East New York station

The East New York station is a station on the Long Island Rail Road's Atlantic Branch in the East New York and Ocean Hill neighborhoods of Brooklyn, New York City, where that branch passes through the Jamaica Pass. It is generally served by the West Hempstead Branch and the City Terminal Zone Atlantic Branches of the LIRR. The East New York station also formerly served the LIRR's Bay Ridge Branch until passenger service on that branch ended in 1924.

East New York
A westbound LIRR train at East New York station, as seen from the eastbound platform in 2017.
General information
Location	Atlantic Avenue & Havens Place East New York, Brooklyn, New York 11207
Coordinates	40°40′34″N 73°54′21″W / 40.676053°N 73.905925°W / 40.676053; -73.905925Coordinates: 40°40′34″N 73°54′21″W / 40.676053°N 73.905925°W / 40.676053; -73.905925
Owned by	Long Island Rail Road
Line(s)	Atlantic Branch
Distance	4.0 mi (6.4 km) from Atlantic Terminal^[1]
Platforms	2 side platforms
Tracks	2
Connections	New York City Subway: at Atlantic Avenue ​​​​ at Broadway Junction NYCT Bus: B12, B20, B25, B83, Q24, Q56
Other information
Fare zone	1
History
Opened	1878
Closed	1924 (Bay Ridge Branch platforms)
Previous names	Manhattan Beach Railroad Crossing
Passengers
2012—2014	1,358 daily^[2]
Rank	66 of 125
Services
Preceding station Long Island Rail Road Following station Nostrand Avenue toward Atlantic Terminal City Terminal Zone Atlantic shuttle Jamaica Terminus Hempstead Branch Peak periods only Jamaica toward Hempstead Babylon Branch Peak periods only Jamaica toward Babylon West Hempstead Branch Jamaica toward West Hempstead
Former services Preceding station Long Island Rail Road Following station Nostrand Avenue toward Flatbush Avenue Atlantic Division Woodhaven toward Valley Stream New Lots Road toward Bay Ridge Bay Ridge Branch Bushwick Avenue toward Fresh Pond
Legend to Nostrand Avenue to Jamaica

Station layout

This station is located at ground level, in the median of Atlantic Avenue, and underneath the elevated main lanes of Atlantic Avenue, with one eight-car side platform on either side of the two-track line. A closed ticket office is located in the underpass, which has staircases to the southwest corner of East New York and Atlantic avenues and the northwest corner of Van Sinderen and Atlantic avenues. On either side of the station, the tracks submerge into a tunnel, allowing the main lanes of Atlantic Avenue to return to the surface.

History

 

Abandoned platform on the Bay Ridge Branch

When the Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad opened in 1836, under lease to the LIRR, it did not include a station at East New York.^{[citation needed]} The LIRR began stopping at East New York by early 1843,^[3] eventually stopping at the Howard House at Alabama Avenue, shared with all the other horse car and steam lines into East New York.^[4] From 1861 to 1877, East New York served as the west end of steam service along the Atlantic Branch.^[5][6]

By 1878, local Atlantic Avenue rapid transit trains began stopping at a new station, Manhattan Beach Railroad Crossing, at the New York and Manhattan Beach Railway crossing at Van Sinderen Avenue. This later became the main East New York station, with only these local trains stopping at Howard House.^[7] The Atlantic Avenue Improvement, completed in 1905, resulted in the closing of the Howard House station, and the expanded Manhattan Crossing station was renamed East New York. The elevated Warwick Street station, 18 blocks east, was also labeled as serving East New York;^[8] it closed in 1939, when the elevated railway east of East New York was buried in the current tunnel.^[9]

East New York was also a station on the New York and Manhattan Beach Railway, now the Bay Ridge Branch, from its opening in July 1877 until May 1924, when passenger service on the branch ended. It was initially at grade level where the lines crossed, but was placed in a tunnel in 1915; the platforms, under East New York Avenue, still exist. Until the 1930s, a grade-level freight connection existed in the southeast quadrant between the two lines.^[10]

In 1924, the station was the location of a firework accident that resulted in Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad Co., an oft-cited court case on the doctrine of proximate cause.

In the 2010s, many locals and elected officials such as Brooklyn's borough president, Eric Adams, advocated for renovations to the station, including bringing it into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.^[11]

References

1. Long Island Rail Road (May 14, 2012). "TIMETABLE No. 4" (PDF). p. VI. Retrieved August 4, 2022.
2. "2012-2014 LIRR Origin and Destination Report : Volume I: Travel Behavior Among All LIRR Passengers" (PDF). Metropolitan Transportation Authority. August 23, 2016. PDF pp. 15, 199. (PDF) from the original on July 17, 2019. Retrieved March 29, 2020.
3. "Long Island Railroad Co". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn, NY. March 4, 1843. p. 3.
4. "A Model Mass Meeting". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn, NY. July 22, 1870. p. 2.
5. "Felix Reifschneider's 1925 History of the Long Island Railroad". The Third Rail.
6. "New York and Vicinity Railroad Map from 1860". BrooklynRail.net.
7. Employee timetables, November 4, 1878 and summer 1897
8. Employee timetables, 1905
9. LIRR Notice for November 1, 1939
10. Brennan, Joseph. "East New York". Abandoned Stations.
11. Wong, Shaun (November 9, 2017). "East New York LIRR Station: In Desperate Need of Repairs and Upgrades!". PCAC. Retrieved August 13, 2020.

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to East New York (LIRR station).

• East New York – LIRR
• East New York LIRR timetable
• Atlantic Avenue entrance, under Canarsie Line from Google Maps Street View
• Platforms from Google Maps Street View
• ENY Interlocking (The LIRR Today)