate stop if they're leaving the neighborhood and a shortrider stands to lose about 15 minutes over their ideal stop in an absolute worst case; not a huge expense in the grand scheme of things. 

Edited April 25, 2022 by Jsunflyguy

[Gotham Bus Co.]

49 minutes ago, Jsunflyguy said:

All of this goes on top of factoring in slotting for Penn Station, Port Washington trains slot in between mainline arrivals at a 3 minute interval between a KO and Long Beach train, or right behind a Babylon train for the other half of the hour. So that time saving makes all the difference between making the slot and having a conflict. 

 

Some crews like to run late and miss their slots, especially leaving Penn.

[Jsunflyguy]

6 minutes ago, Gotham Bus Co. said:

 

Some crews like to run late and miss their slots, especially leaving Penn.

Yeah, I guess that's the only rational response to what I wrote.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

4 hours ago, Mtatransit said:

Didn't MNR almost close Melrose entirely and Tremont on the weekend back in the late 80s, due to low ridership? A Bronx politician ended up advocating for it saying that the MTA didn't do any marketing of the station, the station was in deplorable condition, and that most trains skip it. Sounds a lot like Queens stations to be very honest, granted maybe the station looks much better these days in Eastern Queens

Without proper service its hard to grow ridership because people will look for any other options, case in point LIRR at Ronkonkoma. I refuse to believe that most of the ridership at Ronkonkoma is from the local area. I suspect there is a sizable portion of ridership who a) came from east of Ronkonkoma who don't want to deal with the crappy LIRR service and b) People coming from the PJ Line who didn't want to deal with the crappy LIRR service

So even if they do study demographics, it certainly doesn't seem like it is reflected into increasing service to places where people actually live.

LIRR skips stations for no good reasons (at least in my eyes) well into Nassau County. Westbury, Merillon Ave, NHP, Westbury. These stations receive services every other train. These are not stations that are traditionally Subway-Bus, unless you count Subway - NICE Bus. If they do this kind of arrangement, they might as well cut the Huntington train to once an hour and make it run all local, and reallocate the extra train on the Ronkonkoma Branch so it ca run every 30 minutes instead

I am more in favor of a system where if a train is a local, it makes all stops similar to the way MNR does things, and then have separate expresses and semi expresses do its own things to speed up rides for commuters.

In fact I am in favor of the way MNR does things, going further than Stamford or N White Plains or CH? Take an express, if you are going below that, take a semi express during rush hour or a local. None of this 1:20PM train stops only at Woodside, Jamaica, NHP, Mineola, Westbury, Hicksville and 1:50 train will stop at Forest Hills, Jamaica, Merillon Ave, Carle Place, Hicksville

So I would prefer if the trains that stop at FH/KG make all 3 stops, and have the expresses just skip it. This way at least even if minuscule, some city riders who are willing to pay can use it, and its less confusing to passengers

 

Melrose is one of the stations I was thinking about where a conductor once asked me if I was really getting off there. lol Back then, they were running a train there every two hours at times. I believe it's now every hour for those same time periods. The station has some reverse commuters, mainly between the South Bronx and Westchester and they aren't a large number, so you aren't capturing any significant number of say subway riders. The demographics in the area just don't support providing tons of service, so I think hourly service makes sense, especially when you are only getting one or two riders at most with some trips or none at all, as I was often the only person boarding or exiting. You have to find a balance to ensure that you are meeting demand and also not making trips excessively long for people further out that are more of your ridership base. That's really what it comes down to. If you have tons of trains stopping there and they aren't picking up anyone and not generating revenue then does it really make sense? 

Now that said, I do believe that the LIRR can do better in spreading around service, as there have been lots of complaints, even from riders on Long Island that certain stops don't get their fair share of service. Metro-North tends to be better at reflecting demographics more than the LIRR does.

As far as the schedules being confusing, that couldn't be any further from the truth. The LIRR train schedule app makes it very simple. Open the app, put in the stations you need and it shows the arrival times. That's no reason to over serve some stations. As I said, there needs to be a balance. If they had all of the local trains serving Woodside, Kew Gardens and Forest Hills, you would have a train every five minutes in some cases. Overkill compared to the ridership.

Edited April 25, 2022 by Via Garibaldi 8

[paulrivera]

4 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

Melrose is one of the stations I was thinking about where a conductor once asked me if I was really getting off there. lol Back then, they were running a train there every two hours at times.

And now Melrose and Tremont are served every 30 minutes on the weekends, on par with all the other Bronx stations on the Harlem line. They've come a long way from the every 2 hours service pattern.

In fact, nowadays there's more local service at Melrose and Tremont on Saturday and Sunday than at Hartsdale and Scarsdale (hourly service)

[Jsunflyguy]

1 hour ago, paulrivera said:

And now Melrose and Tremont are served every 30 minutes on the weekends, on par with all the other Bronx stations on the Harlem line. They've come a long way from the every 2 hours service pattern.

In fact, nowadays there's more local service at Melrose and Tremont on Saturday and Sunday than at Hartsdale and Scarsdale (hourly service)

For perspective Tremont has gone from 16 inbound boardings a day to about 60 over ten years prepandemic. 

Edited April 25, 2022 by Jsunflyguy
corrected numbers

[Via Garibaldi 8]

2 hours ago, paulrivera said:

And now Melrose and Tremont are served every 30 minutes on the weekends, on par with all the other Bronx stations on the Harlem line. They've come a long way from the every 2 hours service pattern.

In fact, nowadays there's more local service at Melrose and Tremont on Saturday and Sunday than at Hartsdale and Scarsdale (hourly service)

 

51 minutes ago, Jsunflyguy said:

For perspective Tremont has gone from 16 inbound boardings a day to about 60 over ten years prepandemic. 

Good for them, but that's not necessarily because of so much more ridership at those two stations. The big stop outside of Fordham has always been Botanical Garden and so many people go there during the warm weather months esp. that those trains were becoming packed.

Edited April 25, 2022 by Via Garibaldi 8

[Lil 57]

42 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

 

Good for them, but that's not necessarily because of so much more ridership at those two stations. The big stop outside of Fordham has always been Botanical Garden and so many people go there during the warm weather months esp. that those trains were becoming packed.

Don’t forget the holiday train show. Metro North should definitely add service to that station during an event like that since the trains get packed. NWP trips operate half hourly most of the time with one train stopping at all stops in the Bronx while the other just stops at Fordham. The other should definitely make a stop at Botanical Garden imo so service is half-hourly.