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  • 21 Aug, 2019

  • By, Wikipedia

East Williston (LIRR Station)
East Williston is the first station along the Oyster Bay Branch of the Long Island Rail Road, located at Hillside Avenue (NY 25B) and Pennsylvania Avenue on the border between the Incorporated Villages of East Williston and Williston Park, in Nassau County, New York.

Electric third rail territory ends just north of the East Williston station, but as of 2024, all service is provided by diesel bi-level trains.

History

East Williston's station house opened in February 1880 by the Glen Cove Branch Rail Road. It originally contained a freight house and wooden platform shelters that were closed during the mid-20th century. The third rail was installed from Mineola to East Williston in June 1934; there were originally plans to electrify the entire Oyster Bay Branch – however, this did not occur. East Williston was also a more convenient and less busy location for turning back electric trains to Mineola – a service since made redundant by subsequent extensions of the electrification to Hicksville and points east.

The canopies surrounding the station house began to sag by 1960. That same year, the LIRR considered closing both the East Williston station and the Albertson station, and combining the two stations in between the current existing ones; the project also would have eliminated the grade crossing with Hillside Avenue (NY 25B), adjacent to the station. However, after a great deal of community opposition, those plans were shelved, and East Williston's canopies were restored between 1965 and 1966.

High level platforms were added to the station in December 1982. These projects did little to keep the station house in stable condition, and it was closed on December 10, 1996. Since then, it has operated as little more than a pair of sheltered high-level platforms with ticket vending machines and accessible ramps. Efforts to preserve the original station house failed when it was found to be too structurally unstable, and it was razed on December 11, 2004. Some in the community have been considering building a whole new version of the original station house, but have instead opted for a decorative open-air shelter.

Station layout

The station has two high-level side platforms, each long enough to accommodate 10 train cars.

Platform A, side platform Disabled access
Track 1 ←      Oyster Bay Branch toward Long Island City or Penn Station (Mineola)
Track 2 ←      Oyster Bay Branch toward Oyster Bay (Albertson) →
Platform B, side platform Disabled access

References

  1. ^ Long Island Rail Road (May 14, 2012). "TIMETABLE No. 4" (PDF). p. VI. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  2. ^ Average weekday, 2006 LIRR Origin and Destination Study
  3. ^ "The Long Island Rail Road: The age of expansion, 1863-1880 Vincent Seyfried Page 203 – Queens Public Library Digital". digitalarchives.queenslibrary.org. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  4. ^ Morrison, David D.; Pakaluk, Valerie (2003). Long Island Rail Road Stations. Chicago: Arcadia. p. 57. ISBN 0-7385-1180-3. Retrieved November 20, 2011.
  5. ^ Morrison, David D. (March 5, 2018). Long Island Rail Road: Oyster Bay Branch. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9781467128544.
  6. ^ "2 L.I. Stations Kept: Railroad Bows to Opponents of Single One in Between". The New York Times. May 19, 1960. p. 7.
  7. ^ East Williston Station History (Arrt's Arrchives)
  8. ^ "Train Station Update - May 2006 - East Williston, NY". www.eastwilliston.org. Retrieved January 20, 2024.

Media related to East Williston (LIRR station) at Wikimedia Commons

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