Hunterspoint Avenue (LIRR station)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hunterspoint Avenue

Hunterspoint Avenue station, as seen from Flushing Line subway train

Station statistics

Address

Hunterspoint Avenue and Skillman Avenue .
Long Island City, New York

Lines

Main Line
(City Terminal Zone)

Connections

New York City Subway

at Hunters Point Avenue
NYCT Buses

Other information

Opened

Mid-1914

Electrified

June 16, 1910

Owned by

MTA

Fare zone

Services

Preceding station		Long Island Rail Road		Following station
Long Island City Terminus		Montauk Branch (City Terminal Zone)		Jamaica toward Long Island

Hunterspoint Avenue is a Long Island Rail Road train station within the City Terminal Zone. It is located at Hunters Point Avenue (49th Avenue) and Skillman Avenue in Long Island City, Queens. The station has an island platform and is not wheelchair accessible.

This is one the most dilapidated and dangerous of the Long Island Rail Road's western terminus stations. Tracks leading to the station are in such poor condition that trains must approach at a crawl. Steps used to access the station are so seriously corroded that rust has eaten large holes through steel support beams. Holes in the platform have been repaired with irregular and loose wooden planks. Overhead covers have been patched with warped plywood that nevertheless releases torrents of rainwater on passengers directly at the bottom of the steps leading up from the station. Passengers leaving the west end of the station must cross heavy traffic without the aid of cross walk or crossing lights to reach the nearby subway station.

The station is served only during weekday rush hours in the peak direction (to Hunterspoint Avenue from Long Island in the morning, from Hunterspoint Avenue to Long Island in the evening). Trains are normally run through to and from the Oyster Bay, Montauk, or Port Jefferson Branches, with one Ronkonkoma-bound train also departs from Hunterspoint Avenue in the late afternoon. Some westbound trains continue to Long Island City, and some eastbound trains originate in Long Island City. The majority of service is provided by diesel trains. However, the trackage to the station from the east and west is electrified and one round-trip is provided by electric train service.

According to a New York Times article from May 1914, the station would have opened on July 1, 1914.^[1]