Medford (LIRR station)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Medford

View of Medford Station's sheltered platform from the parking lot.

Station statistics

Address

NY 112 & Railroad Avenue
Medford, NY

Lines

Greenport Branch

Connections

Suffolk County Transit
McRide's Taxi

Tracks

Parking

Yes; free

Other information

Opened

1844

Rebuilt

1889, 1940, 2000-2001.

Accessible

Owned by

MTA

Fare zone

Medford is a Long Island Railroad station in the hamlet of Medford, New York. Medford serves the Main Line (Greenport Branch) and is located on New York State Route 112 between Peconic Avenue and Long Island Avenue. Access to the station is available from a narrow curving roadway leading off Route 112. This roadway used to connect with the Ohio Avenue intersection until Ohio Avenue was closed north of Peconic Avenue in 2007. It is also accessible from the north end of Oregon Avenue, although the Medford Fire Department periodically closes the Oregon Avenue access road for drills or other exercises.

Medford Station was originally a two-story structure located near an at-grade crossing with NY 112 that was considered one of the most dangerous crossings on the Long Island Rail Road. Demands for a bridge were ignored throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Only when a relative of a government official was killed at the crossing in 1940 was there any effort to build a bridge over Route 112. When the tracks were elevated, the station was rebuilt as a ground-level platform on top of an embankment. The bridge across NY 112, which has a low clearance of 12 feet, 9 inches^[1], was designed for two tracks, but the second track was abandoned in the early 1960s.

In the late 1990s the station was rebuilt again in preparation for the new fleet of double-decker coaches, which require high-level platforms for boarding, and for future electrification of the line. In the rebuilding, the former ground-level platform was elevated, with a new stairway and a wheelchair access ramp from the parking area, and a small shelter was constructed at platform level. Parking at Medford station is free and unrestricted, in sharp contrast to the situation at many other LIRR stations.

A freight spur exists along the embankment of the track in the parking lot. This was built for a nearby building-products factory and was one of numerous spurs and sidetracks that have existed in Medford since the LIRR came through the town. When Holtsville Station was closed on March 16, 1998, commuters from Holtsville were advised to use both Medford and Ronkonkoma Stations, although more use Ronkonkoma. The station also contains a memorial to the victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.