| Merillon Avenue | |||||||||||
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Merillon Avenue Station as seen from the eastbound platform. |
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| Station statistics | |||||||||||
| Address | Nassau Boulevard & Merillon Avenue Garden City, NY |
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| Lines | |||||||||||
| Connections | All-Island Transportation | ||||||||||
| Platforms | 2 side platforms | ||||||||||
| Tracks | 2 | ||||||||||
| Parking | Yes | ||||||||||
| Bicycle facilities | Yes | ||||||||||
| Other information | |||||||||||
| Opened | 1912 | ||||||||||
| Rebuilt | 1958 | ||||||||||
| Electrified | October 1926 750V (DC) third rail |
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| Accessible | |||||||||||
| Owned by | MTA | ||||||||||
| Fare zone | 4 | ||||||||||
| Formerly | Clowesville (1837-1874) Garden City (1874-1876) |
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| Traffic | |||||||||||
| Passengers (2006) | 1,533[1] | ||||||||||
| Services | |||||||||||
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Merillon Avenue is a station on the Main Line (Port Jefferson Branch service) of the Long Island Rail Road. It is located at Nassau Boulevard and Merillon Avenue in Garden City. The station is wheelchair accessible with two side platforms and a crossunder at Nassau Boulevard.
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Merillon Avenue station was established in 1911 near the former Clowesville station, which was established in June 1837 by the Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad. It was the closest LIRR station to the old Queens County courthouse (Nassau County became a separate county in 1899, splitting off from Queens County) off Jericho Turnpike. By 1845, it was used only when courts were in session. From 1874-1876, the station was named "Garden City", despite the fact that Alexander Turney Stewart had already established a Garden City station along the Central Railroad of Long Island in 1872. The previous site of the courthouse was moved in 1877 and the station fell by the wayside,[2] although some trains continued to stop there as late as June 1897.[3] Though re-established as a station in 1911, the station house itself was not built until 1912. It was rebuilt in 1958 with a smaller structure and an 11'6" bridge under the tracks for Nassau Boulevard.
The Merillon Avenue station was the final stop on the 5:33 train from Penn Station to Hicksville on December 7, 1993, when Colin Ferguson opened gunfire at passengers who were White or Asian. Six people died and 19 others were wounded. Carolyn McCarthy, whose husband was killed and whose son was seriously injured in the tragedy, pressed for tougher gun control laws and was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1996. There are often memorial wreaths on the platform at the head of the Eastbound tracks of the station on the anniversaries of the incident.
This station has two high-level side platforms, each the length of ten railway cars. The northern platform, next to Track 1, is generally used by westbound or New York City-bound trains. The southern platform, next to Track 2, is generally used by eastbound trains. The Main Line has two tracks.