LIRR restores weekend electric train service on Long Beach Branch

Weekday electric service to be restored Monday

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Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the MTA Long Island Rail Road is restoring electric train service on the Long Beach Branch beginning Sunday, Nov. 25. In restoring the Long Beach electric service, the LIRR will be operating on a near-normal schedule on all of its 11 branches for the first time since Superstorm Sandy hit the region.

The LIRR will operate a regular weekend schedule on the Long Beach Branch on Sunday with four additional extra holiday trains scheduled eastbound and four extra holiday trains westbound. The first Long Beach bound train departed Jamaica at 1:32 a.m. The first train originating from Long Beach was at 3:53 a.m. Sunday.

On Monday, the LIRR will operate electric train service on the Long Beach branch but four trains will be canceled in the AM Peak and four will be canceled in the PM Peak as a result of the reduced peak capacity in two of Amtrak's East River tunnels that were flooded during the storm. Amtrak continues their work on repairing the signal system severely damaged in their two tunnels during Superstorm Sandy. A temporary signal system now controlling train traffic in the two tunnels that were flooded allows for fewer trains per hour to operate into and out of Penn Station.

"The Long Island Rail Road's Long Beach Branch was not spared the devastation that was brought upon Long Beach and the surrounding communities by Sandy," Governor Cuomo said. "I commend the intensive efforts made by the LIRR to clean, repair and replace the critical components in the flood-damaged electrical substations and signal equipment to restore the vital transportation link the Railroad provides as these hard-hit communities begin to rebuild.

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