Valley Stream (LIRR station)

Valley Stream is a station on the Long Island Rail Road's Atlantic Branch serving the residents of Valley Stream, and is the first station (traveling eastbound) in Nassau County. The station is located at Franklin Avenue and Sunrise Highway, west of Rockaway Avenue, and is 17.7 miles (28.5 km) from Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan via the Atlantic Branch east of Jamaica. The station is wheelchair accessible with an elevator from street level; parking facilities and taxis are available.

History

The first Valley Stream station was built by the South Side Railroad of Long Island on October 28, 1867. The station house itself opened in July 1869 with the opening of the Far Rockaway Branch, and was built as a Swiss chalet style station house inside the legs of an old wye. It also served customers of the Southern Hempstead Branch which was built by the short-lived New York and Hempstead Plains Railroad between 1871 and 1900. Along with the rest of the SSRRLI, the station was acquired by the Long Island Rail Road in 1889. In 1893 the station began to serve trains along the West Hempstead Branch. When Nassau County separated from Queens in 1899, Valley Stream station became the first station in Nassau County along the Montauk Branch. The station was electrified with the rest of the Far Rockaway Branch on December 11, 1905, and the Long Beach Branch was extended from Lynbrook Station in 1910 and became an extension of the Atlantic Branch.

In 1933, the original station was razed as part of a grade elimination project that was occurring along the Montauk, Atlantic, and Babylon Branches throughout the mid-20th Century. Prior to this, a temporary station was relocated on a shoo-fly north of the former station on August 10, 1932, then moved to another one south of the former station on August 31 of the same year. The third elevated center-island structure that exists today was opened north of the former location on February 7, 1933, and although the wye was removed as part of the reconstruction, it remained on many maps well into the late-20th Century, and continues to be shown on some in the present.

Platform and tracks

Four tracks pass the station, but the two north ones (the Montauk Branch) have no platform and are used by trains on the Babylon, Montauk and West Hempstead Branches that bypass this station. An eight-car long island platform is between the two south tracks, Tracks 1 and 2, of what is officially called the Atlantic Branch. These tracks are mostly used by trains of the Far Rockaway and Long Beach branches, and as a terminal for those West Hempstead Branch trains that terminate/originate at Valley Stream. In addition (as of September 2011), Tracks 1 and 2 are used by the three weekday Babylon Branch trains (two eastbound and one westbound) that stop at Valley Stream between 11:02pm and 5:20am, and the two weekend Babylon Branch trains (one eastbound and one westbound) that stop at Valley Stream around 2am. The two weekend Babylon Branch weekend trains stop at Valley Stream mainly to pick up passengers from late-night Far Rockaway – Valley Stream shuttle trains.

At the east end of the station the Atlantic Branch designation ends: the two tracks become the Long Beach Branch continuing east to Lynbrook and Long Beach, while the Far Rockaway Branch curves south toward Far Rockaway in New York City.

References

External links

• Official LIRR station information page for Valley Stream
• Station timetable for Valley Stream
• Valley Stream Station (The SubwayNut)
• Arrt's Arrchives
  • Maps from 1873 and 1910
• Hicks Street entrance from Google Maps Street View
• Franklin Avenue entrance from Google Maps Street View