Port Jefferson Branch of the LIRR

Before I begin, I must correct two errors I had wrote in yesterdays’ posting. The first error is I mistakenly wrote Park Slope when I was really referring to Sunset Park when describing a neighborhood that is in a rebuilding phase. And secondly, I learned that with the increase in the Subway and Bus fares that the Ransom Bridge (see previous posting) fares have also officially increased from $11.00 to $13.00. If a $13.00 one way toll is not a ransom, then please tell me what is because I have yet to see another toll that was more ridiculously overpriced.  I have also heard a number of other denigrating nicknames to the Verrazano but I think the one I am using is one that everyone can enjoy.

So on to today’s adventures, I was invited out to Port Jefferson for dinner by an old acquaintance of mine. In going out there, I had the opportunity to ride the Long Island Railroad. I left from Brooklyn’s Atlantic Terminal which I briefly mentioned yesterday and traveled through the Brooklyn Branch of the City Terminal Zone out to Jamaica Center. The Brooklyn branch primarily runs along Atlantic Avenue going above ground in the neighborhood of Bedford Stuyvesant before going below ground but remaining roughly along Atlantic Avenue and Conduit Boulevard before arriving at Jamaica Center. Jamaica Center is the hub of transportation for all but one of the Long Island Railroad branches (this being the Port Washington Branch). Like Atlantic Terminal, I will devote an entire posting to Jamaica Center as it is the place where subway service ends in Queens.

At Jamaica I waited for my train, a 4:00 PM bound express train to Port Jefferson. As the Port Jefferson branch is one that travels off of the main branch, it required a diesel locomotive and not the third rail electric service that is present on other Long Island Railroad branches. I personally prefer this service, the diesel bound service because to me the third rail powered trains feel more like glorified subways than actual railroads. If I am not mistaken, almost every branch that is Nassau County bound (with the exception of the Oyster Bay Branch) is a third rail powered train. The train I rode was a double decker that made no stops until reaching Huntington in Suffolk County. The train ride through Queens and Nassau showed me the area between Jamaica, Hollis, and Belmont Race track which is right over the border in Nassau County. This area looked typically Queens,  its neighborhoods were off of major Boulevards with strip malls and detached semi-suburban houses that were often two or three stories tall with arched shingled roofs, driveways, and backyards.

Upon entering Nassau County, this train went through the town of North Hempstead, which is one of three major towns in Nassau County (the other two towns are Hempstead and Oyster Bay). I noticed the villages of New Hyde Park, Garden City, and Mineola along the route and all of them were not particularly appealing from the train at least. I guess I felt this way because I saw what is typical in suburban communities- strip malls with chain corporation stores and detached housing that was not very interesting. I also noticed some industrial areas along the tracks that were suppliers of various building and shipping materials.  I also noticed something, a supply building for Nassau Coliseum that is south of this line in the village of Uniondale which is in the town of Hempstead. Nassau Coliseum is where the New York Islanders NHL team plays. Something I find very ironic is that even though they are the team of Long Island, there is no LIRR station at their arena while their rivals the New York Rangers of New York City have a LIRR station right underneath their arena. Back to North Hempstead, I am thinking that the areas further off the tracks in North Hempstead are nicer. On a previous train ride  I took on the Port Washington branch that also goes through North Hempstead, the area was more appealing, it was more like what I describe in Suffolk County below. The villages got nicer in the town of Oyster Bay, I noticed Hicksville where I took a train from in my youth when I stayed in Oyster Bay for a summer. I also noticed Syosset a village that I know of through an FDNY fireman in my neighborhood. I thought the train would make at least one stop in Nassau County but it did not.

Upon entering Suffolk County, the train skipped what should have been the first stop in the village of Cold Spring Harbor making its first stop in the the village of Huntington. I do not know the Town/Village layout in Suffolk County as well as I do in Nassau County. This is primarily because there are more towns and many more villages inside those towns as the county has possibly three times the land area of Nassau and only a few more people population wise. In Suffolk County, I noticed the train went through an area that was not as densely populated, an area that was somewhat wooded bordering on forested, and an area with a feeling that was closer to a body of water. Indeed when looking a map, the train stations of Huntington and Cold Spring Harbor are closer to the water than the Nassau County stations along this branch. This is officially my second time in Suffolk County, I had previously came here when I went out to Montauk last summer. Montauk for all the readers is the Eastern most town in Long Island and thereby the Eastern most town in New York State. From what I can see, I prefer Suffolk County over Nassau County in terms of Long Island. I feel this way because I like the more remote, less densely populated, more presentable areas that I have seen thus far. I could be wrong though about which county is nicer simply because I do not know Long Island as well as I do New York City. I am sure there are some uglier areas of Suffolk that I have not seen, but regardless of the ugliness and prettiness of each county, I like the fact that I feel further from the five boroughs in Suffolk.

I arrived in Port Jefferson around 5:30 PM, I met an old acquaintance from Texas Tech who actually grew up on Long Island and joined them for dinner. We ate at a place called the Steam Room that is not far from the Port Jefferson ferry at all. The Port Jefferson ferry goes to Bridgeport, Connecticut, a town I will discuss when describing the Metro North New Haven Line in another posting. My acquaintance who was a petroleum engineering major got a master’s in mechanical engineering and is now working in the city while living with their parents after leaving Texas for good. Below I will post a picture of Port Jefferson on the water at night time. To me Port Jefferson feels like the village of Oyster Bay where I stayed in my youth. It has a small town on the shore feel, the town varies in elevation going up hill from the water, it’s main street is comprised of one to two story high commercial and business buildings, it has a miniature town square, it has a view of Connecticut from the Water (that of course is seen better during the day time), and it is a community that feels as if it thrived on fishing at one point in its existence. I would not be surprised if more North Shore towns were like this, the North Shore seems to be quieter with more isolated residences, some of which are larger in land area than those on the South Shore. The South Shore it seems has more of the beaches that people attend on Long Island while the North Shore has more of the residences historically considered as the “Gold Coast”. Back to Port Jefferson, this feel area feels remote yet within reach, a feeling that I like and find appealing.

Overall I’d classify this trip today as a reassuring escape from the five boroughs if only for a few hours. It cost less to come here on train that in would have if I had driven, it took only an hour and a half in one direction, it felt like it was far enough away yet not too far, and it was interesting to be in a town of less than 100,000 people again. When I retire, I wish to live somewhere along the Long Island sound, maybe in Connecticut, maybe one of these North Shore towns will also do.  I want to be here or in Greenport at the end of the Ronkonkoma Branch in the summer months to go sailing again. I remember sailing from my youth sailing in the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, I miss doing it and now that I am back in a part of the country that celebrates boating, I want to participate in it again somehow some way and I think that the Long Island sound is a good place to do it. It was good seeing my Tech classmate, she and I didn’t know each other that much while in school but its good if for no other reason than to network better up here in the TriStates with people in  a field similar to mine. At 8:34 PM I have to catch a train back to New York, it was fun coming out here, I will come out to the island again in the near future. The ride back is always less interesting than the ride to, because the ride back is always the one a rider is more familiar with.